Interview with: Professor Dr. Antonis Metaxas, Managing Partner, Metaxas and Associates

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Metaxas and Associates from your competitors?

Our Firm’s distinctive feature lies in our continuous effort to combine high level academic knowledge with practical expertise in carefully selected practice areas. We have a clearly defined focus on concrete practice areas and do not aspire to be expert in all fields of legal practice. We believe that those who claim being experts in everything, simply do not understand the necessary radical adjustments and adaptations of our profession in today’s changing business landscape. We are proud of being widely recognized as the leading pioneers in the Greek legal market in the field of Energy and Energy Regulation. We are also acknowledged as perhaps the first Law Firm that systematically indicated the necessity to serve clients’ needs through the scope of possibilities that the close interdependence between national legal orders and EU Law provides.

We are not affirmed or defined by comparing ourselves to someone else. There are a lot of firms out there that are wonderful at what they do, and that is great for them. In a manner, we, are unique. We produce insights that produce results. We are a law firm that has National if not European-class insight on various topics, whether it’s a complicated Energy Regulation issue, a large State Aid project or a dispute on Corporate matters, we have insights, but we also have the ability to take the insights and help our clients execute on them. This is a unique capability and we do claim it.

In this sense, it indeed does not come as a surprise that your reputable Guide has qualified our Firm as top tier in the field of Energy, EU and Competition Law. We guide our practices with strong values and we stay committed to our clientele’s demanding needs, a mind-set that allows us to be at the forefront of achievements.

Our mentality aims on success while staying true to our work ethics of accountability, professionalism, trust and mutual respect. Our objective is to build long lasting relationship with our clients and act not only as their legal advisors but also support them with all their commercial needs and exceed their expectations. To do so, we have developed the necessary processes and systems to collect feedback, listen and understand their business objectives in order to improve the way we work with them, thus act in a more efficient way.

The primary source of our success is credited to our powerful workforce. Our team is consisted of greatly experienced lawyers with a strong resume of challenging cases. Thus, we focus on recruiting and developing the optimum candidates. We operate in an open and collegiate environment, and we encourage constructive feedback. Our ultimate goal is to keep improving our style of service.

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

Despite the surely devastating effects of Covid-19 in the global economy that are yet to come, there are continuous investments on Renewable Energy Sources (RES). It is a trend that is in line with the main strategic goal of the EU, which, in the context of the recovery plan and economic transformation in post-pandemic era, will focus on the energy transition towards a greener, circular and climate-neutral economy.

This gradual growth of the “green” energy market in Greece is currently reflected in the new agreements, acquisitions of wind and photovoltaic parks portfolios, as well as in new technological investments and offshore wind and energy storage, for which the institutional framework is expected to be finalized within the year 2022. Electric power grid modernization, challenges for the mass “greening” of islands and the simplification and acceleration of RES licensing procedures, constitute important prerequisites for the efficient exploitation of investments. Therefore, the main challenge that the energy policy is facing today, following the new context and status created by the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine is structuring the key priorities to achieve the European Green Deal and Europe’s green energy transition, as well as the emphasis on targeted investment initiatives of green growth.

The successful legal practice of M&A before both the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy and national courts has significantly transformed pricing standards of electricity in favour of the Greek industrial clients, thereby achieving a systemic change in this central policy field. Our law firm has built a strong reputation for representing RES companies before national courts as well as the European Commission (DG COMP), thus is ready to devote to these new challenges and maintain our place as a top tier firm in Energy Law.

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

M&A Law Firm is constantly trying to keep up with the international changes and developments.

First of all, we have enhanced our working personnel with highly skilled Associates from diverse backgrounds in order to succeed a spherical view for every matter concerning our Firm’s fields of expertise. Determined to provide full services to our clients, we have expanded our dispute resolution team with a Senior Associate highly specialized in ADR in the energy sector, and overpowered our team with a skilled Associate with a high focus on energy taxation matters.

Furthermore, we are continuously aiming to improve our working conditions and space in order to accomplish the optimum environment for our workforce. Therefore in 2022 we updated our software, logistics and technological equipment.

Last, but not least we have adjusted our fee policy to meet our clients’ individual needs in the current disruptive financial circumstances.

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

In this digital age, it is imperative to stay up to date with the best technology to serve your customers efficiently. This digital adjustment became mandatory due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

Our Law Firm has long before invested in a fully digitalized system for teleconferences and relevant system automatization in order to communicate and further cooperate with our corporate clients by using a series of online platforms, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Skype. It is of our core priorities to understand the importance of resourcing innovative ideas and developing more technologically-friendly tools to assist our clientele. Therefore, we are fully prepared to serve our clients’ needs, while adopting remote working patterns (Cloud usage) and enabling efficient working conditions for our Partners, Associates and Administration personnel.

In addition, we emphasize a lot on our social media presence, since we strongly believe that it is a highly effective tool to showcase our legal and academic work and achieve a broad communication with our audience. Our Firm’s goal is to grow our network and become an acknowledged legal force even outside of national borders and, thus, we believe technology is the key for this achievement.

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

Our Firm acts as legal advisor for a variety of national and foreign electricity producers, suppliers and developers as well as international investors. We support our international clients with market insights and useful advice in order to assist them in achieving their goals and benefit from their investments.

To be more specific, a leading energy company active in the Biodiesel market, only recently granted us the mandate to provide legal consulting and guidance on complex regulatory issues regarding biogas’ production costs.

Also we acted as legal and regulatory advisors for a foreign multinational investor and developer in offshore wind parks, a submarket in the broader field of Renewables that is expected to substantially develop this year in Greece.

And Metaxas & Associates successfully represented its client, a leading Greek electricity supplier, in its dispute on substantial regulatory issues with the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A. before the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) in respect of the provision of public service obligations.

In this context, our insightful input on all above had a substantial impact on the value of our client’s business. And these are but indicative examples of how we bring added value to our clients.

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

Our Firm has further consolidated its leading status in the Greek Legal Market, especially in the practice of Energy where it is regarded as perhaps “the” leading Law Firm of the country. As already mentioned, our distinctive feature lies on our clear strategic orientation of excellence in the selected fields of our specialization: Energy and EU Competition Law, our commitment to client service and diversity among our attorneys and staff, characteristics that have been recognized repeatedly over the years.

It is noteworthy that clients always look for stability and strategic direction. Our client’s loyalty is one of the most important factors highlighting the highly acknowledged position of our Firm. We are indeed proud for having achieved this bond and commitment.