Ellex in Lithuania is reinforced with three new partners
On 1 January, the firm‘s three long-standing lawyers Rūta Armonė, Miglė Petkevičienė and Dovilė Stančikaitė became its new partners. This change is the result of an unprecedented growth of the firm last year, which, among other things, revealed the prevailing legal trend – a significant increase in M&A transactions and investments in start-ups, as well as real estate, data protection, and ESG projects. These are the areas in which our clients are represented by the new partners.
Focus on prevailing legal trends
According to Rolandas Valiūnas, managing partner at Ellex Valiunas, the competence of these lawyers is well known and highly commended in the market:
Professional career for lawyers, especially those working in top-tier law firms, is an obvious aspiration and goal. Of course, this goal would be unattainable without hard and successful work. Ellex, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its presence in the market this year, has always grown and fostered lawyers whose prospects of becoming partners are perceived very early. R. Armonė, M. Petkevičienė and D. Stančikaitė are role models to all of us in the firm and to the whole community of lawyers. I am genuinely delighted to see the team of Ellex partners reinforced with these professionals, whose areas of expertise already are and will inevitably be prevailing in the modern legal services market in the future.
Furthermore, enhanced involvement of women in the firm’s governance strengthens the growing international trend of women lawyers leadership – women currently make up 40% of Ellex Valiunas’ partners.
Rūta Armonė, who has been with the firm for ten years now, is a co-head of corporate and M&A practice, and in recent years has been working mainly on M&A, start-ups, and capital market projects. Moreover, she acts actively in the development of the venture capital and start-up ecosystem.
Miglė Petkevičienė is a data protection law expert who started her career at Ellex Valiunas 14 years ago. She has made a significant contribution to the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation in Lithuania by advising businesses and organizations. Data protection and other legal competencies of the lawyer mainly span technologies and digital products law issues, as well as the implementation of ESG projects.
Dovilė Stančikaitė, who has 20 years of legal experience and has been a member of the Ellex Valiunas team for 15 years already, is a real estate lawyer and one of the best-known legal advisors in complex commercial real estate lease transactions, highly commended not only for her professional expertise and excellent project management skills, but also for her active involvement and go-ahead spirit. She has represented clients in the market’s most prominent commercial real estate leasing projects, including the lease of the S7 building complex, SEB headquarters and SEB Group service centre headquarters, the Girteka Park lease deal, etc.
Reaffirmed leadership position in the market
Currently, the firm has 23 partners and, according to R. Valiūnas, the growth tendency remains positive: “Over the past year, the number of lawyers in the firm has increased, so today we have 110 lawyers and, with administrative staff, a total of 162 employees. Undoubtedly, this almost unprecedented expansion was caused by the abundance of projects and the confidence of clients, which we need to justify by providing the highest possible competencies and expertise in the Baltic market. Thus, we continue to invest in the recruitment and retention of the best lawyers: we strive to be competitive in terms of salaries, we finance studies abroad, as well as business management studies for lawyers in leading positions. Ellex has also invested in new IT systems to increase cyber security for customers` data and has pursued various sustainability and environmental initiatives. We sincerely believe that these investments will pay off for our customers through even higher quality services”
Last year, Ellex reaffirmed its excellence many times: the prestigious law magazine The Lawyer recently announced Ellex as the Baltic Law Firm of the Year, the same rating was given by Chambers and Partners and Who’s Who Legal. According to Prospera Tier 1 Law Firm Review, an independent annual survey of clients, Ellex Valiunas was ranked as the firm with the highest legal competencies in Lithuania last year. In addition, Ellex’s women leadership was recognized by announcing the firm as the Baltic Law Firm of the Year at the Women in Business Law Awards 2021.
Mr. Gruodis rotates to the management committee
After the New Year, we will also see changes in the internal governance structures. Ellex Valiunas manages the firm according to the new model – two more partners work on a rotating basis together with the managing partner in the management committee on various governance issues. This year Ramūnas Petravičius will be replaced in the committee by partner Paulius Gruodis, who will be responsible for marketing issues. Meanwhile, R. Petravičius and R. Armonė will co-lead the corporate and M&A practice.
In 2022, responsibilities in the firm’s management committee will be shared by partners Rolandas Valiūnas, Dovilė Greblikienė and Paulius Gruodis.
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Ellex Valiunas is part of Ellex, a group of leading law firms in the Baltics, which unites a total of 45 partners and a total of over 250 lawyers and business support staff in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. With 110 lawyers and 52 business support staff, Ellex Valiunas is the largest law firm in Lithuania.
