Bihary Balassa & Partners Attorneys at Law

Established in 2002, Bihary, Balassa Attorneys at Law is a boutique commercial law firm a small, efficient team and premium clientele.

We provide legal services to a wide range of Hungarian and international clients in the entire field of business law. We advise multi-national clients, financial institutions and small and medium sized companies.

Our team consists of our two name partners Tibor Bihary and Agnes Balassa, and a number associates, trainee lawyers and a well-prepared administrative team. Our partners specialise in distinct areas of commercial law and have a good command of at least two foreign languages. Together they cover the core areas of commercial law, namely corporate law, banking and finance, dispute resolution, competition law, as well as real estate and labour law. This enables us to provide a seamless service to our sophisticated corporate clients, whatever legal or commercial issue they encounter.

We have experience advising on large M&A transactions throughout the entire transaction process, both on the legal, due diligence and drafting aspects as well as on project management aspects of a major transaction. We also provide corporate legal services for almost all of our clients, from company incorporations and modifications to more complex restructurings (mergers, de-mergers).

We have acted for Hungarian and foreign banks and financial institutions for years in the field of banking and finance. Before the financial crisis, our main focus was on real estate project financing, but we also provided legal counsel to financial leasing companies in real estate leasing both on retainer and on an ad-hoc basis. More recently we have been advising on project finance restructurings, work-out tasks in connection with the validation of collateral and we handle on-going real estate projects as well.

Our dispute resolution experience is wide-ranging; we regularly represent our clients before international arbitration courts as well as domestic courts. We have experience at all levels of the Hungarian judicial system, up to the Supreme Court. Through our international partnerships, we are also able to assist in representation before foreign courts. We do, however also understand that litigation or arbitration are often not the best way to resolve a dispute between sophisticated commercial entities. We regard the courts as a last resort and aim to resolve our clients’ commercial disputes via negotiation or mediation whenever possible and appropriate.

We also represent a number of real property developers, asset management and property holding companies. Our team has experience not only in the commercial aspects of property financing but also in every legal aspect in connection with real property projects. We have been handling the Hungarian real estate portfolio of one of the biggest real estate development and asset management corporations in Central-Eastern Europe for more than 15 years, but we also handle the everyday matters of smaller property development and asset management companies.

We frequently advise our clients in the field of labour law (mostly on the employer’s side), we handle questions arising from the termination of employment and work contracts, we assist in labour regulatory work, provide legal counsel in collective contracts and we act in legal disputes in the field of labour law.

We have wide-ranging experience in the field of both Hungarian and EU competition law, and represent our clients in the merger control application process with the relevant Competition Authority, we assist in cartel proceedings in front of the Competition Authority and the courts.

Besides working with our clients in Hungarian and English, we regard it as self-evident to communicate with our German-speaking clients in their mother tongue.

We are in partnership with the Trans European Law Firms Alliance (TELFA), which allows us to work seamlessly across borders with our colleagues in almost all European jurisdictions and handle transactions and disputes involving multiple jurisdictions with ease.

Using our broad range of expertise and experience, we provide bespoke, high-quality, business-oriented legal advice to our clients by understanding their business.

• Banking and Financial Services
• Business Transactions/Mergers and Acquisitions
• Commercial and Business Contracts
• Construction Law
• IP and Technology
• International Business and trade
• Labor and Employment
• Media and Communications
• Product Liability
• Public Utilities and Administrative
• Real Estate
• Retail and Hospitality Law
• Telecommunications