White & Case sees departures in Poland as Warsaw competition heats up

As we reported earlier this year, the Polish legal market is saturated with strong local firms as well as a number of foreign players. That means fees are pushed and competition for work is fierce.

Competition for people is fierce too, as White & Case is finding out. The firm’s former Polish disputes head Pawel Pietkiewicz has quit for Greenberg Traurig in Warsaw, at the same time as three of its litigators are understood to be departing for Baker & McKenzie.

Indeed Greenberg Traurig has been one of the most active hirers in Poland this year, picking up a team of 12 from Allen & Overy and Norton Rose Fulbright in May.

Baker & McKenzie is also recruiting, and is understood to be in talks with litigation partners Łukasz Hejmej, Tomasz Manicki and Sebastian Pabian.

The departures follow the move of White & Case’s Budapest office to Dentons earlier this year.

Also on TheLawyer.com:

• Clifford Chance has moved to strengthen its German offering with the appointment of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s global co-head of energy and natural resources, Anselm Raddatz
• Hausfeld will become the latest US firm to open in Germany following a €30m (£21.6m) investment from litigation funder Burford Capital
• Spanish firm Garrigues has merged with local player DLP in Colombia, and has named Argentina and Chile as its next targets for expansion