Linklaters CEE spin-off launches Serbia practice” />Kinstellar, the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) firm that spun out of Linklaters last year, has launched a Serbia practice with the hire of three former DLA Piperlawyers.
The firm has taken on Louis Milicich, _arko Lelovac and Mirko Lalatovi_ as counsel, associate and junior associate respectively.
Kinstellar has taken office space in Belgrade with the intention of launching a fully-fledged office by the end of the year. The new hires are currently based in the firm’s Bratislava office and commute to Belgrade.
The firm’s managing partner Jason Mogg said: “Serbia’s a jurisdiction that has had its problems in the past. But in May last year the country voted in a government that was orientated towards integration into the EU and was western looking. There’s a good political climate.”
He added: “Serbia’s also rare in that it has free-trade agreements with both Russia and the EU so it’s an important manufacturing hub.”
Kinstellar launched in November last year with offices in Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest and Prague.
Is the CEE region pulling the EU out of the recession?
That would be naively optimistic, but the fact that Kinstellar is one of the few law firms in Europe still hiring new lawyers and expanding into new jurisdictions is a warm ray of sunlight in these days of economic Doom & Gloom.
It also shows that despite Linklaters’ appalling PR handling in the days leading up to the announcement of their CEE spin-off, it was the right move for their CEE partners who are clearly doing well. I bet some of the LINK lawyers who jumped ship from Kinstellar to firms like DLA are now regretting their earlier panic.