Our Values

Moral integrity represents the alignment between one’s thoughts, words, and actions. It allows you to truly pursue the other values and is thus fundamental to them. It often comes at a cost as sticking to our values means that from time to time, we must refuse certain opportunities that could bring us an immediate profit or advantage. Moral integrity is a sine qua non condition for earning the trust of other people and thus becoming trustworthy. The opposite of moral integrity is opportunism.

There is no question that moral integrity is much more difficult to achieve without independence. Independence allows us to define our own values and goals as well as the means to achieve them. It is a longstanding commitment of Firm shareholders to ensure that they remain the ultimate beneficiary owners of Firm as individual attorneys practicing law within Firm. We consider these to be the key elements necessary for our true independence. As with any clients, although we are happy to work with them, Firm neither enters into nor maintains any special relations with states, local governments, municipalities, state-owned enterprises, political parties, lobbyists or other influence groups. No client may gain influence over our decision making. Everybody within Firm is also supposed to pursue independence in their day-to-day contact with clients, authorities, peers, suppliers or others. We avoid being morally indebted to anyone. We accept no gifts or favors that might result in such indebtedness. When socializing we need to keep a professional distance from our clients in order to be able to act duly as their professional advisors in the future. Firm is also financially independent. We have no bank or other external loans. All funds necessary to build our foreign infrastructure were provided by Firm shareholders.

The very nature of our business is to protect and advance the lawful and legitimate interests of our clients. Loyalty means that we exercise our utmost effort in order to achieve that and, at the same time, we do not betray their trust and confidence. Loyalty plays a special role when we handle our client’s confidential information. However, loyalty cannot be put above other ethical principles. It cannot serve as a justification of their breach and it should not affect our independent professional judgment.

Accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of one’s responsibility for his or her actions and decisions within the scope of an office or an employment position. When working for a client it is natural that the client may ask us to report, explain and, in general, be answerable for any and all consequences of our actions. We must be able to duly respond to such client’s request at any time. We must also keep sufficient evidence to support our answer. This applies both to the legal and business side of our work and especially when it comes to calculating fees and invoicing. In the event that we are delayed or make a mistake, we face such a situation and do not hide from the consequences.

We comply with the effective laws and regulations in all concerned jurisdictions, including in particular the rules of professional conduct imposed upon attorneys. When in doubt in regards to the applicable set of rules or the concerned jurisdictions we try to comply with both (all), if possible. We also comply with our own internal regulations and codes as well as with any standards that we have voluntarily adopted. The foregoing notwithstanding, we do not automatically adopt either the official or the most common interpretation of the laws and regulations in question. Being legal professionals, we can and we should make our own independent opinion when in doubt.

Our goal is to deliver what we promised to the clients duly and on time. We should always provide a certain added value on top of mere answers. Our clients are interested in solutions and ideas, not legal textbooks. Therefore, we must also understand how the client’s business works. We pursue excellence through continuous learning as well as teamwork. Conferring with colleagues is natural and beneficial for us as well as the client. We challenge assumptions and pursue the facts in order to understand the true nature of the case. We are always well prepared in advance to duly fulfill our tasks. We do care. If we lack information or instruction, we ask for it. We remind clients, if necessary. We propose solutions even if the client is passive or does not explicitly ask for it.

We develop fair and healthy relations with our clients, suppliers, peers, and employees. We do not deliberately mislead or deceive them by misrepresentations, overstatements, partial truths or selective omissions in order to gain a certain advantage. Nevertheless, in case of dispute or in court it is our role to protect our client’s interests and to provide only such statements and to submit only such evidence that supports our client’s case. We must therefore strictly differentiate between when we act on our own behalf and when we present the case on behalf of our client. We pay fair remuneration to our suppliers and employees and we expect the same from our clients. We invoice our fees in a fair and transparent manner and we are always prepared to duly justify the calculations.

We treat all people with equal respect and dignity regardless of their age, sex, culture, race, nationality, religion or sexual orientation. We demonstrate our respect for human dignity, autonomy, and privacy. When hiring new team members we treat all candidates similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices, except when particular distinctions are necessary and justified. We respect all fundamental rights of our team members including the freedom of speech and other political rights. We do however expect that everybody will present his or her opinions in a way that there will be no doubt whether or not such opinions represent an official stance of Firm.

We behave like a responsible corporate citizen. Among others, we do care about human rights, handicapped individuals, environmental issues and peace among nations. We speak up when it is necessary.