The Szecskay Law Firm is an independent, leading Hungarian law firm. Our goal is to be our clients' long-term, reliable legal advisors, thereby helping them to focus on the growth of their business activities.
The firm provides its services to its clientele of multinational and local companies, large and medium-sized companies, and startups covering the entire spectrum of industry, trade and services in all areas of economic law.
Legal advice for green field, commercial and residential real estate development
Our real estate development and real estate management practice is one of the most important main areas of expertise of the office. We regularly provide legal advice to foreign, multinational and domestic companies regarding complex real estate sales, real estate developments and greenfield investments.
Transaction consulting
Based on our experience covering the entire spectrum of development projects, the completion of orders usually includes due diligence of the property prior to the sale and purchase, the investigation of the property's real estate registration status and chain of ownership, as well as the examination of the relevant regulatory plans and environmental protection status, in addition to this, we prepare the sales contracts and, depending on the given project, planning and construction business contracts, as well as rental contracts.
Legal dispute settlement
Our office is traditionally known for the cooperative skills and ability to effectively promote the successful conduct of negotiations between the parties (developers, local governments, other authorities, service providers – planners/main contractors and business partners) in tense situations, thus making a significant contribution to the appropriate implementation of development projects. preparation and timely implementation.
Regardless of this, if necessary, we represent our clients before both the regular court and the arbitration court in cooperation with our experienced litigation team in order to resolve legal disputes that cannot be settled in any other way.
We constantly advise our clients in optimizing the labor law framework of their domestic company in all labor law issues of human resource management. Hungary remains an attractive investment destination for foreigners, as the labor market is well-educated and competitive. Our office has extensive experience in all areas of labor law in advising both domestic companies and our foreign investor clients. In recognition of our commitment, our labor law team is consistently mentioned in the top positions by publications that rank lawyer services.
Extensive labor market and legal experience
Recognizing the significant, yet sensitive role of labor management, we are committed to providing proactive, efficient and up-to-date assistance in handling all labor law issues, including the following areas:
During the activities of the inspection authorities, priority is given to checking and enforcing compliance with consumer protection and advertising law rules. Therefore, we believe that businesses that sell and provide services to consumers need to mobilize significant resources to develop business models that ensure compliance in order to prevent very significant fines.
Brands and media platforms often require support in order to comply with the latest LGBTQ advertising regulations across all traditional and digital channels. We help our clients assess whether their advertising and commercial communications are in line with Hungarian legal requirements and restrictions.
Consumer protection consulting
Our consumer protection experts provide assistance in the following topics: compliance with consumer protection legislation (e.g. packaging, labeling, distribution, product safety, product conformity), data protection, consumer contracts, e-commerce, and advice and representation related to direct marketing.
Advice and education related to unfair commercial practices
We have considerable experience in advising and providing legal representation related to unfair commercial practices, including preliminary reviews of advertisements, as well as training in advertising law.
Representation and efficiency in legal disputes with authorities
We effectively represent our clients in legal disputes with authorities, related to compliance with advertising law. Our team regularly acts before various courts and successfully represents our clients during official proceedings, through alternative dispute resolution and self-regulatory bodies, as well as during Economic Competition Office and/or National Consumer Protection proceedings and official reviews.
Corporate transformation, merger, separation With the development and change of their business activities, our
corporate clients often turn to us in order to choose the necessary and optimal company structure transformation options from time to time, including corporate and tax law issues related to cross-border mergers.
In general, our clients use our legal services for (domestic and cross-border) company mergers and separations, as well as for the performance of legal duties and coordination of liquidation procedures. We also often support our clients in labor law and commercial law (termination of contracts) issues related to liquidation, and we also provide representation in official procedures.
Insolvency management, Bankruptcy
In some cases, we participate as legal advisors to debtors, and in other cases to banks and other creditors, in restructuring credit structures aimed at avoiding insolvency of debtors, as well as in bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings.
Debtor / Creditor Liquidation Representation
In complex insolvency proceedings, we usually represent larger domestic or foreign creditors, primarily banks, in negotiating and documenting transactions aimed at ensuring the recovery of difficult-to-enforce claims during negotiations with debtors, including cases where Hungarian debtors are subject to bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings starts, or in special cases, a debt settlement has taken place against the municipality.
Since the foundation of our office, the law of intellectual creations has been one of our defining areas of expertise. For 30 years, we have been helping businesses to protect, develop and commercially exploit their intellectual creations.
We are proud that the international legal community also recognizes our results and consistently ranks our office as a leading law firm in this field. Thus, for example, we are in the leading position in the Chambers Europe Guide, the IAM World's Leading Patent Practitioners publication, the World Trademark Review (WTR 1000 - The World's Leading Trademark Professionals), the IAM Patent 1000 and the Legal 500 publications.
Intellectual property strategy and development
Based on our professional knowledge and experience, we provide our clients with comprehensive legal advice on the most effective way to protect their intellectual property, taking into account the client's long-term business goals. We deal with all types of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, design and utility model rights, and copyright.
We have extensive experience in creating and maintaining trademark portfolios (national, EU and Madrid System). In the field of copyright, our team specializes in the protection and utilization of literary and musical works, software and databases, and in particular the review of usage and other related contracts.
Our clients include multinational companies and their Hungarian subsidiaries, larger domestic companies (including listed joint-stock companies), local small and medium-sized enterprises from the pharmaceutical industry to engineering and spirits production and beyond.
Dispute resolution related to intellectual works
In the course of our work, we strive to achieve a favorable result for our clients from a business point of view, either through a lawsuit or an out-of-court agreement. We are aware that litigation is often unavoidable, which is why our employees often represent companies before courts in patent and trademark infringement and copyright infringement lawsuits.
We have special knowledge in patent lawsuits related to the pharmaceutical industry and those requiring technical knowledge, and we have gained litigation experience in trademark litigation in a wide range of industries.
Corporate Law / Joint Ventures
The corporate law team of the Szecskay Law Firm covers the entire range of corporate law services; our clients range from international or local listed companies to small and medium-sized enterprises with foreign parent companies or cross-border activities.
We carefully advise our clients in planning and operating the appropriate corporate governance structure. We often assist in the planning and coordination of the ownership and management structure of joint ventures and their recording in syndicate contracts. We help our clients defend against takeovers by hostile companies by developing control rules for many ownership decisions and provisions in company contracts and through additional internal rules.
Company takeovers
One of our most important areas of expertise is advising on company takeovers in the sale and purchase of company shares, branches of business, and assets. We participate in all phases of domestic and cross-border transactions, from structuring through the due diligence stage, through the preparation and negotiation of transaction documents, to the completion of the transaction and the closing, which includes the subsequent verification of the conditions of completion. Our assignment often includes the representation of our clients during the authorization/notification of competition law mergers necessary for the establishment of the deal or other official authorizations or notifications that result in a change in the right of control.
Our extensive experience in the field of company acquisitions is due to the fact that we often represent both the buyer, the seller, the target company, and professional and financial investors on the investor side. The deals in which we have participated cover essentially all sectors of the economy, starting from agriculture, through the production and service areas of industry, from traditional technology sectors to the most modern technologies.
One of the main specialties of our office is consulting and representation related to the settlement of legal disputes. We are proud that our activities are widely recognized and that our work is classified in the highest category by legal rankings. In the field of legal dispute resolution, we are available to our clients in the following areas of expertise:
Litigation
We represent our clients in a wide variety of civil, economic and administrative lawsuits. In particular, our professional activity covers the following: corporate litigation, breach of contract claims, compensation claims, lawsuits related to intellectual works, competition law and labor lawsuits, cartel compensation lawsuits, construction disputes, and judicial review of administrative decisions made in competition law, tax law and public procurement cases.
Arbitration cases
We represent our clients in Hungarian and international arbitration proceedings (especially ICC and UNCITRAL ad hoc arbitration proceedings). Our office has special expertise in international investment protection disputes and has acted in numerous ICSID arbitration proceedings. Several of the firm's lawyers are on the arbitrator recommendation list of the Commercial Arbitration Court operating under the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mediation and out-of-court settlements
While we are decisive in lawsuits, if our client's interests so desire, we also support the peaceful settlement of legal disputes. Several members of our office are registered mediators.
Litigation financing
We help our clients to find financing (third party funding) for the enforcement of their claims, and we also prepare risk analyzes for litigation financiers in cases to be financed under Hungarian law.
