Lakatos, Köves and Partners

Achieving business success in highly regulated and sometimes potentially sensitive markets requires effective management of commercial risks and relationships.

Our enterprise-wide approach to corporate governance and corporate risk management helps boards to navigate an increasingly complex risk landscape including competition & antitrust, tax, employment, data security, sectoral regulatory and compliance and investment risk management, via our sound and complex understanding of the Hungarian political, regulatory and legal environment. Prevention is a first priority; we review the planned actions and business strategies of our clients in advance with regard to compliance. We often give trainings and simulated education as well as due diligence review of our clients’ practices and help them to handle the issues identified. Should there be a crisis, we are well placed to represent our clients’ interest before the relevant authorities and towards third parties.

We are the Hungarian law firm to turn to for investment protection advice. Local government policies may affect our clients' business, therefore, our Investment Protection practice was set up to meet the increasing need for legal protection of foreign investments in Hungary. We have developed a world-class cross-practice approach to the - often complex and sensitive - area of investment protection.

We understand that in today’s business arena, intellectual property plays a key role in obtaining a competitive advantage. Intellectual property is creating and influencing transactions, and is viewed as a key target asset to be exploited. IP assets have been behind the success - and indeed challenges - of a number of recent large deals.

We assist our clients on the full spectrum of IP law including trademarks, copyright, domains, designs and patents. We help them handle licensing, know-how protection and technology transfer agreements, brand protection, registrations, oppositions, injunctions and criminal measures. We handle IP litigation and dispute resolution and IP related competition matters, with strong trial and representative capability in infringement cases. We successfully represented several multinational groups in their fight against the discriminative application of private copy levies to multifunctional mobile devices throughout the European Union and reached landmark decisions in these matters.

In an increasingly active Hungarian property market, we have advised our clients on the largest and most complex cross-border property portfolio sales and acquisitions across the region. Shared offices, smart buildings, property management with renewable energy and green future are among our priorities.

Our market leading real estate team is top ranked by all legal directories and acknowledged by several awards from Europa Property and CIJ Europe as the "Law Firm of the Year" between 2016 and 2023. Acting for the real estate industry's leading players, we advise on the full range of real estate related transactions. We cover all aspects of real estate law and all stages in the real estate transaction cycle from acquisition and structuring, through construction and development to asset and property management, including tax advice related to the transactions. We have been the exclusive law firm of the main exhibitors of the Budapest stand at the Expo Real Exhibitions in Munich, in Europe's largest real estate trade fair since years now.

A global economy, diverging legal systems and increased cooperation amongst regulators presents companies with a wide array of legal challenges. Recent reform of the civil procedural law in Hungary requires increasing professionalism and tactical thinking.

With two of our founding partners being renowned and formidable trial lawyers, we are uniquely positioned to advise on problematic issues and represent our clients in domestic and cross-border litigation, international arbitration and investigations. We have represented our clients before the main Hungarian and European courts, including the Constitutional Court of Hungary, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. We have considerable experience before international arbitration courts, such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Some of our litigation lawyers are widely acknowledged arbitrators.

Employers face a skilled work force shortage and a need to keep up with the rapid changes in innovative sectors. Business operations often need flexible solutions such as cross-border employment, taking the specific local regulations into account.

We advise clients across jurisdictions in relation to employment and executive contracts, pension schemes, employee benefit programs, employment disputes, employment aspects of M&A transactions, works council and trade union relations. We have extensive experience in managing mass redundancy schemes, staff-restructuring and extraordinary dismissals. Our Employment practice is supported by our Corporate, Tax and Dispute Resolution teams.