Green Guide Profile: HANTON
Poland
Multi-service Polish law firm Hanton has broad experience in the renewable energy and railway transport sectors, and also advises companies and local authorities on matters concerning the protection of the natural environment as well as agricultural and forestry lands, alongside expertise in the Water Law Act.
The firm is currently advising ENEA Group, which supplies energy to over two million people, on the transition to more renewable energy sources, and on the project of shutting down the operation of Koezienice Power Plant’s eight 200MW coal-fired power units. It is also acting for Net Cable on four projects for the construction of renewable electricity sources, namely photovoltaic farms, as well as the construction of a factory intended for recycling photovoltaic panels.
In an attempt to obtain legal protection for a green area, the firm advised on protecting the historic park of the Warsaw School of Life Sciences in Mokotow. Obtained legal measures through negotiations with residents, investors and city’s officials would prevent changes in the soil structure, and the irretrievable loss of a number of rare species of trees and shrubs, both native and foreign.
Another notable client is the Clean Air Foundation (Fundacja Czyste Powietrze). Besides providing legal advice, the firm has partnered with the foundation for its international climate summit TOGETAIR.
HANTON lawyers have broad experience in energy sector regulation in Poland, both conventional and renewable. Mixing that with project development & environmental knowledge allows us to participate in Poland’s green transformation, assisting the biggest polish energy companies.
Adam Szalc specializes in civil, economic and commercial law. He is an advisor and negotiator in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), specializing in joint-venture projects for domestic and foreign entities as well as in real estate transactions. He also has unique experience in the energy, industrial and construction sectors.
He is an advisor to leading energy companies in the field of their current corporate operation and operation on the regulated market, as well as an advisor to investors, developers and construction companies in the scope related to their work regarding the implementation of construction projects. He represents companies in proceedings before courts and public administration bodies, including the President of the Energy Regulatory Office [PL: Prezes Urzędu Regulacji Energetyki], the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection [PL: Prezes Urzędu Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów] and the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection [PL: Sąd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów]. He also advises on the processes of preparing agreements and negotiating commercial transactions as well as he conducts legal due diligence of companies.
He gained his professional experience in the most prestigious Warsaw law firms, but currently he is the managing partner of HANTON Szalc Zięba & Partnerzy Adwokaci i Radcowie Prawni sp. p. Law Firm.
As an academic teacher, he lectured in the field of economic law, commercial law and administrative procedure, as well as ran courses for entrepreneurs in economic law and energy law.
Michał Zięba, PhD is an Attorney-at-law with 13 years of experience. He specializes in providing legal services to the railway transport, infrastructure and construction sectors in particular. From the beginning of his professional activity, he was associated with the regulated infrastructure sectors, i.e. railway transport, linear investments, the telecommunications infrastructure sector and civil aviation.
He also has experience in the consulting industry, providing services for entrepreneurs in the transport sector. Long-term Director of the Rail Safety Department at the Office of Rail Transport [PL: Urząd Transportu Kolejowego]. As the head of the Infrastructure Market Department, he co-created the system for authorizing the operation of structural subsystems and supervised the operation of notified bodies assessing compliance with the Technical Specifications for Interoperability.
Speaker at numerous industry conferences and lecturer at universities. He actively participated in the legislative work on amendments to the act on railway transport and executive regulations, including the implementation of EU law. He represented Poland at the meetings of the Governing Council of the European Railway Agency, NSA Network and OSS Group, and under the twinning program of the European Commission, advising the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine. Long-term auditor of the Polish Centre for Accreditation [PL: Polskie Centrum Akredytacji] in the area of rail transport.
In July 2022, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Transport, Warsaw University of Technology, titled “The model of risk assessment in rail transport in the context of implementing interoperability of the railway system in Poland” and is probably the only one lawyer in Poland, actively practicing as legal counsel, with a doctorate in technical sciences.
Łukasz Dziamski is an advocate entered on the list of the Bar Association in Warsaw. He advises corporate and individual Clients in the real estate sector and construction investments, including in the field of renewable energy sources. Representative before public administration authorities and administrative courts. He specializes in public real estate law, monument protection law, environmental protection law, issues of the interface between civil and administrative law, as well as administrative and court-administrative proceedings.
He advised local government units on real estate management matters and cooperated as an expert with the Ministry of Administration and Digitization (the ‘Good Law – Efficient Government’ program), the State Accreditation Committee (currently: the Polish Accreditation Committee) and the Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, Branch in Warsaw.
Winner of a special award in the competition ‘Rising Stars Lawyers – Leaders of Tomorrow 2020’. In 2019, he was distinguished in the Legal 500 EMEA ranking with the Next Generation Lawyer title in the Construction category and in 2020 as well as 2021, he was individually recommended in this ranking as a specialist in the field of monument protection law.
Author of the first monograph on the publishing market on the procedure for updating the annual fee for perpetual usufruct (Wolters Kluwer 2013). Co-author of the Commentary to the Act on the Professions of Physician and Dentist (Wolters Kluwer 2016) and the monograph Tort Liability of Public Authorities in European Laws (Oxford University Press 2020). Editor of the monograph titled Directions of changes in the Code of Administrative Procedure. Proposals and controversies (Publishing House of the University of Warsaw 2014). Author of articles and commentaries for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Rzeczpospolita and the website Prawo.pl.
HANTON is a Polish, independent law firm distinguished by focus on selected on regulated markets (infrastructure, energy & construction), in which we have extensive experience, and we consider ourselves to be specialists bearing in mind specified branches of law.
We strongly support development of rail transport in Poland, the most environmentally friendly way to move goods. HANTON is an official legal partner of Poland’s the most widely read railway magazine “Rynek Kolejowy” (The Railway Market)
We are friends and legal advisors of Clean Air Fundation (Fundacja Czyste Powietrze), the main organizer of international climate summit “TOGETAIR”.
Between our Clients you can find not only companies, but also local authorities. We support them with legal advice on the rationing covered by the Polish laws on: nature protection, protection of agricultural and forestry lands and the Water Law Act.
HANTON in a few bullet points:
- various experiences within the firm – lawyers with public offices experience, with in-house lawyer experience; lawyers with corporate experience;
- vast technical knowledge on clients area of business – both managerial (e.g. on how clients’ organisations operate and what is their decision-making process) and technical (e.g. on how power plants, railways, trains and its components are produced and run; knowledge regarding architecture, especially in regards with architectonic details concerning historical monuments);
- services always consisting of practical approach, bearing in mind clients’ needs and goals, effecting in ready-to-use advices;
- legal service provided by HANTON is grounded substantially and practical thanks to the fact that most lawyers and all key-partners have academic experience and/or knowledge-sharing professional training courses;
- HANTON legal services regard on daily basis energy, construction and infrastructural projects that make considerable impact on their localization and its surrounding; their implementation often determines the spatial layout of areas as well as the sustainability of urban development especially in Polish cities;
- while providing legal services on construction litigation HANTON focus is to reach consensus between clients needs, monuments preservation and environment protection and national and local governments;
- thanks to HANTON experts’ vast experience and business orientation our legal services are often a result of cooperation with experts on rail safety, environment protection and historical monuments.
