Directory Page Title
"I came to the practice of international law by seeking new opportunities in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Our clients needed us to apply American (and later Anglo-American) models of corporate and financial transactions to local circumstances as they restored their economies and developed modern laws and regulations.  The key to developing that kind of practice is to be open-minded but at the same time well-grounded in the very basic tools of the transactional lawyer – contracts, secured transactions, remedies, conflicts of laws, negotiation skills – all of which are core elements of a Marshall-Wythe legal education."

Stephen J. Horvath III (1984)

Partner/Shareholder, Mergers & Acquisitions Practice, Greenberg Traurig, London; Board of Trustees, Marshall-Wythe School of Law Foundation

About

Stephen Horvath is a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig and resident in the firm’s London office. His practice includes advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate and project finance, privatization, and commercial transactions. He has been responsible for several ground-breaking acquisition, finance, and privatization transactions in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

While at Marshall-Wythe, Steve was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif.  Following graduation, he clerked for Judge John D. Butzner, Jr. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.  He then spent many years at Hunton & Williams, relocating to Europe in 1996, and last served as managing partner of its London office.  Steve joined Dewey Ballantine in 2002, and continued as the head of European Mergers and Acquisitions at its successor Dewey & LeBoeuf until 2012. He remained at Dewey to wind down the firm in 2012-13.

A few of Steve’s many accomplishments include:

  • Advising Polish media entrepreneur Zygmunt Solorz-Żak on the $6.6 billion acquisition of Polkomtel, Poland's second-largest mobile network operator, and the intended indirect acquisition of Polkomtel by Cyfrowy Polsat, one of Poland’s leading private television broadcasters;
  •  Advising Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) on the acquisition of Polbank EFG, the Polish banking business branch of the Greek bank EFG Eurobank (EFG). The transaction required that Polbank be transformed from a branch of EFG Eurobank into a stand-alone bank under a novel branch-to-bank transformation; 
  • Advising Central European Distribution Corporation in acquisitions to expand its business in Russia and Central Europe as well as on financing and other aspects of its acquisition of Polmos Bialystok, producer of the world-famous Zubrowka vodka;
  • Advising AIG on the disposal of its Polish consumer finance and banking business to a unit of Banco Santander – and the retention of a significant investment in their combined Polish businesses, and the successful exit from the Polish business by selling the retained stake to Santander;
  • Advising Cosmote, the mobile phone subsidiary of Greek telecom operator OTE, on the sale of its Cosmofon business in FYROM to Telekom Slovenije, the acquisition of minority interests in Albanian Mobile Communication, and the sale of its interest in Telekom Srbija;
  • Playing a key role on the team that resolved Italian banking leader UniCredit's dispute with the Polish government over UniCredit's ownership of two banks in Poland, and then advising UniCredit on the spin-off of part of the business of Bank BPH into Bank Pekao and the sale of UniCredit's remaining investment in BPH to a unit of GE;
  • Advising Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME) on the acquisition of TV Nova in the Czech Republic;
  • Representing Citibank in the acquisition of Bank Handlowy in Warsaw, and in the issue of bonds exchangeable for Bank Handlowy shares;
  • Advising the National Property Fund of Slovakia on the sale of Slovenska Poistovna, the country's leading insurance company, to Allianz, and the sale of Istrobanka to BAWAG;
  • Representing Telekomunikacja Polska S.A., Poland's largest telecom operator, in its debut U.S. bond offering and EMTN Program and in several syndicated financing facilities;
  • Advising the governments of Romania and Ukraine on the development of regulatory systems and privatization strategies for the electric power sector
Quotation
"I came to the practice of international law by seeking new opportunities in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Our clients needed us to apply American (and later Anglo-American) models of corporate and financial transactions to local circumstances as they restored their economies and developed modern laws and regulations.  The key to developing that kind of practice is to be open-minded but at the same time well-grounded in the very basic tools of the transactional lawyer – contracts, secured transactions, remedies, conflicts of laws, negotiation skills – all of which are core elements of a Marshall-Wythe legal education."