Zoltán Nádasdy

PARTNER OF REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS PRACTICE AND HEAD OF BUDAPEST OFFICE, NOERR

BACKGROUND Zoltán Nádasdy was born in Debrecen and says that at a young age he felt the need for justice, so after finishing school decided to study at the Faculty of Law at the University of Szeged. It was clear to him that he would like to work in an international environment in Budapest and the university helped Nádasdy to prepare for the profession.

In his private life, he finds peace in mountain climbing, where Nádasdy says he also learns more about his physical and mental boundaries and can observe daily problems from a distended view. “Nothing is more beautiful than catching the sunrise on the horizon,” he says.

OF WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD? In the profession, I am proud of our team in the Budapest office of Noerr. It is very inspiring to work in an atmosphere where there are professional individuals with different characters able to work for the same goal as a team. This was in particular visible at the starting of COVID this year, where we needed to ask the team to stay and work remotely, from home: the spirit remained unchanged and our clients have hardy seen any change in the service, despite the unusual set up.

In my private life, I find my peace in nature, in mountain climbing. A few years ago I started to climb the European peaks exceeding 4,000 meters. In my limited time for hobbies, I can only manage one or two

such high peaks in a year; I have now climbed around 15. The most difficult thus far was the Matterhorn in Switzerland, which I tackled from the Italian side. On the summit climbing day it took around 12 hours to reach the top and then get back. It is really exhausting waking up and getting to the route in the night after two or three hours sleeping and being out in freezing conditions on the rope in rocks and ice for such a long time. However, you are compensated, since nothing is more beautiful than catching the sunrise on the horizon lightening the lines and peaks. You also learn about your physical and mental boundaries and also you can observe the daily routine and problems from a totally different, distended view and approach.

WHAT DREW YOU TO LAW AS A PROFESSION? Even though we are not a typical lawyer dynasty, both of grandfathers were lawyers. I felt and realized quite early that I have a sense of, and need for, justice and solving problems. In the grammar school one can hardly have a specific thought and imagination of this profession, only something which you can gather from movies, which are of course very far away from real life. I remember

“It is very inspiring to work in an atmosphere where there are professional individuals with different characters able to work for the same goal as a team.”

60

Name of law firm Noerr

Name of associate non-Hungarian law firm or cooperation network Noerr Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB

Address 1011 Budapest, Fő utca 14–18.

Managing partner Zoltán Nádasdy

In charge of position since 2009

Year of Hungarian law firm's establishment 1990

No. of attorneys with license to practise in Hungary on Sept. 15, 2020 21

No. of partners of Hungarian law firm on Sept. 15, 2020 5

that even at the university, when our civil law seminar professor raised the question, which part of the legal profession is our preference after finishing the university, half of the class answered “international law”. It shows how little we were informed of the variety and beautiful details of this profession. It does make a huge difference whether you work as a judge, a notary public, a public prosecutor, an attorney; also among attorneys in which special field of law you work on, whether you do it alone, or part of a larger team, etc.

For me, it was clear at the university that I would like to work at an international law firm in Budapest; I worked on my language skills accordingly.

Also the university (of Szeged) helped us to be prepared for the profession by introducing special trainings for European law and also German economic law, the latter held by visiting professors from Potsdam, in German. These day, it does not sound any longer unique, but 20 years ago, we had different times.

HOW DID YOU PICK YOUR LEGAL SPECIALTY AREA? I have started my career at Clifford Chance in Budapest, in their German desk department, which was integrated in the real estate practice group. My senior colleagues were (and are still) great lawyers; they showed the indepth layers of real estate law, which is also today one of my special fields of law.

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE TO IMPROVE THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT IN HUNGARY? I am happy not being involved in law making. This is a very special and complex area in our rapidly changing world.