Central European offices commit to EY Law

The law firms in Ernst & Young’s (E&Y) central European area have reaffirmed their commitment to EY Law Europe despite a fresh round of departures from the network.

At a meeting of E&Y’s central European area earlier this month "law" was recognised as the fourth service line of the accountancy practice in the region. The primary countries in this region are Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and the Netherlands. E&Y’s other service lines include audit and business advisory, and transaction advisory.

Twenty lawyers out of the 100-strong EY Law CIS team that defected to DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Carey at the end of the month have pulled out of the move and decided to stay at EY Law.

Meanwhile, E&Y’s law firms in both the Czech Republic and the Baltic states (Lativa, Estonia and Lithuania) are in ongoing discussions to split.

E&Y’s Polish and Austrian law firms have already broken away from the network to comply with new SEC regulations.

Hans van Gijzen, formerly the managing partner of Holland Van Gijzen in the Netherlands, has been appointed to lead the law firms of the Central European area.