On May 30th, the annual international conference Southeast Europe 2023 took place in Sredets Hall of Balkan Hotel organized by The LEGAL 500 (the most prestigious organization for evaluating law firms, lawyers and corporate counsel), together with Penkov, Markov & Partners and 5 other law firms, exclusive representatives of LEX MUNDI (the world's largest association of independent law firms) - Georgi Dimitrov Law office; Jankovic, Popovic, Mitic; Nagy & Trocsanyi; Pekin & Pekin; Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen.
Attorney Vladimir Penkov - Chairman and Senior Partner at Penkov, Markov & Partners Law Firm, opened the conference and after thanking The LEGAL 500, the other participating partner law firms from LEX MUNDI, as well as the panelists and participants, briefly outlined the focus of the individual panels.
He explained that this international conference is exciting because such topical issues of great public interest and importance are being discussed in one day and in one place, by eminent experts with experience. This, he pointed out, had never happened to him before. He also encouraged the participants to share their experiences as well as to ask questions so that this international conference, with common efforts, could become a great success.
The conference was perfectly organized, with a very meaningful discussion during the five panels and a great turnout of more than 160 attendees from companies, banks and NGOs such as: Zagorka (Heineken Group), UBB, Pierre Fabre, B.A. Glas, Aurubis, Samsung, Artex, DSK, Eurobank, Sopharma, Vivacom, BBB, Coca Cola, Henkel, Nestlé, Deutsche Telekom, Schneider Electric, BCCI, American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria, Bulgarian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, French-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum and many others.
Participants also included Ventsislav Karadzhov - Chairman of the CPDP, Farat Yalchan - Managing Partner of Pekin & Pekin, Neven Dujic - Croatian Academy of Engineering, Tanja Yosifova - Chairperson of the AC of BCCA and Adriana Gaspar - Senior Partner of Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen and others.
The excellent organization, the very well prepared and competent panelists, as well as the extremely topical issues in recent times, made the conference fascinating and exciting for the participants.
Comparative analyses of regulations related to data protection were discussed, with a special focus on services offered in cloud spaces, as well as the need to adapt the regulatory framework.
Interesting ideas were shared in relation to "tag-along", "drag-along", "put", "call options" used in contracts between partners in mergers and acquisitions, and in particular the lack of detailed regulation to enforce the agreements.
The need to introduce modern information technology in legal offices was also outlined, but the limits of the use of artificial intelligence in the legal profession were also outlined.
The new role of renewables in ensuring stable growth and reducing emissions, as well as the challenges facing arbitral tribunals related to their digitalisation, the possibility of exchanging documents electronically and holding virtual hearings were other important highlights.
The moderators of the individual panels - Nikolay Cvetanov - Managing Partner of Penkov, Markov & Partners, Peter Beretalmi - Managing Partner of Nagy & Trocsanyi; Georgi Dimitrov - Managing Partner of Georgi Dimitrov Law office; Nemanja Stepanovic - Managing Partner of Jankovic, Popovic, Mitic and Atanas Valov - Partner of Penkov, Markov & Partners, did a brilliant job. The latter moderated the panel related to arbitration, in which the former Chairman of the Court of Arbitration at the BCCI - Silvi Chernev, actively participated.
