5 minute read
Ágnes Szent-Ivány
BACKGROUND Ágnes Szent-Ivány grew up in Budapest with a younger sister. She studied law at Eötvös Loránd University and graduated summa cum laude. She started working at KONSUMEX Foreign Trading Co, and obtained a postgraduate degree in international commercial law from the Postgraduate Law Institute, ELTE Budapest. She is a wife and mother of two grown up sons, one of whom also became a lawyer.
She is an avid reader, and owns several thousands books, mostly novels, but she is also interested in art, and so collects such books as well. Her favorite styles are secession (art nouveau) and art deco. Szent-Ivány is interested in architecture, especially that of Budapest, and she collects and reads books on that subject.
She often attends concerts in MÜPA and the Music Academy. Szent-Ivány says she adores travelling, mostly in Europe and in the United States. She loves to go to the sea in Croatia and says her favorite country is Italy, and her number one foreign city is Rome which she tries to visit almost every year (COVID permitting).
Szent-Ivány likes scuba diving and skiing, is a spinning fan and a creative cook, and has a five-year-old chocolate brown Labrador retriever dog.
She has been collecting wild duck figures for many years, and now has more than 100 ducks, made of wood, copper and porcelain.
OF WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD? In 1987, two years before the democratic transformation, with some partners we successfully established and built up one of the first Hungarian law firms serving international clients. I am proud of taking part in some of the most important transactions, for example the privatization of Sopron Brewery and later the legal work of listing it on the Budapest Stock Exchange, the acquisition of Csepel Power Plant, and then the construction of Csepel II Power Plant, and representing EBRD [European Bank for Reconstruction and Development] in its first financing project in Hungary, which was actually its first transaction after establishment.
We demerged from the former firm in 1999 and established our current law office. It was a great moment when our Hungarian law office joined Eversheds, one of the leading international U.K. law firms in 2004. By now, Eversheds Sutherland has become a global top 10 law practice and provides legal advice and solutions to an international client base that includes some of the world’s largest multinationals. We became part of a big international team, work together
day-by-day with colleagues from different jurisdictions, advice clients from around the world, and often work on projects that involve plenty of jurisdictions in the case of multinational M&A transactions or restructuring. My work was acknowledged by being promoted to managing partner of the Hungarian operation in 2013.
I am also proud of having a chance to work with many young talented attorneys during the past decades, helping them in starting their successful careers.
It was an honor when I became an arbitrator at the Permanent Arbitration Court attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2004. This fulfilled my old desire for my professional career. Since at the university I studied arbitration, I have always been interested
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in this special alternative dispute resolution method. During my work as a foreign trade in-house legal advisor, and later as an attorney at law, I have been a legal representative in many Hungarian and international arbitration proceedings, so I was already familiar with arbitration from the other side. Being an arbitrator, several times president of the panel, is very intellectual and challenging task, but also causes a lot of joy, as our task is so much different from the day-to-day work and from the approach of attorneys.
WHAT DREW YOU TO LAW AS A PROFESSION? There was no family example. I have always had a strong sense of justice as well as some romantic visions about how things should go. I often “defended” my classmates in the grammar school. My head teacher made a remark once that I should be a lawyer when I grow up. Certain film experiences in my youth also had an effect on my interest, especially the usual ones, “12 Angry Men” by Sidney Lumet, starring Henry Fonda and “Witness for the Prosecution” by Billy Wilder, starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton. This is all the funnier because, in my studies, I came to realize that I was no longer interested in criminal law, but much more in civil law and private international law.
I have also been interested in learning new languages (in addition to English, I speak German and Russian as well as my mother-tongue, Hungarian) and wanted to get acquainted with and take part in the international economy. The legal profession was a clear choice to practice both activities. Though, as a student, I hesitated whether to become a judge or a commercial lawyer, but in the end, I decided to do practical work in the field of business law and started working at a foreign trading company.
HOW DID YOU PICK YOUR LEGAL SPECIALTY AREA? Mergers and acquisition and commercial transactions are typical matters at large and international law firms. With my professional background, these areas have always been my core legal activities. Beside this, I have focused on international commercial arbitration and competition law as well and have a general overview of other practice areas. My clients appreciate that I can be their key contact lawyer whatever matter they have, even if other lawyers of the firm are involved in the case but I always understand and convey what their interest and goal are.
WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE TO IMPROVE THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT IN HUNGARY? Court proceedings are rather slow and expensive, resulting that potential disputes do not have a strong dissuasive effect. Improving and maintaining predictability in the legal environment has been one of the strongest desires of lawyers and clients for many years. For a stable economy we have to keep a stable legal system.
Name of law firm Sándor Szegedi Szent-Ivány Komáromi Eversheds Sutherland
Name of associate non-Hungarian law firm or cooperation network Eversheds Sutherland
Address 1026 Budapest, Pasaréti út 59.
Managing partner Ágnes Szent-Ivány
In charge of position since 2013
Year of Hungarian law firm's establishment 1987/1999
No. of attorneys with license to practise in Hungary on Sept. 15, 2020 15
No. of partners of Hungarian law firm on Sept. 15, 2020 8
