Practice Areas
Eight areas the office works in
The office accepts instructions in the following areas — from advice through drafting to representation in court.
Property Law
Advice on buying property, sale contracts — including mortgage-financed purchases — and representation when a transaction goes wrong.
The office advises on the purchase of property and, once the terms of the deal have been agreed, drafts the sale contract — including for purchases financed by a mortgage.
Beyond that, the office assists — up to and including representation in court — wherever a sale has not been performed as the parties expected and enforcing their rights now needs a lawyer.
The office has handled property transactions with a foreign party since it was founded, in English and French as well as Hungarian.
Typical matters
- Drafting and countersigning sale and gift contracts
- Documents for mortgage-financed purchases
- Land registry proceedings and registration of title
- Attorney's escrow
- Leases and tenancy agreements
- Transactions with a foreign buyer or seller
- Litigation where a transaction was not performed as agreed
Condominium & Housing Co-operative Law
More than twenty years acting for owners and for condominiums — drafting, litigation and chairing general meetings.
Condominium law — given how many such buildings there are in Budapest and beyond — is a field every resident knows something about and has a view on. Applying it, however, hides a great many practical difficulties.
I have provided legal support for more than twenty years, acting both for individual owners and for condominiums. That covers not only drafting and litigation: I regularly attend general meetings, often as chair, where my presence lets me give those attending the kind of legal guidance that allows them to reach a decision — sooner, sometimes final, and in any case legally sound.
Housing co-operatives are treated in everyday terms much like condominiums, but the Condominium Act does not apply to them. The office provides the services described above to housing co-operatives as well — with due regard, of course, for the special rules that govern them.
Typical matters
- Drafting and amending deeds of foundation and internal rules
- Chairing general meetings, with legal guidance on the spot
- Challenging resolutions of the general meeting
- Recovery of unpaid common charges
- Representing owners against the condominium
- Documents and representation for housing co-operatives
Corporate Law
From the choice of legal form through incorporation and amendments to the corporate questions of day-to-day operation.
Self-employment can be carried on in several legal forms in Hungary — typically as a sole trader, a limited partnership (Bt.), a limited liability company (Kft.) or a company limited by shares.
The office acts comprehensively in incorporations and amendments and in the corporate questions that arise in running a company. It is important to note, though, that in many cases the questions that come up when choosing the legal form already call for legal advice: each form carries different advantages, different difficulties and different operating conditions.
Foreign nationals wishing to do business in Hungary have been assisted by the office since it was founded, in English and French as well as Hungarian.
Typical matters
- Advice on choosing the legal form
- Incorporation — limited partnership, Kft. (LLC), company limited by shares
- Amendments, changes of registered office and activities
- Transfer of shares and changes of membership
- Articles of association and shareholders' agreements
- Voluntary liquidation and dissolution
Contracts & E-commerce
Service, supply and contractor agreements, standard terms, and the legal framework of online shops.
A contract does its work when something goes wrong. While the parties agree, the wording does not matter; the moment they disagree, only what is written down does. The office prepares and reviews contracts and, where it comes to that, enforces the claims that arise from a breach.
Selling online brings its own body of rules: contracts concluded electronically with consumers carry specific information duties, withdrawal periods and formal requirements. The office prepares and maintains the legal documents of online shops and services so that they operate in line with consumer-protection law.
Typical matters
- Drafting and reviewing service, supply and contractor agreements
- Standard terms and conditions
- Legal documents for online shops — terms, privacy notice, withdrawal notice
- Consumer-protection compliance for online sales
- Breach of contract, debt recovery, payment orders
Copyright & Patents
Creative work, software, branding and inventions — licences, protection and dealing with infringement.
Copyright tends to become a problem where the parties never agreed in advance exactly what was being handed over. With a finished logo, website or piece of software, the client often believes it has “bought” the work, while the maker believes it has only granted a right to use it. The difference usually surfaces when the client wants to develop the material further or sell it on.
The office helps prevent and resolve these situations: with clear licence agreements, by settling the position of works created in employment, and by preparing action where rights have been infringed.
With inventions and technical solutions the position, unlike copyright, is not automatic: protection arises on filing, and disclosure before filing can destroy it. The office provides legal support on the contractual side of patent and trade-mark matters — exploitation agreements, inventions created in employment, joint developments — and works alongside a patent attorney in the filing procedure itself.
Typical matters
- Licence and usage agreements
- Software development and commissioning contracts
- Works and inventions created in employment
- Action on copyright infringement
- Advice and contracts on patent and trade-mark matters
- Lawful use of online content
Employment Law
For employees and employers alike — in court and out of it, including where a fast answer is needed.
Having acted for both employees and employers, in litigation and outside the courts, I can draw on broad experience to help clients — including in the situations, common in this field, that call for a fast answer.
In any given matter, of course, I act for one side only. For employees the work is typically reviewing a termination, settling what is owed and conducting the dispute; for employers it tends to be preventative: contracts, policies and procedures kept in order.
In an employment dispute it pays to seek legal advice early, because the deadlines for bringing a claim are short.
Typical matters
- Drafting and reviewing employment contracts and amendments
- Termination and the lawfulness of dismissal
- Non-compete and confidentiality agreements
- Executive employment
- Employer policies and HR compliance reviews
- Employment litigation, negotiation and settlement
Full Company Representation
A standing legal function for businesses — contracts, corporate matters, employment and disputes in one pair of hands.
In a working business, legal questions do not arrive sorted by practice area. A contract with a new partner, a departing employee, a change of members and an unpaid invoice can all land in the same week — and each bears on the others.
A retainer means the same attorney sees all of them, knows the company’s history and its contracts, and does not have to be briefed from scratch each time. The office provides this kind of standing legal support to businesses — including foreign-owned companies operating in Hungary — in Hungarian, English and French.
Typical matters
- Retainer — legal advice available within a monthly allowance
- Preparing and reviewing the contracts of day-to-day trading
- Corporate amendments and relations between members
- Employment questions on the employer's side
- Debt recovery and representation in disputes
- Cross-border transactions, in English and French
Family Law
Matrimonial property, divorce, parental custody and maintenance — advice and representation.
Family matters differ from every other field of law in that the parties remain connected after the decision — through a child, a home or a business they share. The aim is therefore not only the legally correct outcome but the one that still works later on.
The office advises and represents clients on marital and cohabitation property agreements, divorce, the division of property, and questions of parental custody and maintenance. Where there is a prospect of agreement between the parties, preparing that agreement is the first step; where there is none, representation in court.
Typical matters
- Marital and cohabitation property agreements
- Divorce — by agreement and contested
- Division of property and jointly owned homes
- Parental custody and contact
- Child and spousal maintenance
Contact
Write to the office
The office takes enquiries by email. A short description of the matter helps us give you a substantive reply.
