SCHOENHERR has been recognized as “Austrian Law Firm of the Year” (2016) and “Romanian Law Firm of the Year” (2016) by the renowned legal publisher Chambers and Partners. For the first time, SCHOENHERR has been awarded with two of Chambers’ awards. SCHOENHERR lawyers Roman Perner (partner; Vienna), Heidemarie Paulitsch (counsel; Vienna), Clemens Rainer (attorney at law; Vienna) and Simona Chirică (partner; Bucharest) accepted the award on behalf of the firm at the Chambers Europe Awards event held this past Friday evening in London.
“We are immensely proud to take home two of the prestigious Chambers Awards this year. In the past year, our lawyers have advised clients coming from diverse industries in various high-profile transactions, restructurings and arbitrations. Both awards are accolades that reverberate our long standing successes and recognise the high quality of our work across both markets”, said Christoph Lindinger, managing partner at SCHOENHERR.
Established Leader in Austria
Headline deals on which SCHOENHERR advised in Austria in 2015 include Heta Asset Resolution (HETA) in the preparation of the first European resolution pursuant to the European framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions, Deutsche Wohnen AG on the attempted public takeover offer of Conwert and of Eco Business-Immobilien, Österreichische Volksbanken (ÖVAG) in the restructuring of the Volksbanken sector and the continuation of ÖVAG as a run-down entity under BaSAG, Allianz Capital Partners on first-ever acquisition of windparks in Austria and Adidas on acquisition (up to EUR 220 mn) of app-developer Runtastic.
Headline deals in Romania
In 1996, SCHOENHERR opened its first office in CEE in Bucharest, Romania. Today the office in Bucharest is considered the second largest office among the 13 SCHOENHERR offices in Austria, Brussels and Central and Eastern Europe. In 2015, SCHOENHERR Romania advised on a plethora of headline deals, inter alia, the largest Romanian dairy producer Albalact on its sale to French group Lactalis, Nextebank on its takeover of Banca Comerciala Carpatica through the acquisition of 55 % in the local bank, on the sale of Volksbank Leasing to Getin Holding, as well as the shareholders of lender Volksbank in the sale of the bank’s Romanian arm to local lender Banca Transilvania.
Recognitions in the past years
For the third year in a row, SCHOENHERR has been awarded at the Chambers Europe Awards. In 2014 and 2015, SCHOENHERR was recognized as “Leading Law Firm in South East Europe”. Additionally, SCHOENHERR has been recognized as “Austrian Leading Law Firm of the Year” (2015) by the Lawyer and “Austrian M&A Legal Adviser of the Year” (2015) by Mergermarket, and won the “Excellence in Client Service Award 2014” by Chambers.
