Jury Awards

Name of company

Baker McKenzie Krzyżowski i Wspólnicy

Department head or senior representative in Poland, real estate

Weronika Guerquin-Koryzma, Partner and head of the Warsaw Real Estate Practice of Baker McKenzie

Department head or senior representative profile

Weronika Guerquin-Koryzma advises investors, developers, funds and financial institutions on real estate transactions in the office, logistics, retail, hotel and PRS sectors in Poland and CEE, in the field of acquisitions, real estate M&A transactions, joint ventures, sale and lease back transactions, consultancy in the development process and in the commercialization of the projects. She has been recommended by Chambers Europe and ranked as Leading Individual in Real Estate by Legal 500 EMEA.

Team description including the major achievements

Baker McKenzie’s Polish Real Estate practice consists of 1 partner, 1 counsel, 3 senior associates, 2 associates and 4 lawyers, 2 tax advisors (partner and counsel) and 1 tax associate.
In the period of the continuing slowdown in the market, the team was involved in servicing clients operating in the logistics, retail and living sector. The team's lawyers were also involved in providing legal services to the firm's corporate network clients in the field of office space lease agreements in Warsaw and regional cities.
Based on our unique experience in the realization of a range of major and often pioneering transactions and projects connected with market entry of international corporations setting up their production facilities in Poland, as well as R&D and data centers, last year we have been advising Intel in selecting a location to build a factory in Poland.

Key current clients

6B47, 7R, Acciona Nieruchomości, Acteum, AEREF, BAT DBS Poland, BentallGreenOak, Biogen Poland, CPI, DWS, Echo Investment, Enterprise Investors, Equilis, Generali Real Estate, Globalworth, Google Poland, Griffin Real Estate, Insite Real Estate, Maple Tree Investment Fund, MWP Group, Panattoni, Skanska Property Poland, Students Depot, Trigea, Webber, Whitestone Development, VRE Group, VRP.

Participation in property sales and acquisitions between July 2022 and June 2023

Acciona Nieruchomości on the acquisition of a real properties located in Warsaw
InSite Real Estate, LLC, on the sale of R&D centre in Kraków’s Balice district to REICO ČS Long Lease
VRE Group on sale of logistics park located in Goleniów to Macquarie Asset Management
Acteeum on the sale of a retail centre located in Andrychów to BIG Shopping Centres
Globalworth on the tax aspects of the sale of the Warta Tower office building to Cornerstone Investment Management
Trigea nemovitostní fond on the tax aspects of the acquisition of City Logistics Wrocław II and Panattoni Tricity North in Gdynia from Panattoni
DWS on the tax aspects of the sale of the Kopernik Office Buildings French FLE
DWS on tax matters related to the acquisition of the 7R Park Poznań East II
Echo Investment on the tax aspects of the sale of the Moje Miejsce II to Trigea
Echo Investment on the tax aspects of the sale of the Face2Face Business Campus to Investika and Bud Holdings

Total value of the transactions on which your company advised between July 2022 and June 2023 (in EUR)

ca EUR 900M.

Please say why the compamy should be considered for the award

After undergoing major changes in 2021, gaining new leader, changing the profile and expanding the team - despite difficult market conditions the real estate team remains stable. We appreciate the commitment and increase in competences of our team members - in 2023, two associates were promoted to the positions of counsel and senior associate.
We focus on transactional matters, but still retain full capabilities in asset management work, which is an important part of our expertise.
Our advantage is that we work closely with one of the best tax practices in the market, as well as a strong banking and capital markets practice (following recent enhancements).
We are repeatedly ranked by the most prestigious legal publications such as Chambers Europe and Legal 500 EMEA.
We largely support charity initiatives organized by the real estate sector and are actively involved in operations of organizations supporting commercial real estate sectors.

Company website

https://www.bakermckenzie.com/pl/locations/emea/poland