Piotr Andrezjak
Partner at Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
WLG Key Contact Partner
New Co-Chair, WLG International Tax & Private Wealth Group
1. Briefly describe your practice.
I am a tax lawyer heading the indirect tax practice within the Tax and Private Clients Department of SK&S. My original practice focuses on indirect (mainly VAT, excise, and customs) advisory related to the trade of commodities and supply of services, including the structuring of efficient VAT models aimed at reducing tax leakage. I am also heavily involved in tax M&A structuring particularly for the renewable energy, real estate, and automotive sectors. I closely corporate with our M&A team on transaction structures and financing on inbound and outbound direct investments.
2. What is one relationship you've made through World Law Group that has been important to your practice?
I think there are several relationships equally important, although the first which crosses my mind is the first collaboration which happened the moment I became a WLG Key Contact Partner at SK&S. It was a substantial direct investment in Poland made by Compal Electronics and we were referred to the client by Formosa Transnational. This was one of my first professional contacts with Asian investors. I benefited from learning the style of work and collaboration expected by Asian market players. This matter has been a good platform for consecutive work streams gained from cooperating companies which were referred by Compal due to their satisfaction with our work. To a certain extent, it gave my career as tax partner at SK&S a significant boost.
3. As you prepare to take on a leadership role in WLG's International Tax & Private Wealth Group, what are your main goals for this group and what do you hope to gain from it?
SK&S has been a member of WLG for almost a decade. For obvious reasons, WLG has been a platform for transactional and other M&A types of collaboration. However the legal advisory industry is changing constantly. We see transactions becoming more sophisticated and involving not only transactional but also labor, regulatory, antimonopoly, and tax considerations. The tax angle is particularly important at the investment-planning phase where general tax environment, as well as specific industry relevant know-how, is required. We used to believe that tax lawyers plan the business and M&A lawyers implement the structure. In my view this is changing in the sense that tax both tax and corporate lawyers need to understand to a great extent the legal and tax framework in order to provide clients with adequate, tailor-made solutions. SK&S’ tax practice is fairly large as it employs approximately 15% of the total fee earners of the firm and it is growing. I believe this is driven by the aforementioned clients' preferences. Therefore, I am certain that the WLG International Tax & Private Wealth Group is a perfect platform for enhancing the exchange knowledge of market trends in the globalized economy. My goal as a co-chair of the group responsible for EMEA is to promote this type of collaboration between tax experts of WLG member firms as I believe this would give real added value to the classic M&A and corporate work we provide to our clients. Gaining this know-how allows us, in many cases, to alert clients on market trends and advise them in reshaping their businesses to meet these challenges. As Pillar 2 (minimal world tax) is “ante portas” I could not believe there is a better moment to revive the International Tax & Private Wealth Group community.
4. Have you had any recent client, marketing or other collaboration with a WLG member firm(s)? If so, please briefly tell us about that.
Quite recently we had an opportunity to initiate a collaboration between one of our conventional energy clients and Miller & Martin as the client is considering a direct investment in the mining sector in Alabama. Although this is in the initial phase of examination of investment opportunities by the client, we consider Miller & Martin to be a perfect match for this project. It is fairly typical in the Polish economy for outbound investment to be considered by a state-owned company as several national business champions have grown enough to initiate foreign expansion. This particularly relates to European jurisdictions, among them Germany and the Netherlands. However, we also advised a case where a Polish copper mining giant decided to engage in direct investment in Chile. As we believe within the coming years that such activity may grow, being a part of a worldwide legal network gives SK&S a chance to serve our clients not only for domestic operations, but as a trusted advisor channeling outbound expansion.