Interview with: Ioannis Vassardanis, Managing Partner

Managing Partner, Ioannis Vassardanis, sets out what distinguishes IVP Law Firm and how its profile, operation and services are adapting to the industry’s and clients’ evolving needs.

 

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

IVP Law has a genuinely and broadly defined international profile; its clientele encompasses not only foreign companies, but also Greek enterprises, which operate not only inlands but abroad, too, in executing projects that are sometimes purely international, lacking any domestic element.

The other distinctive characteristic of IVP is that it is active in the special area of Investment Arbitration and is the only Greek Law Firm that has assumed the role of lead counsel in ICSID proceedings. At the same time, me personally has had the honor of being the first Greek arbitration practitioner that has acted simultaneously both as ICSID arbitrator and as lead counsel before ICSID.

In terms of relationship with its clients, IVP adopts a bespoke approach toward them, taking into consideration the clients’ comprehensive needs in terms of timing, business exigencies, financial and other resources’ availability and tailoring its legal services to serve miscellaneous strategic and practical aspects of their operations.

Within its structure, IVP’s relationships with its associates and collaborators, in general, are founded on the following motto: “We are not a team because we work together; we are a team because we trust, respect and care for each other”. Putting faith in the skills and professionalism of our team members, holding their talents, skills and contributions in high regard and catering for their development, have built IVP into a solid structure with a streaming workflow.

 

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

Current technological and business developments and trends point to the direction of legal practices growing along the lines of serving specific sophisticated industry sectors. Alternative Energy Sources and Artificial Intelligence seem to be the fields experiencing the fastest progress, generating the need for legal practices to develop respective service lines to accommodate their clients’ relevant commercial needs and, at the same time, take advantage of the tools offered to improve their own operations.

 

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

Acknowledging today’s demands for flexible collaborations that can accommodate special requirements each time, IVP focuses in expanding its international network of partners that are specialists in various fields and assembling them into “task forces” on a project basis.

In that respect, IVP capitalizes its broader contacts with foreign practitioners, arbitrators and experts in a multitude of areas, as well as my membership in various Committees and Working Groups [such as IBA Committees, namely the Arbitration Committee, the Corporate and M&A Law Committee, the Oil and Gas Law Committee, the Power Law Committee, the International Construction Projects Committee and the IBA Working Group on “Energy Transition]

and IVP’s participation in global legal networks, such as Legus.

Finally in upgrading our working tools and enhancing the efficiency of operations we regularly update our software, appliances and logistics and evaluation procedures.

 

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

Absolutely; in IVP we have introduced and make extensive use of modern communication channels and tools in order to conduct long-distance collaborations, perform procedural actions in international arbitrations and even to streamline internal procedures and work.

 

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

Through my capacity as Board member of several professional and trade associations with an international profile and activities (indicatively, the International Council of Commercial Arbitration, the Hellenic Society for Technology and Construction Law, the Franco-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce (CCIFG) and the Hellenic – African Chamber of Commerce and Development), I have been able to assist clients to expand and operate in foreign markets, as well as contribute to their acquaintance with and introduction in commercial agreements of provisions for efficient methods to resolve potential disputes.

 

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

Indeed, clients nowadays do not seek purely legal advice. In this respect, our firm, when advising a client, steps into its shoes in order to provide legal advice considering also the business perspective of a matter. The aim is for our firm to develop in the course of the next few years into a conglomerate of experts, providing advice on matters of law, corporate structure and operations, taxation, technical and technological issues and the funding of business ventures and dispute resolution processes. In short, I see it as developing into a long-run strategic partner for each and every one of our company clients.