Interview with: Dr. Themistoklis Sofos, Secretary General

Dr. Themistoklis Sofos from SOFOS Law Firm explains how the firm is adapting to clients’ changing needs

What do you see as the main points that differentiate SOFOS Law Firm from your competitors?

As third generation law firm since the year 1955, SOFOS Law Firm has the professional experience and readiness to provide proper court representation services in well-known cases internationally, arbitration, mediation, injunctions, risk management, internal reports on financial statements, fraud investigation, corporate, on-vessel-investigations, compliance, judicial and extrajudicial process management and representation.

 

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

Companies are looking for a proper risk management structure from external advisory groups and they will increase their needs to train and implement security policies, both of their online and internet communications and their operational structures and compliance. Behind these needs is the growing number of controlled legal entities in the context of economic sanctions (O.F.A.C.) and the SDN listings.

 

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

Internally we have increased inference records with recurring incidents in cases we handle and externally we are fine-tuning our intelligence network to best monitor and screening the cases we handle. We also guide our clients to develop their operations in Greece, a country where they can look forward to a wide range of investment activities.

 

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Technology certainly helps, and artificial intelligence even more so; we belong to the traditional groups that still support the superiority of human experience in challenging cases and the primacy of technology in the more standardized ones. We support out-of-court dispute resolution, for which technology has been particularly helpful.

 

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

We have provided guidelines for the implementation of internal operating regulations, which have led to increased efficiency and reduced delinquency, as well as improved regulatory compliance audit quality.

 

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

Normally yes, but clients shouldn’t be fighting for stability and strategic direction from their law firms, quite the opposite: Law firms must strive to improve the strategic direction towards their clients in order to improve the quality of their results. In three years we hope to have celebrated 70 years of successful operation.