Wolf Theiss is opening a London office to strengthen relationships between London and Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European markets.
The office will be led by Polish M&A partner Anna Dąbrowska, who joined the firm in 2023, and will relocate from Poland and work with managing partner Andrea Gritsch and colleagues across the firm’s 13 jurisdictions to develop connections with corporates, investors, financial institutions and international law firms.
Wolf Theiss, headquartered in Vienna, employs about 820 professionals, more than 500 of whom are lawyers. With nearly 70 years of experience, the firm said it would use the London base to leverage its regional network and enhance international ties to secure cross-border mandates.
Gritsch said: “International relationships have always been fundamental to Wolf Theiss, and Anna personifies that approach. She has spent years not only advising on sophisticated cross-border M&A but building trusted relationships across the international legal community through the IBA.”
She added: “London remains one of the places where the international legal, financial and investment communities come together, and we want Wolf Theiss to be part of those conversations on a permanent basis.”
The opening follows a Law Society of England and Wales report on the importance of legal services exports, now worth nearly £11bn, while the CEE and SEE regions, with a combined economy of around €3 trn, are expected to grow in strategic importance.
Dąbrowska has advised on multiple high-value domestic and cross-border transactions and has held several senior leadership roles within the International Bar Association, which is holding its annual conference in Copenhagen this week.
She previously chaired its European Regional Forum and remains on its advisory board, alongside other roles with the IBA’s professional ethics committee and as an IBA commissioner on the Future of Legal Services. The firm cited her international connections in selecting her to lead the London office.
Dąbrowska said: “As a Polish M&A lawyer, I have also had a front-row seat to the extraordinary development of Central and Eastern Europe and the increasingly sophisticated international investment flowing into and out of the region. My role will be to bring Wolf Theiss closer to that community and, equally importantly, to bring the opportunities, businesses and expertise of our region closer to London.”
Gritsch said the office reflected the firm’s ambition to expand its international role as investment across its regional markets grows. “We have advised London-based investors on deals across the region for years, from private equity acquisitions to venture funding, and we expect that activity to continue to grow. Our ambition is to be the international firm people think of when business, investment or legal issues connect London with CEE and SEE. Our new office will enable us to serve clients more directly where those opportunities and decisions converge.”
On 1 October, the firm announced the arrival of Czech competition, procurement and regulatory partner Jitka Linhartová, who has joined from Nedelka Kubáč Advocates, where she was of counsel, alongside four promotions effective from January 2027: Markus Aigner and Philipp Szelinger in Austria, Borna Dejanović in Croatia and Gergely Szalóki in Hungary.
In September, the firm hired banking and finance partner Luděk Chvosta, who joined from Kinstellar in Prague, and Paweł Łączkowski, a former White & Case counsel, who joined as a partner and will head the Polish energy and natural resources team.
Recent London-linked mandates include advising private equity investor Tenzing on its investment in Salzburg-based data platform Pimcore, which was announced in August and is subject to antitrust approvals, and Oakley Capital on the Austrian and Bulgarian law aspects of its acquisition of a majority stake in enterprise AI data business Graphwise, working alongside lead counsel Latham & Watkins.
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