Kozłowski Śmigielska & Partners provides advisory services relating to banking and finance. We offer our services first and foremost to financial institutions—banks, investment funds, investment fund societies, general retirement societies, and leasing companies. However, we also work for clients that are not financial institutions, providing them with advice on the financing of their commercial activities and individual transactions.
Our services to banks include:
- Assistance in the interpretation of banking law provisions and other legal provisions that affect bank operations, including the preparation of legal opinions related to them;
- The preparation of comprehensive documentation associated with the granting of loans as well as the introduction of other banking products into the market;
- The restructurisation of bank receivables as well as their collection;
- The reviewing and updating of client documentation for individual banking products, as well as internal bank regulations arising from changes in legal provisions or changes in their interpretation by the Supreme Court, the Polish Financial Supervisory Commission, or the Competition and Consumer Protection Office;
- The preparation and negotiation of documentation relating to the granting of loans of significant value or meaning;
- The organisation of outsourcing processes for bank services, as well as the evaluation of the legal risks associated with them;
- The drafting, evaluation, updating, and improvement of systems for securing receivables;
- The verification of bank receivables security systems used in foreign trade in respect to meeting the requirements imposed by supervisory authorities and concerning the ability to apply such methods in the Republic of Poland;
- Due diligence of debt portfolios for sale, legal analyses of the ability to apply securitisation to debt portfolios (i.e., the level of debt standardisation and quality in respect to security effectiveness and adequacy), and advice in the setting of standards related to documentation standards and the qualification of disputed issues;
- Legal advice related to the trading of securities and other financial instruments;
- Representation in proceedings before the Polish Financial Supervisory Commission and other authorities responsible for supervising the activities of financial institutions;
- The creation of branches of financial institutions; and
- Representation in court proceedings.
Our services for leasing companies include:
- Providing legal advice and preparing legal opinions on all issues related to leasing, including contractual rights and obligations of the parties, tax issues, and accounting issues;
- The verification and updating of leasing documents to ensure compliance with changes in law, rulings, and tax conditions;
- The preparation of legal opinions and reports concerning new leasing products; and
- Advice in disputes between the financing party and the user in respect to obligations arising from the lease relationship, as well as in cases of the user’s bankruptcy.
Kozłowski Śmigielska & Partners also provides services relating to the opening and operation of investment funds. In order to ensure comprehensive services in this respect, we cooperate with law offices providing legal advisory services in foreign jurisdictions. In this regard, we provide advisory services related to:
- Selecting the best legal form based on the planned investment profile of the fund, taking into account the customers of such a fund, the types of planned investments and the customers’ diversification, and principles related to the distribution of investment certificates within the territory of Poland;
- Representing clients in proceedings before Polish supervisory authorities responsible for the activities of foreign funds in Poland; and
- Providing legal advice concerning the operations of foreign investment houses in Poland.
With respect to clients that are not financial institutions, we provide legal counsel such as:
- Raising financing for operations, capital transactions, or projects related to real estate investments;
- Refinancing assets;
- Concluding loan agreements;
- Financial restructurisating and negotiating with financing parties; and
- Financing commercial activities related to foreign trade.