Interview with: Yiannis Karamanolis, Managing Director

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Karamanolis & Karamanolis LLC from your competitors?

The main point that differentiates our firm is the level of experience and service.

As a boutique firm, we focus on commercial and corporate litigation. This allows us to provide exceptional legal advice in an efficient manner. At the same time, it allows us to attract top legal talent on this area of law.

With a smaller and focused client list, we can provide individualized service. Our firm’s partners are always accessible and have a hands-on approach on every case and issue our clients face, no matter how minor it may appear at first glance.

We strictly apply a same day initial response on every query by our clients and treat all requests with a sense of urgency.

Our firm’s size and lean organizational structure allow us to add value to our clients without wasting resources.

We make transparent and creative fee arrangements, and we ensure accurate budgeting and reporting for each phase of the provided services.

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

We expect that there will be significant increase in demand for legal services in the fields of Corporate Litigation, Insolvency & Restructuring, Intellectual Property, Banking and Finance, and Employment law. Furthermore, we expect that the Information and Technology sector, a field in which our firm has extensive experience and expertise, will continue to rapidly grow despite the pandemic.

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

Direct and personal contact with our clients has always been a priority to us. For this reason, we have invested in new technologies and have trained our personnel to use all available media to provide services to our clients remotely but at the same, efficiently. While remaining easily accessible, we have applied the latest security measures and policies to ensure that our clients’ data are safe and remain confidential.

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

Technology has significantly changed the nature of our work.

We now have access to additional online legal search databases from Cyprus, Greece and the UK, which has made legal research faster and easier than it used to be in the past. This has allowed us to be more efficient and has shortened our response time to complicated queries and requests from our clients.

The ease of access to cases and materials of other common law jurisdictions is especially useful for lawyers in Cyprus since it allows us to remain at the cutting edge of legal practice and provide creative solutions to our clients.

Furthermore, new technologies have helped us to strengthen our bonds with our clients, since we are now able to communicate with them 24 hours a day, and even share the same screen, from any location. We arrange video calls with clients and colleagues to discuss cases and provide feedback live, through Zoom, Microsoft Teams Cisco Webex.

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

Our firm always seeks to provide advice which is legally sound but also makes commercial sense for the client’s business and goals.

We have very recently advised on the dispute resolution issues of a major transaction and the enforceability of several terms included in the relevant shareholders’ agreements. The negotiation had reached a dead-end, since the other party insisted on the inclusion of a term that was completely unacceptable by our clients. The terms of the agreement had previously been discussed between the parties with the legal framework of another common law jurisdiction in mind. However, we advised the client that this term should not be a deal breaker since, under Cyprus law (as opposed to other common law jurisdictions that were taken into consideration previously), the term which constituted the main impediment to a final agreement between the parties, would be most probably declared as illegal and unenforceable by the Cypriot Courts.

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

Clients will always seek advice, which is not only legally accurate, but which is also practical. In addition, clients will always require stability, efficiency, loyalty, personal attention, and attention to detail. For these reasons, we expect that more businesses and individuals will turn to boutique law firms led my highly experienced professionals, which offer specialised, personalised, and cost-effective services to a smaller client base.

Within the next three years we expect to continue our rapid growth and significantly increase our market share in the legal services industry of Cyprus.