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Three new Of Counsel appointed at CMS Warsaw

02/02/2016

Zbigniew Kozłowski, advocate, Head of the Environmental Law team within the Energy and Projects department, Agnieszka Kuźma, advocate from the Real Estate and Construction Department, and Paweł Zalewski, legal counsel, leading the Renewable Energy team within the Energy and Projects department, were designated as Of Counsel in the CMS Warsaw office in January 2016.

The new appointments further confirm the strong position of CMS’ Energy team and CMS’ Real Estate team on the Polish market and strengthen the plans for further development of these practices in the coming years.

Zbigniew Kozlowski is an advocate heading the Environmental Law team. Zbigniew joined CMS in 2007. He advises on industrial emissions, trading in allowances for CO2 emissions, environmental impact assessments, waste management, water and wastewater management, permits for the use of the environment and environmental pollution.

At CMS he has provided comprehensive legal advice to ENEA Wytwarzanie in matters relating to a leakage of fuel oil from the Kozienice power plant, decisions on environmental conditions, integrated permits and authorisations to participate in the ETS. He has developed scenarios of conduct for several power plants belonging to the Veolia group, aimed at obtaining additional free allowances for CO2 emissions. He has advised ArcelorMittal Poland in relation to deviations from BAT conclusions. He took part in preparing the strategy of the implementation of the IED directive in a network of a power plant and a heat and power plant from a leading energy group. He has successfully represented Clients in a number of administrative and administrative judicial proceedings. He has also participated in projects related to the construction of new generating capacity in the Polish energy sector.

He has been described by Chambers & Partners analysts as a notable practitioner, ranked in Band 2. and is one of the winners of “Rising Stars Prawnicy – liderzy jutra 2015” (“Rising Stars Lawyers – Tomorrow’s Leaders 2015”), a competition organised by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Paweł Zalewski, the Head of the Renewable Energy team, specialises in providing legal advice to entities operating in the energy industry. He has advised on matters related to the prospecting and exploring of hydrocarbons, in particular in relation to regulatory and administrative issues in the context of obtaining the administrative decisions needed to conduct this type of activity. He has also prepared and negotiated M&A agreements for major wind energy projects. He has many years of experience in the provision of ongoing support in relation to wind power projects. Paweł joined CMS in 2009.

Agnieszka Kuźma is an advocate in the Real Estate and Construction department. She joined CMS in 2006. Agnieszka specialises in real estate and construction law. She advises Polish and foreign clients, primarily in relation to real estate sale, purchase and leaseback transactions. She also advises on obtaining financing and refinancing for real estate transactions and projects, prepares and negotiates contracts in construction and investment processes (contracts for design works, contracts for general contracting, development contracts), including those performed in the framework of joint ventures, negotiates commercial property leases and pre-let contracts for the performance of projects within the build-to-suit system. Agnieszka also drafts opinions on so-called restitution claims as part of comprehensive audits of the legal status of real estate. Her experience also includes advising on prestigious and complex real estate projects, including some of the highest-value real estate transactions in Poland such as a purchase of office facilities worth EUR 300m and foreign funds transactions worth EUR 150m.

For over ten years the CMS Energy team has been ranked in Band 1 by Chambers & Partners, the highest category for Energy & Natural Resources. Since 2012, when the “Environment” category was added, CMS has continued to be ranked in Band 1. CMS Warsaw’s position in the energy sector has also been confirmed by Legal 500, in which the firm ranked in Band 1 seven times in the past eight years. Chambers & Partners also recognised CMS as the best advisor for the energy sector in the whole CEE region, ranking it in Band 1 in the “Project & Energy” category.

The CMS Real Estate team ranks in Band 2, both according to Chambers & Partners and Legal 500. In 2014 CMS also received the Eurobuild “Law Firm of the Year” award.

Related people

Paweł Zalewski
Agnieszka Kuźma