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Infinity Tower, 14th floor
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Kinstellar announces new Partner and Counsel appointments

January 2018 - Kinstellar is pleased to announce the promotions to Partner of Olena Kuchynska in Kyiv and Viliam Myšička in Bratislava, and the promotions to Counsel of Ákos Mátés-Lányi and Balázs Sepsey in Budapest, Mykyta Nota in Kyiv and Svilen Issaev in Sofia.

Partner

Olena Kuchynska, Kyiv: Olena Kuchynska has 15 years of experience as a lawyer. Olena's core practices are Energy and M&A/Corporate, where she has been recommended in Ukraine by the international legal directory IFLR1000 2018. As the head of the Energy practice at Kinstellar Kyiv, Olena focuses on a number of high-profile matters and has had a significant contribution to the development of our relations with major international clients. Olena also helps to develop corporate governance expertise at the Kyiv office, paying significant attention to working on policy advocacy and legislation-drafting projects supported by the international community in Ukraine.

Olena joined Kinstellar in March 2016 as a Managing Associate. Prior to that, she worked with the Kyiv office of another international law firm for eight years. Olena started her career as a project officer at the OSCE Project Co-ordinator’s office in Kyiv. Olena earned an LL.M. degree from the Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) in 2003 and received her local law degree from the National University of Ostroh Academy (Ostroh, Ukraine) in 2002.

Viliam Myšička, Bratislava: Viliam is the firm-wide head of the TMT sector. He has more than 15 years of significant experience in corporate, commercial, M&A and TMT. His focus also extends to restructuring & insolvency matters, employment and labour law, dispute resolution and real estate. Important clients that Viliam has been advising recently include: AXA, Ballymore, CTP, E.ON SE, Erste, ESET, Inteva Products, KBC, LoneStar Group, Mota-Engil, P3, Penta, Porsche, Sberbank Europe, Sumitomo, Vodafone.

Viliam has recently gained recognition as a recommended practitioner in Slovakia from the international legal directory Chambers Europe. Clients highly appreciate his "very good understanding of transaction dynamics" and "pragmatic solutions to ad hoc questions" whereas other sources consider him “one of the most important restructuring and insolvency lawyers in Slovakia".

Viliam has been with Kinstellar since its launch and previously with its Bratislava team (then as Linklaters) since 2007. He graduated from Comenius University in Bratislava and also passed the Trustee’s Exam in connection with a Specific Qualification obtained with the Association of Bankruptcy Trustees of the Slovak Republic as well as English Solicitor’s exams (QLTT) as a Qualified Solicitor of England & Wales. Previously he worked as in-house counsel at Procter & Gamble and with other major law firms in region.

Counsel

Ákos Mátés-Lányi, Budapest: Ákos is a member of the firm’s Corporate / M&A and Private Equity practice groups and has more than 12 years of experience practicing law. Ákos specialises in cross-border M&A, private equity, venture capital and capital markets matters. He has substantial experience in a broad range of corporate transactions, including M&A, private equity, venture capital and other capital-raising transactions, disposals, joint ventures, corporate finance, restructurings, strategic investments, as well as in equity capital markets.

Ákos has recently advised Erste Group, Citigroup, Berenberg and Renaissance Capital, as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, on the IPO of Waberer’s International, one of Europe’s largest long-haul transportation companies; Prologis on the acquisition of M0 Central Business Park; and CIG Pannónia, the Hungarian insurance company, on the acquisition of local peers MKB General Insurance and MKB Life Insurance.

Ákos joined Kinstellar as a Managing Associate in 2015 from another international law firm. He holds a degree in law and economics and is a regular lecturer at the Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Law.

Balázs Sepsey, Budapest: Balázs is an expert in the Energy sector with a sold client portfolio and over 12 years of experience working on a wide range of energy law matters. He has been actively involved in a number of significant deals, including large- scale energy M&A, mining and petrochemicals, renewable and conventional power plant development projects, long-term supply agreements, EPC contracts, EU law energy regulatory work, State aid and energy efficiency matters.

He has been with the current team since 2005, when he joined Linklaters as a Junior Associate. He holds a degree in law from Pázmány Péter University in Budapest, a diploma in International Commercial Arbitration and Dispute Resolution from Humboldt University in Berlin,, and a diploma in Advanced European Legal Practice from the Central European University, Budapest.

Mykyta Nota, Kyiv: Mykyta Nota has 10 years of broad and in-depth experience advising and representing Ukrainian and international clients active in various sectors, including agriculture, FMCG, industrials, real estate, telecommunications and tobacco. Though his primary focus is dispute resolution, Mykyta is building a solid reputation as a competition lawyer. In the course of the past year Mykyta has been responsible for handling over 20 high-profile matters in the competition/antitrust area for major international companies.

Mykyta also specialises in international arbitration and cross-border litigation and regularly acts for clients in multimillion disputes. In 2016 Mykyta graduated from the ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy for Central and Eastern Europe and earned distinguished recognition as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb).

Mykyta joined Kinstellar in 2016 as a Managing Associate. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Law from The Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University.

Svilen Issaev, Sofia: Svilen is the head of the Banking and Finance practice in Sofia and has more than 13 years of experience practicing law in Bulgaria. His expertise covers a wide spectrum of finance and investment issues such as: acquisition, project, real estate and aircraft financing; investment structuring; debt restructuring; establishment and enforcement of security; insolvency proceedings; capital market transactions and regulations; banks and financial institutions licensing.

With an impressive track record, Svilen has handled a number of complex financing transactions acting for both lenders and borrowers and advising them on various cross-border and domestic lending and restructuring matters. He led the team that advised on the largest acquisition of an unsecured consumer loans portfolio in Bulgaria in recent years and had a leading role in the banking aspect of several landmark deals, such as KBC’s acquisition of UBB and Interlease in Bulgaria from National Bank of Greece (the largest M&A transaction in the financial services sector in Bulgaria) and the largest corporate refinancing on the Bulgarian market for the last few years and a CEE benchmark transaction (advising OTP Bank, DSK Bank and Eurobank Bulgaria on their EUR 133 million senior loan to Business Park Sofia).

Svilen has built an enviable reputation on the Bulgarian market and has become the “go-to-person” for clients and international referral law firms in the banking sector.

Svilen joined Kinstellar in 2014 with the launch of the Sofia office. He graduated from University St Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Faculty of Law and has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the same university.

Jason Mogg, Firm Managing Partner, comments: ‘’We are indeed fortunate and proud to have such talented and bright professionals on our team. These promotions underline our on-going commitment to providing our clients with the highest level of service. On behalf of the Partners and the entire firm, I warmly congratulate them! We look forward to seeing their continuing contributions in the years to come.’’

For further information please contact Adela Ene at +40 21 307 1639 /  .