Eligiusz Krześniak is the managing partner of our Warsaw office and Professor of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Lazarski University in Warsaw, where he teaches business and arbitration law. His practice focuses mainly on telecommunications and media, energy, information technology and M&A transactions, including some of the largest projects in those areas in recent years in Poland. Eligiusz is Chairman of the Polish Arbitration Association and arbitrator at leading Polish and international arbitration tribunals, including Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, regarded as the Supreme Court of world sport.
Eligiusz, along with the Squire Patton Boggs team, supported, amongst others, T-Mobile S.A., Polkomtel S.A. and Orange Polska S.A. in groundbreaking projects implemented on the telecommunications market – building strategic alliances with partners from other areas of the market, contracts with the regulator or introduction of virtual operators into the Polish market.
For almost two decades, Eligiusz has represented renewable and conventional energy producers, participating in many breakthrough transactions and projects on the Polish market.
He also has extensive experience in advising on mergers and acquisitions. Eligiusz has acted as the lead lawyer on a number of projects regarding the acquisition of enterprises and the assembly, service and licensing of information systems for banks, insurance companies, and IT and telecom equipment suppliers.
In his practice, Eligiusz has repeatedly represented clients in civil and administrative cases, primarily in precedent setting cases in the field of energy law and telecommunications law. He also served as a side arbitrator, the sole arbitrator and chairman in numerous arbitration procedures within two leading arbitration courts in Poland – the arbitration court at the National Chamber of Commerce and the arbitration court at the Polish Confederation of Private Employers, PKPP Lewiatan. Eligiusz also settled international commercial disputes under ad hoc arbitration.
Eligiusz is continually recognised as one of the top lawyers in Poland by Chambers Europe and The Legal 500. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars and the author and co-author of over 60 publications, including six books on commercial laws and sport laws in several countries.
Eligiusz was a member of a nine-person Supervisory Board of PZU S.A. (2016-2017) and up to the end of 2009, he acted as Deputy Chairman of a seven-person Supervisory Board of PKO BP – the largest bank in Poland and one of the largest financial institutions in Central and Eastern Europe.
Until recently he has served as Chairman of the Alior Bank’s Supervisory Board in Poland. Alior is the seventh largest Polish bank with over 10,000 employees and over US$16 billion balance sheet total.
Eligiusz is a member of the board of the Polish Association of Legal Employers.