White & Case has lost former disputes head Pawel Pietkiewicz to Greenberg Traurig in Warsaw, at the same time as three of its litigators are understood to be departing for Baker & McKenzie.
Pietkiewicz joined White & Case in 2011 and has been appointed to head up Greenberg Traurig’s litigation and arbitration team.
The former office executive partner of White & Case and dispute resolution head will take over the role from partner Andrzej Wysokiński, who will be able to focus more on the development of the banking and finance practice.
Pietkiewicz will be joined by former White & Case M&A local partner Daniel Kaczorowski, who left the firm over the summer after a two-year stint. The hires come after Greenberg Traurig added 12 new lawyers to its three-year old Polish office, recruiting real estate partners from both Allen & Overy and Norton Rose Fulbright.
Meanwhile, another three litigation partners from White & Case are expected to be leaving for Baker & McKenzie’s Polish office.
Local partners Łukasz Hejmej, Tomasz Manicki and Sebastian Pabian are all understood to be making the move to Bakers, taking the number of commercial litigation partners down from six to three.
White & Case’s litigation group is currently headed by partner Michal Subocz, with Paweł Samborski and Katarzyna Czapracka also in the team. There are currently around 50 lawyers resident in the firm’s Warsaw base, led by office executive partner Marcin Studniarek.
The news comes six months after White & Case’s 50-strong Budapest office joined Dentons in a major boost for the latter’s Central & Eastern European operations.
White & Case declined to comment on the departures.
