TOP LEGAL EXECUTIVES
KINGA HETÉNYI MANAGING PARTNER, SCHÖNHERR HETÉNYI ÜGYVÉDI IRODA
OF WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD? I am proud that I am well known in the international legal business, and that clients with whom I have not had contact for many years suddenly pop up and remember that I solved a problem for them several years before and contact me again if they encounter new issues. I am also proud of the team that I work with, and that colleagues like to work with us and our team. It has always been very important to me to have a coherent group of devoted people who think alike and pull together in the
“There were no lawyers in my family at all, and I wanted to learn something and become professional in a field in which nobody of my family could assist. This is how, at that time, I intended to strengthen our family: by contributing something that nobody else could contribute.”
BACKGROUND Kinga Hetényi has been the managing partner of Schoenherr Budapest since 2010. She has more than 25 years of experience in advising international clients on corporate, M&A, commercial and labor law issues. Her real specialty is advising on complex corporate restructurings, including cross border mergers, and solving “insolvable” corporate problems. She interrupted her carrier as an attorney in 2004 and worked for one and a half years in-house as general counsel of the Hungarian subsidiary of an FMCG company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. This has given her insight into how large commercial organizations work and what general counsels and businessmen really need in terms of legal advice. She speaks German as her second mother tongue, and is fluent in English and French.
same boat. We all spend way too much time at work; it would be a big mistake and a waste of resources if the work atmosphere was not joyful and constructive. I always strive to create such an atmosphere because only that can be inspiring and attractive for talented and ambitious lawyers. WHAT DREW YOU TO LAW AS A PROFESSION? I had many compelling reasons, but the loudest reason was probably that there were no lawyers in my family at all, and I wanted to learn something and become professional in a field in which nobody of my family could assist. This is how, at that time, I intended to strengthen our family: by contributing something that nobody else could contribute. My father was a businessman and my mother was working in the healthcare industry. Thus, business school and med school were excluded. As a woman, I did not think of engineering either but I wanted to choose something that was useful also in my private life.
52
