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THERE IS A LOT OF ROOM FOR INNOVATION
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As an industry, the legal profession has been changing significantly. We have always believed there is a lot of room for innovation, and tried to take the lead and have been quite successful in that READ THIS ON WEB
BOGDAN GECIĆ
The founder of Gecić Law Firm
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e talked with Bogdan Gecić, the founder of the Gecić Law Firm, about his return to Belgrade, his view of how relations between the UAE and Serbia have been developing, education and the innovative approach that his law firm has.
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You were among the first in Serbia to launch the concept of building an innovative law firm. What does entail, given that your profession is considered highly traditional? — When talking about the alleged conservatism of our profession, this depends on one’s perspective. You should take into account that we are still a post-communist society, but I do not mean that in an offensive way. Most of our population was born and most of our social norms and institutions were created during communism and have been rapidly changing for the past 20 years. The bottom line is that twenty years ago we did not have business law as such or a need for it, because the dominant form of ownership was not private, nor was there a free market as such. So the area of law that our firm deals with - business law – is still considered new. Twenty
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years is a split second for the legal profession, so there was a lot of room for innovation in our niche branch of law. What do you think about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on company operations in Serbia, speaking on behalf of your clients, and how much has the crisis slowed down the economy? — I wouldn't say the crisis slowed it down. That is difficult to measure because different industries have experienced a completely different context. I would rather say that the pandemic has changed business conditions radically, but I would not use the term “slowed down”. Business-wise, we had an interesting year. In Serbia, in the first quar-
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Companies from the UAE are top quality companies - efficient, fast, very professional and work all over the world. I have only words of praise for them ter of 2020, GDP growth was extremely strong and in the next three quarters of the year, the economy had the opportunity to perpetuate the driving force with which we started 2020. I believe
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that 2020 will not end with necessarily bad results. In industries and sectors that have a high frequency of human contacts, it’s only natural that their turnover and operations have changed radically. Many industries that existed and operated successfully before the pandemic but were not necessarily the driving forces of the overall economy, experienced a boom during the pandemic. How did you, as a law firm, adapt to this situation? — We were lucky that our type of services allows for a relatively smooth transition to remote work. Our focus was primarily on the safety of the people who are part of the team, our clients and contacts. As the dynamics of the pandemic changed, we keep in touch with our staff to make sure we make the best decisions that everyone is comfortable with. Whenever there was a need for a team to switch to remote work, nobody was obligated to be physically present in the office and, during each wave , we conducted regular surveys to see when the majority of the team would be comfortable to return to the office. Finally, given that we are working from a rather grand old building in the center of Belgrade, we also needed to make a few changes in the office to ensure that all the best health practices are followed
