Kinstellar boosts its regional practice with a team from Serbia

Belgrade, 6 March 2009 – Kinstellar, the leading premium regional law firm for Emerging Europe, today announces the appointments of Louis Milicich as Counsel, and of Žarko Lelovac as an Associate and Mirko Lalatović a Junior Associate. They are joining Kinstellar from DLA Piper Weiss-Tessbach.

These appointments represent a strengthening of the firm’s ability to meet its clients’ needs throughout Central and South Eastern Europe specifically in the countries and regions of the former Yugoslavia, where our lawyers already have considerable experience

Louis is a US qualified lawyer with 24 years of experience of mergers and acquisitions, privatisations, real estate and finance transactions and has litigated all phases (discovery, trial, mediation, arbitration) of corporate and commercial disputes in numerous jurisdictions. Lou has represented US Fortune 100 companies such as General Dynamics, as well as major European companies and financial institutions active in CEE/SEE. He is fluent in English and Serbian.

Žarko is a Serbian qualified lawyer with a broad range of experience including privatisations, real estate, mergers and acquisitions and project finance. He has worked on behalf of both local and international investors and organisations. Zarko speaks Serbian and English.

Mirko is a junior associate with extensive experience in general commercial and corporate law specialising in privatisations, mergers and acquisitions and real estate transactions. Mirko studied at the University Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne, Paris, where he received his LLM in October 2008. He speaks Serbian, English and French.

Louis, Žarko and Mirko will work closely with David Davies, a partner and head of the Corporate/M&A practice of Kinstellar, who has a strong track record in the region, including advising Telenor on its acquisition of Mobi 63, the largest transaction in Serbia to date and Investbanka on its public takeover by Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen in Macedonia.

Jason Mogg, Managing Partner of Kinstellar, comments:

“We are delighted that Louis, Žarko and Mirko have joined us. They will enhance our ability to offer premium advice to our range of international clients with business interests in Serbia and the broader former Yugoslavia. This is one of many moves we expect to make to further reinforce our market leadership across Central and South Eastern Europe.

We have ambitious plans for growth across the region in order to seize the significant opportunities that exist and will continue to exist regardless of the global economic crisis”.

David Davies, Partner and Head of Corporate/M&A Practice, comments:

“I have been focussing on the Serbian and Ex-Yugoslavian market for some time. It is an interesting and challenging market and we expect this move to further improve our position in respect of the whole of the former Yugoslavia.

The arrival of Lou, Zarko and Mirko is an important step in the development of our regional capability and these new additions to our team will widen our offering to both local and international clients of the firm.”

For further information contact

David Davies, Partner: +36 1 428 4450