Recommendations for GESSEL

Leszek Koziorowski, a partner in GESSEL, has topped this year’s legal services recommendations list of the Rzeczpospolita daily. He was ranked as the best legal advisor for preparation of companies for initial public offerings, equity markets, and securities law. Beata Gesse l, our firm’s managing partner, was ranked as the third best legal advisor in the area of mergers and acquisitions. GESSEL as a whole, meanwhile, was ranked the third best law firm in Poland with respect to mergers and acquisitions, privatisation, and restructuring.

For purposes of the Rzeczpospolita ranking, GESSEL was subjected to the informed, yet demanding scrutiny of the legal community itself, which recognises our expertise in the equity markets and in M&A transactions. Rzeczpospolita’s editors base their recommendations on the results of questionnaires distributed among law firms practicing in Poland.

In the previous edition of the Rzeczpospolita ranking published in 2006, GESSEL ranked first in the area “preparation of initial public offerings / equity markets and securities” and fourth in “mergers and acquisitions / privatisation / restructuring”. In 2005, Leszek Koziorowski was also ranked as the best advisor to companies preparing to list their shares on the Warsaw Securities Exchange.

It might be recalled in this context that, since its inception, GESSEL has advised on more than 160 M&A transactions, including 70 private equity / venture capital transactions. Our securities lawyers have worked on several dozen securities issues with an aggregate value in excess of PLN 10 billion. GESSEL carries on constant analysis of the prevailing tendencies and the legal environment for the M&A market in Poland (private as well as public) and follows current developments in the M&A market at European level. In 2006, we advised on merger and acquisition transactions of an aggregate value exceeding PLN 2 billion, with the average value of each M&A transaction involving GESSEL’s lawyers oscillating around PLN 150 million.