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COMPANY PROFILE Janković, Popović & Mitić, is one of the largest and leading law firms on Serbian legal market, especially in M&A, bank ing and privatization, with excellent rep utation domestically and abroad. Since 1991 JPM remains to be a fast grow ing, young, dynamic and committed law firm. The Partners, together with over 30 senior and junior lawyers, and their extensive local and international education and experience have proven their capacity to provide solutions over coming all the difficulties and to obtain clients’ trust to render the best possible legal services at all times. In the past year firm has advised on range of various cross border M&A transactions, takeover of listed and private companies, privatizations, real estate and development projects and on various other legal matters. Janković,
Popović & Mitić represents major in ternational clients from financial, in dustrial and services sectors including banking, insurance, intellectual pro perty and anti piracy, project finance, energy, real estate, construction and development. Our client portfolio ranges from mul tinational and national companies engaged in business activities in this region, banks and other financial in stitutions, institutional strategic and fi nancial investors, to public and private institutions. We are “The Lawyers of Confidence” for the Austrian Embassy and Austrian Trade Delegation in Serbia and listed lawyers for the embassies of USA, Germany, Great Britain, Nor way, as well as American Chamber of Commerce and German Chamber for Industry and Trade.
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OUR EXPERTISE: Our lawyers are organized in practice area groups. Appropriate teams lead by one of the partners or senior attorneys are highly spe cialized but also at all times interdisciplinary orientated and working closely with other JPM groups.
PRACTICE AREAS: • Commercial and Corporate • Mergers and Acquisitions • Privatization • Banking • International Investments • Law of Contracts • Commercial Litigation • Industrial and Intellectual Property • Real Estate • Environmental Law • International Trade • International Arbitration • Civil Law • Telecommunications • Broadcasting and Advertising • Banking Law • Tax Law • Establishment of Enterprises and Representative Offices • Privatization • Insurance Law • Labor Law • Energy Law
WE CORRESPOND IN: • Serbian • English • German • French • Russian
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CORPORATE / M&A This practicing field constitutes the firm’s main area of activity with the longest histo ry. Our lawyers have experience in handling widest range of transactions from start-ups to large scale and complex corporate deals. Three partners and six senior lawyers have extensive experience enabling them to cover different stages of existence of enter prises and they advice on transactions and all other matters related to the acquisition of shares or stakes in companies. Starting from the capability of finding most suitable legal form, drafting of necessary foundation documents, registration with competent authorities, advising on capi tal increases or decreases, restructuring through the change in legal form such as mergers and splits including different modifications of these procedures to a fully support of the companies in their corpo rate governance, our mostly international clients are at all times assured that their local entities are at all times fully in compli ance with applicable legislation.
Our “Competition & Antitrust Department” within JPM Corporate / M&A team has been very active since recent adoption of the merger control rules in Serbia. Our experi ence and close cooperation with competent authorities guarantees adequate prepara tion and submission of all (rather complex) documentation necessary for the merger approval. Serbia has become very popular as invest ment country for a number of private equity and investment funds. We are fortunate to represent and support some of these inves tors in their activities in the region. Contacts Nenad Popović, Senior Partner nenad.popovic@jpm.rs Julijana Jevtić, Senior Partner julijana.jevtic@jpm.rs Aleksandar Hadžić, Partner aleksandar.hadzic@jpm.rs
BANKING & FINANCE Janković, Popović & Mitić is very proud on its Banking & Finance group lead by two partners, Ms. Julijana Jevtic and Mr. Zoran Teodosijevic. Our clients are major European and Ser bian banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, but also mostly local borrowers and customers. Close cooperation with other practice area groups, particularly Corporate/M&A, Real Estate and Tax enables us to provide com prehensive legal advice such as: • Acquisition financing • Asset financing
• Bank loans and other financing facilities • Collateralization of financing and devel opment of appropriate security struc tures • Foundation and statutory regulation of banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, investments funds and other finan cial organizations
Contacts Julijana Jevtić, Senior Partner julijana.jevtic@jpm.rs Zoran Teodosijević, Partner zoran.teodosijevic@jpm.rs
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PRIVATIZATION Privatization in Serbia started in 2002 with the aim of privatizing of more than 7000 socially and state owned companies. Sub ject to the Privatization Act, privatization of the social capital had to begin no later than December 31st, 2008. The terms for state owned capital privatization are not limited by the law. The procedure of restructuring and privatization of the public utilities com panies will be the subject of a special act, on account of their specific position and the
activities they are engaged in. Some of the remaining largest “bites” are EPS (Electric Power Industry of Serbia), Telecommuni cations Company “Telekom Srbija”, “JAT Airways”, “Nikola Tesla Airport”, Belgrade, “Galenika”, pharmaceutical company etc. Contact Nikola Janković, Senior Partner nikola.jankovic@jpm.rs
DISPUTE RESOLUTION / LITIGATION The JPM litigation department is comprised of several dynamic, highly experienced law yers with extensive knowledge in all domains of business law and commercial litigation as well as a vast of classic civil law matter. With a dispute resolution team and litigation team, we can swiftly make available all the recourses necessary for dealing with the full range of complex and significant disputes that our client could possibly encounter. Our approach to litigation and dispute resolution is that prevention is better than cure. Where litigation is unavailable, we have proven ourselves in working success fully toward your commercial objectives and avoiding reputational risks. It is our view, that where disputes do arise win ning means achieving a realistic result as quickly as and as efficiently as possible as through arbitration or litigation. We look to bring disputes to an early and successful conclusion through team work, strategic, creative and analytical thinking. The JPM litigation department also recognizes the value of alternative dispute resolutions. Our lawyers have demonstrated high ex pertise in handling the most sensitive and
complex cases including cases in fields of international private and international commercial law. The JPM litigation de partment has in-depth experience and long standing activities in a wide range of issues, such as: • commercial, • labor, • classic civil law, • corporate, • bankruptcy, • insurance, • international arbitration The advantage for our clients is that they are being provided with timely information concerning resolution of their particular case. If you opt JPM you can be confident that the legal work will be done with the highest level of personal and professional commitment. Our litigation department corresponds in the Serbian, English and German languages. Contacts Žarko Borovčanin, Partner zarko.borovcanin@jpm.rs
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REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION JPM Real Estate & Construction is the fast est growing department within Janković, Popović & Mitić. Headed by Partner Milos Mitic, this practice area group advises on all aspects of real estate, including legal sup port in connection with significant real es tate transactions, particularly acquisitions, project development, project financing, lease and sale of property. The very complex and historically heavily burdened legal situation in Serbia conce rning real estate has brought about the ne cessity for reliable legal advice from experi enced lawyers in possession of the detailed information necessary for the understand ing of local specificities. JPM Real Estate & Construction is daily expanding its know ledge and expertise and is fully prepared to provide its clients with optimal solutions and reliable legal advice. Our services start with the research of po tential development locations including a due diligence procedure based on obtained documents and information. The best pos sible solutions for developers are prepared in cooperation with relevant public authori ties. Obtaining of all necessary permits from the competent authorities is the next step in our involvement.
Other services such as Project Finance, including drafting and negotiating of finan cing agreements and preparation and reg istration of security documents, drafting and negotiating of contractors and subcon tractors agreements and lease agreements and, finally, advising in real estate litigation and environmental issues make up the pa lette of JPM Real Estate & Construction ac tivities. Although the legislation concerning resti tution issues (property confiscated and na tionalized after the Word war II) has not yet been completed in Serbia, JPM Real Estate & Construction has been very active in the registration procedure of these claims with the competent authorities and shall com mence with restitution procedures as soon as the appropriate legislature framework has been adopted.
Contacts Miloš Mitić, Senior Partner milos.mitic@jpm.rs Uroš Marković, Partner uros.markovic@jpm.rs
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Janković Popović & Mitić advises a number of international clients on broad range of in tellectual property matters. The firm’s copyright practice involves coun seling on the availability and registrability of trademarks, prosecuting applications for registration before the Intellectual Property Office and designing and implementing worldwide trademark protection programs. Our attorneys currently manage extensive trademark portfolios for a number of multi national clients.
Janković Popović & Mitić possess leading expertise on copyright, trademark infringe ment, anti-piracy, unfair competition, false advertising, broadcasting, consumer pro tection and trade secrets theft. Our atto rneys understand that intellectual property litigation becomes a way of establishing a client’s future competitive position rather than simply resolving a dispute. Contact Miloš Mitić, Senior Partner milos.mitic@jpm.rs
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EMPLOYMENT / LABOR LAW With the adoption of new labor regula tions in Serbia JPM focused its activities on meeting the client’s needs and daily re quirements (mostly on the employer’s side) from the perspective of employment rela tions. Volume and the importance of suc cessful work we have completed for our clients, ranks us as one of the leading labor law practices in Serbia. Our firm provides its clients full range of high-standard legal services and advises on all aspects of: • Individual employment rights and responsibilities • Employment of foreign citizens • Work beyond the scope of employment • Employment termination • Redundancies and social plans • Trade unions and collective bargaining agreements • Social and pension contributions • Strikes • Labor disputes • Bilateral treaties on social insurance
The preparation and/or redrafting of the ge neral and individual employment documents (from collective bargaining agreements; rulebooks governing internal labor relations, organization of work and job systematiza tion; through employment contracts and various types of the employers’ decisions) including implementation/localization of the clients’ standard document forms, consti tute the essential part of our work. Subject to our clients’ request, our labor team undertakes regular due diligence procedures and reports their findings recommending the most appropriate legal solutions. Our work is also based on active participation during nego tiation processes depending on various forms of investments (including privatizations, pri vate deals, etc.), trough representing clients before courts and other Serbian authorities; from the tax perspective, our aim is to find the key solutions from the client’s ideas to imple mentation. Therefore, our labor team cooper ates closely with other JPM experts covering the area of litigation, privatization, banking & finance, corporate/M&A, taxation.
We are equally focused on and commit ted to supporting our clients’ businesses by providing a range of additional services (preparation and submission of applications on mandatory social insurance; close coop eration/communication with the competent authorities; conducting presentations and seminars); We frequently monitor regula tions that are in the process of adoption and studying strategies/practice of the compe tent authorities that correlate to the imple mentation of the labor legal system. Considering the fact that the field of em ployment is gradually becoming an impor tant area of our activities, 3 senior lawyers with supporting team of experts, under the supervision of the senior lawyer with an ex tensive 27 years experience in labor issues within Labor Market Bureau of Serbia, are frequently dedicated to it. Contact Zorica Alavantić, Partner zorica.alavantic@jpm.rs
BANKRUPTCY & INSOLVENCY The field of insolvency and bankruptcy with recent substantial changes of Serbian bankruptcy legislation became one of the of firm’s activities with two senior lawyers who are licensed Bankruptcy administers providing advice to several local and inter national clients. Our services include negotiating among debt ors, creditors, purchasers, and other parties
in cases of Bankruptcy. We provide clients with problem loan analysis, analysis of col lateral positions, and pre-bankruptcy re structuring and planning. We assist clients in purchasing or selling assets in liquidations. JPM’s restructuring and insolvency attorneys also have experience in dealing with the pur chase and sale of assets at bankruptcy sales, mergers and acquisitions of troubled compa nies and bankruptcy claims trading.
Our restructuring and insolvency attorneys cooperate with other practice groups such as finance, labor and employment, tax, real estate, intellectual property, and litigation to meet the full range of client needs. Contacts Jelena Gazivoda, Partner jelena.gazivoda@jpm.rs Nataša Cvetićanin, Partner natasa.cveticanin@jpm.rs
OTHER PRACTICE AREAS Some of other practice areas of Janković, Popović & Mitić include different kinds of administrative proceedings (foreigners res idence and work permits etc.), represen tation in procedures of granting licenses
(energy production and trade, broadcast ing, games of chance etc), concessions (highways, waste management) and envi ronmental matters (development projects regarding waste management with a num
ber Serbian municipalities, including en trustment of the communal activities to the Strategic Partner, as well as continuation of construction and management of the re gional landfills and the selection centers).
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JANKOVIĆ, POPOVIĆ & MITIĆ LAW OFFICES Address: Čarli Čaplina 37 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Phone: +381 11 207-6850 Fax: 381 11 207-6899 E-mail: office@jpm.rs Online: www.jpm.rs