TOP LEGAL EXECUTIVES
ERIKA PAPP MANAGING PARTNER OF CMS BUDAPEST, HEAD OF FINANCE IN CEE/CIS
OF WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD? Well, I am most proud of my son and family. In my professional life, I have been honored (and fortunate) to work together with some of the finest professionals in Hungary and CEE at my workplace. I am also proud that, somehow, I managed to create a balance between my professional and private life, a balance between being a mother of a wonderful son and also being a practicing lawyer, and manager of the largest law firm in Hungary. I’m also proud of the balance we’ve struck between a profit-making business and charitable projects. This balancing act is not easy and sometimes is still a daily juggle, but most of the time I get it right, more or less. WHAT DREW YOU TO LAW AS A PROFESSION? Actually, I come from a family of lawyers, so it was a quasipre-determined, straightforward path for me to follow. My mother was a judge, my father was a lawyer, my sister is a university professor of law, and even my grandfather was a lawyer, working in-house. We have all chosen our own areas
BACKGROUND Erika Papp is the managing partner of CMS in Hungary and the head of finance in CEE/CIS. She advises financial institutions and other companies on financial transactions and regulatory projects across the CEE region. She has many years’ experience in advising clients on real estate and project finance as well as corporate lending. She is also well known for her expertise in financial institution regulation, and advises banks and businesses on capital markets, derivatives and investments in Hungary and in CEE. Her clients include many of the largest financial institutions in the region, as well as large corporates with commercial activities in energy, real estate, telecommunications and manufacturing. Papp regularly speaks at international conferences and LMA seminars. She has published numerous articles and has co-authored several finance law publications. She is the founder of a charitable foundation at the Law School of Debrecen.
“I come from a family of lawyers, so it was a quasi-pre-determined, straightforward path for me to follow. My mother was a judge, my father was a lawyer, my sister is a university professor of law, and even my grandfather was a lawyer, working in-house.”
of law, which fitted our personality and interests best, and that inspired us within the many layers of law. Law provides so many different career options and lifestyles, each for their own personality. You do not even have to be a lawyer: with a law degree you can be a good business person, a manager or a politician. So what drew me to law as a profession is that it gives you a flexible career path, where you can, with relative ease, move into something else if you want to. Also, law is a huge, fascinating, developing, everchanging profession, which inspires you to keep learning all throughout your career. For example, my specialization, banking and finance law, is such a massive area of law, and I
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