The relatively small markets of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia enjoy a strong reputation for legal know-how on behalf of international investors, which has ensured that the bigger Baltic firms were able to weather the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic unscathed, easily changing emphasis to respond to quickly shifting and time-sensitive legal mandates.
Consequently, there is a general pattern that has developed since 2020: many reported a momentary freeze in work in the early months of the pandemic. This led to an increase in contentious corporate disputes, restructuring, and refinancing, all expected consequences of an economic downturn.
While the Baltics simultaneously suffered a brief economic freeze and retraction in the first months of 2020, each legal market saw a quick rebound to previous levels, followed by a sudden increase in mandates – first as multinationals attempted to navigate the economic fallout and establish financial security, then resuming projects and economic investment that had been temporarily put on hold, and now attempts to capitalise on new opportunities and developing gaps left in the market.
For instance, Rolan Jankelevitsh, partner at Walless, says: ‘One area expanded on in the last year is agriculture; large-scale acquisitions of agricultural land and businesses. It’s an asset promising a healthy yield that investment funds and banks are interested in.’ Meanwhile, Kadri Kallas, partner and head of M&A at TGS Baltic, notes: ‘We’ve seen a lot more work in transactions than before Covid. There’s been a shift to representing international clients as a consequence of working on more cross-border cases, including seeing more German and other EU clients.’
Cobalt, Ellex, and Sorainen – dubbed ‘The Big Three’ in the Baltics —dominate in almost every legal practice area, although they are closely followed by other notable Baltic firms TGS Baltic, Walless, and Fort, who have each independently established a strong reputation. All mentioned firms have offices throughout the Baltics to provide full regional coverage and have extensive experience covering those areas. Additionally, all have additional satellite offices either in the rest of Europe, the Nordics, or Russia to cater to core parts of their respective client bases, which generally involves inbound investment into the Baltics.
‘We’ve seen a lot more work in transactions than before Covid. There’s been a shift to representing international clients as a consequence of working on more cross-border cases.’
Kadri Kallas, TGS Baltic
Their client base reflects this, including European multinationals seeking to capitalise on directives from the EU to reduce carbon emissions by turning to investment in major wind and other green energy farms and projects, as well as Russian clients continuing to develop major oil supply lines from Russia. Aivar Taro, partner at Cobalt, says: ‘We’ve been focusing on the energy sector for the past ten years, but now it’s really trending. We’ve seen international infrastructure funds developing and investing in all sorts of projects.’ Fort partner Minni-Triin Park agrees: ‘Some obvious trends in the market are visible — on the transactional side there’s been a lot more green asset acquisitions.’
Part of the major successes in reaching such quick economic stability in response to the pandemic was due, in part, to comparatively low rates of Covid-19 infections in the early months of the pandemic, high rates of vaccination once rollouts began, and governments willing to immediately enact economic relief measures to soften the economic shock to their respective economies. The Estonian and Lithuanian legal markets, as two illustrations, have seen a continued rebound after the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Consequently, the technology and banking sectors in Estonia have seen increased inbound European investments comparable to pre-2020 levels. Kätlin Krisak, partner at Sorainen, notes ‘capital markets since last year have been a strong focus’, and in Lithuania TGS Baltic advised on an impressive three eurobond issues with a combined value of €2.8bn, while Walless advised BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan on a Eurobond offering of Akropolis Group.
Most notably, Baltic transportation infrastructure has continued to develop at a pre-Covid pace, including the resuming of major rail, road, and port construction projects across the region. These include resuming early steps in planning of the Tallinn-Helsinki undersea tunnel in Estonia, which upon expected completion in the 2030s will be the longest undersea tunnel.
It will be connected to the ongoing greenfield railway infrastructure project Rail Baltica, which will link Estonia to Finland and other Baltic states. European banks continue to finance the Latvian Kekava Bypass road project, and Cobalt and Sorainen have advised RB Rail and European construction companies on the construction of the first planned Rail Baltica train station in Latvia, as well as legal matters regarding the Rail Baltica railway in Lithuania.
Finally, due to the Estonian government’s decision to invest early in core infrastructure for the internet, it has become a key source for legal advice regarding cryptocurrency and blockchain. While some lawyers caution that both have yet to demonstrate a return on investment, it reflects how quickly Baltic firms are responding to demands in the market. LB
| Rank (by L500 ranking) | Firm | Region | Total lawyers | Total partners | Promotions | Offices | Partner hires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Sorainen | Baltics | 260 | 42 | 9 | 4 | |
| 23 | Cobalt | Baltics | 200 | 39 | 1 | 4 | |
| 26 | Ellex | Baltics | 213 | 43 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 31 | TGS Baltic | Baltics | 135 | 31 | 4 | 3 | |
| 98 | Fort | Baltics | 38 | 11 | 2 | 3 | |
| 99 | Primus | Baltics | 25 | 6 | 3 | 1 |