Financing legal disputes in the CEE in the middle of global challenges

Date: 7 December 2022, Wednesday

Time: 9.30 - 15.00

Venue: KPMG office, 1134 Budapest, Váci út 31.

The language of the event will be English. 

The event is accredited by the Hungarian Bar Association. Participation is worth 3 credit points. Registration number: NY002434/2022

We will explore the very nature of third party funding in the current age, the developments in the field and the possible solutions to some of the most pressing issues, with special focus on commercial arbitration. Our interactive panel discussions, featuring arbitration and third party funding experts, will share their experiences on what makes a good third party funding agreement, and discuss the current regulatory framework and the foreseeable changes of the field.

Additionally, we will examine new areas such as funding defendants and insolvency cases which is slowly becoming a burning issue for many industries facing radical shifts as a result of global changes.

9:30 – 10:00: Arrival, registration

10:00 – 10:05: Welcome speech

10.05 - 10.35: Presentation - Getting up to speed with third party funding – litigation finance in a nutshell 

• Alice Fremuth-Wolf, Head of Austria & the CEE, Nivalion

10.35 - 11.10: Panel discussion

Participants:

• Vlad Peligrad, Partner at KPMG Legal – Toncescu si Asociatii SPARL and Head of Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice
• Boris Baklaja, Partner, BIT law office (Serbia)

Moderator:

• Alice Fremuth-Wolf, Head of Austria & the CEE, Nivalion

Issues to be discussed:

• The legal qualification of third party funding agreements
• Special rules, laws, prohibitions on third party funding
• Different types of funding

11.10 - 11.20: Coffee break

11.20 - 11.40: Presentation - Legal aspects of third-party funding in international arbitration

• Markus Petsche, Associate Professor, Department of Legal Studies, CEU; Of Counsel, petsche pollak

11.40 - 12.00: Presentation - Future opportunities of third party funding at the Court of Arbitration operated by the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, issues relevant to arbitration in Hungary, conflicts of interest

• János Burai-Kovács, President of the Permanent Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

12.00 - 12.40: Panel discussion

Participants:

• Niamh Leinwather, Secretary General, Vienna International Arbitral Centre
• Laurent Niddam, Of Counsel, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm
• János Burai-Kovács, President of the Permanent Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Markus Petsche, Associate Professor, Department of Legal Studies, CEU, Of Counsel, petsche pollak

Moderator:

• Manuela Grosu, Managing Associate, Attorney at Law, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Issues to be discussed:

• The framework of third party funding in the CEE region: what does the future hold?
• Third party funding: funder’s and practitioner’s perspectives
• Scope of the disclosure obligation - Does the whole funding agreement have to be disclosed? 

12.40 - 12.50: Coffee break

12.50 - 13.20: Presentation – Defence-side funding and regulatory considerations

• Bálint Tóásó, Managing Partner, Head of Legal Services, Attorney at Law, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

13.20 - 13.50: Panel discussion

Participants:

• Alice Fremuth-Wolf, Head of Austria & the CEE, Nivalion
• Dragan Psodorov, Senior Partner at Joksovic, Stojanovic & Partners Law Office
• Gergő Szalai-Bordás, Senior Associate, Attorney At Law, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Moderator:

• Bálint Tóásó, Managing Partner, Head of Legal Services, Attorney at Law, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Issues to be discussed:

• Funding defendants: How could it work?
• Funding in insolvency proceedings 

13.50 - 13.55: Closing marks

14.00 - 15.00: Networking, lunch

Partner, BIT law office (Serbia)

President of the Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Boris is a highly skilled commercial and arbitration lawyer with 20 years of professional experience in Serbia and throughout the region. He acted as arbitrator and has represented clients in international arbitration proceedings in areas of construction and engineering, IT, international trade and services, under VIAC rules, ICC rules, UNCITRAL rules, BAC rules, Rules of the Permanent Court of Arbitration of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and rules of Arbitration Court of the Serbian Football Association. Boris was ranked as a "leading individual" for dispute resolution area in the Legal 500 edition for 2021 as well as “Arbitration Future leader – Partner” in WWL edition for 2022.

Dr. János Burai-Kovács is a Hungarian attorney admitted to the Budapest Bar Association and senior partner of the BPSS Attorneys at Law (Budapest, Hungary). Dr. Burai-Kovács is the President of the Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He specializes in litigation and arbitration international and commercial law.

Head of Austria & the CEE, Nivalion

Managing Associate, Attorney at Law - KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Alice Fremuth-Wolf is Market Head of Austria & the CEE region at Nivalion. Before joining Nivalion, Alice was Secretary General of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC) for 10 years. She is a lecturer for arbitration at the Institute of Civil Procedure Law at the Law Faculty of Vienna University, and frequently acts as guest lecturer, and has authored numerous articles and books on arbitration and ADR.

Manuela joined KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm as an Attorney at Law in 2017. Her practice focuses on corporate, commercial law and commercial arbitration. She is a visiting lecturer at ELTE University, Faculty of Law at the Department of International Private Law and European Economic Law. She has a PhD in law, her doctoral thesis focused on combination of arbitration with mediation in resolving commercial disputes. She was a visiting researcher at Cardozo School of Law (New York), Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution. She has also obtained an LL.M. degree in US and Global Business Law for International Business Lawyers from Suffolk University (Boston). 

Secretary General, Vienna International Arbitral Centre

FCIArb, Of Counsel, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Since 1 January 2022, Niamh Leinwather has taken office as the new Secretary General of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC). Of Irish origin, Niamh has both a common and civil law background (Bachelor of Civil Law, University College Dublin, Mag.iur., University of Vienna, Master of European Studies, University of Vienna). She was the first Irish woman to be admitted to the Austrian Bar in 2013 and has over a decade of experience in international dispute resolution at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Vienna where she acted as both counsel and arbitrator.

Laurent Niddam is supporting KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm as Special Counsel from 2022 October to further strengthen our litigation and arbitration team. He is a well-respected and recognized dual qualified dispute resolution expert, advisor, and arbitrator. He has been regularly lecturing on international arbitration, investment protection, international commercial law and the law of international contracts. 

Partner at KPMG Legal – Toncescu si Asociatii SPARL and Head of Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice

Associate Professor, Department of Legal Studies, CEU; Of Counsel, petsche pollak

Vlad is an arbitrator of the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania and he is a member of the administrative council and arbitrator of BIAC – Bucharest International Arbitration Court. He has over 20 years of experience in legal services, with a strong focus on litigation and arbitration, insolvency procedures, fraud investigations and crisis management. Vlad assisted clients in various domestic and international arbitration cases under various rules of arbitration (including ICC, VIAC and LCIA). He has an LL.M. with the Law School of the George Washington University, Washington DC and a Ph.D in law. He has lectured extensively on corporate law and commercial law at the Law School of the University of Bucharest and usually publishes articles in law reviews, including on arbitration topics. 

Markus Petsche is an Associate Professor at the Department of Legal Studies of Central European University (Vienna) where he teaches International Commercial Arbitration, International Investment Law, Private International Law, and Mediation. He is Of Counsel at petsche pollak (Vienna), focusing on complex international commercial disputes. His scholarly work, cited extensively in the relevant literature, has notably been referred to by the Supreme Court of Oregon and relied upon in litigation before the US Supreme Court. Prior to embarking on an academic career, Markus Petsche served as a deputy counsel at the Secretariat of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and practiced international arbitration with Gide Loyrette Nouel (both in Paris). Markus Petsche regularly serves as arbitrator and mediator in international business disputes.

Senior Partner at Joksovic, Stojanovic & Partners Law Office

Senior Associate, Attorney At Law, KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Dragan, a senior partner at Joksovic, Stojanovic & Partners Law, is a highly experienced arbitration practitioner from Serbia with 19 years of experience. He represented clients in numerous arbitration cases related to the ICC, DAB, CAS, LMAA, Permanent Arbitration at Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, Belgrade Arbitration Center and the Montenegrin Court of Arbitration. He acted as arbitrator in high profile cases and is listed as arbitrator at the VIAC; Permanent Arbitration of the Serbian Chamber of Trade and Commerce; Asian International Arbitration Centre; Ljubljana Arbitration Centre of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia; Arbitral Court attached to the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce; European Centre for Dispute Resolution, Ljubljana, Slovenia and at the Panel of Arbitrators of the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, China. He is also included in the 2022 list of Who’s Who Legal in the category of “Arbitration Future Leaders – Partners”.

Gergő is heading the banking and financial regulatory practice at KPMG Legal Hungary. He is working at KPMG Legal since 2016. He is qualified in Hungary as an Attorney at Law. He is advising International and Hungarian financial institutions on a wide range of regulatory matters, assisting them with their operation. He is also responsible for M&A transactions concerning financial institutions.

Managing Partner, Head of Legal Services, Attorney at Law - KPMG Legal Tóásó Law Firm

Bálint is the head of legal services at KPMG Hungary since 2016. He is qualified in Hungary as an Attorney at Law since 2009, he equally holds a degree in economics and management and also obtained a business law LLM degree at the University of Vienna. His main focus areas are M&A, dispute resolution, privacy and regulatory. Bálint has overseen a great number of M&A and restructuring transactions and directed big ticket compliance and regulatory projects. He is regularly advising clients on full-scale GDPR preparation and compliance projects. He has strong exposure to Legal Tech and AI regulatory issues as well.