TOP LEGAL EXECUTIVES
TAMÁS POLAUF CO-MANAGING PARTNER, CERHA HEMPEL DEZSŐ ÉS TÁRSAI ÜGYVÉDI IRODA
OF WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD? I have had many achievements that I can be proud of, but I also have many plans for the future. As somebody who was involved in sports at a fairly high level, I learned early that you had to be focused and work hard at all times if you wanted to be successful. In high school, I reached the final of a national competition in literature, and I was the member of the Hungarian national team and a national champion as a middle-distance runner. At university, as a member of the application orientation committee of the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), I helped hundreds of students prepare for their legal careers. The challenges continued after
When I applied to university and also when I completed my studies, I was a hair’s breadth away from becoming a teacher or a lecturer. But when my life came to a turning point, I always chose the path that led to the legal profession and I do not have any regrets at all.
BACKGROUND Tamás Polauf is 45 years old and was admitted to the bar 15 years ago. He has been working for CERHA HEMPEL (formerly CHSH), a Vienna-based law firm, since 2008. In 2013, the partners of the Hungarian entity of CERHA HEMPEL's network of law firms elected him to serve as co-managing partner with Attila Dezső, the firm's founding partner. Outside his professional life, Polauf has been engaged in various sports activities since he was six, and continues to spend almost all of his free time outdoors (doing cross-country running and mountain biking). While Polauf says management duties have grown due to COVID, he is still trying to realise an old dream of completing every section of a 1,000 km hiking trail that winds its way through the mountains of Hungary.
graduation, both in my academic and legal career. In addition to studying in ELTE’s PhD program in law, I also gained admission to the philosophy program, while as graduate teaching assistant, I taught various legal and paralegal courses at ELTE and the law schools of the universities in Győr, Pécs and Miskolc. I spent most of my time as a trainee lawyer in the office of Gábor Tóth, the current chairman of the Budapest Bar Association, where I learned a lot about the legal profession. My next great professional challenge came in 2008, when CERHA HEMPEL’s Vienna office requested me to establish and grow their local practice in Hungary. Dezső and Partners, a law firm founded and led by Attila Dezső, joined CERHA HEMPEL’s network of law firms in 2010. As recognition of my work, I was admitted as a partner of the new entity within two years. The next challenge, and one of the greatest of my life, came in 2013, when Attila Dezső and his partners entrusted
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