Pawel Szaja

Shearman & Sterling

Shearman & Sterling capital markets partner Pawel Szaja has turned his international upbringing into his biggest competitive asset. The Polish-born lawyer, who speaks seven languages and was educated across Europe and the US, fell in love with emerging markets during a secondment at Credit Suisse. As an associate in New York, he advised on rescue work stemming from the Lehman Brothers’ collapse.

Cultivating a focus on IPOs, his ascent led to his role at Shearman, where he has become a deal prince for Central and Eastern Europe. The firm’s lack of presence in the region was an opportunity to cement local relationships and attract mandates. Last year, he advised several bookrunners on a $344.5m (£265.5m) mammoth transaction around the shares of Kazakhstan powerhouse financial group Halyk Bank, which listed on three different stock exchanges – London, Kazakhstan and Astana.

In between deals, he was among the partners who created the FinTech Foundry, a programme that gathers lawyers internationally to support client projects in this area and cooperate with start-ups on networking opportunities and government sponsoring.