During the three decades of its work, Law Office Sekulović has specialised in the corporate domain and those branches of law that are essential to the functioning of the economy, from property relations to classic commercial law
The economic challenges brought by the two major historic events of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are huge and it isn’t currently possible to see all of their consequences, though it is certain that the Serbian economy will not be exempt from world trends.
Your Office is among the leaders in the field of commercial law. How much have you been helped in gaining such a status by the fact that you have a team with broad local and international education and experience?
Thanks for that statement! We try to provide the highest possible quality in a specific branch of law. We understand the necessity for law firms to focus on both the types of clients they have and the types of law that they address. This development of legal practice is conditioned by the complexity of legal norms in the 21st century and the broad range of coverage of the regulating of social relations as a result of overall economic and technological progress.
Your clients also include embassies, chambers of commerce etc. That is a great honour, but isn’t is also a great responsibility?
We are a “trusted law firm” [Lawyers of Confidence] of the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Trade Delegation in Belgrade, a member of the Italian-Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Confindustria Serbia…
Our legal system, both in its normative part and from the aspect of its application, particularly the judiciary, doesn’t deserve the negative assessments that are often emphasised among our public
In our profession, responsibility is a given. Moreover, due to the special role of legal practice in society, its constitutional position, the position of a lawyer presupposes a high ethical level and responsibility for one’s own work. This applies particularly to our colleagues who are tasked with determining guilt, because they are on the first line of ethics, given that the lives of specific people are decided in this legal area.
How is our legal framework rated by the many foreign investors that you represent?
Our legal system, both in its normative part and from the aspect of its application, particularly the judiciary, doesn’t deserve the negative assessments that are often emphasised among our public. Our legal system certainly isn’t as efficient as, say, Germany’s, but nor are we – as a society and individuals – as efficient as German citizens. I consider that, in the balance between the attractiveness of profitability and legal security, Serbia represents a good market for foreign and local investors.
The world is still struggling to overcome the consequences of the two-year pandemic, while it has now been additionally rocked by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. How will this reflect on our economy?
The world is today a completely different place compared to two years ago. The Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine represent unprecedented events in many ways. The issue of security is certain to have a significant impact on economic processes, both when it comes to the availability of raw and semi-raw materials, and when it comes to supply chains. These factors subsequently have a knock-on effect on supply-demand relations, which leads to inflation. The Serbian economy will not be exempt from these flows. Given that Serbia is fully integrated into the EU market of goods and services, as well as the U.S. financial market, the framework of our actions has been clearly determined.
In that sense, the Serbian economy may experience serious disruption if it moves, for political reasons, towards its own exclusion from these markets, which could have very negative ramifications not only for the standard of living, but also for the overall stability of our social system in all areas – from the economy to health, security and education.