Catherine Pogorzelski (DLA Piper): More ABC for DLA
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An “alphabet soup” of new regulatory requirements and changes to tax rules are imposing ever-increasing burdens on the clients of global law firm DLA Piper. However, as explained by Catherine Pogorzelski, DLA Piper's Country Managing Partner for Luxembourg, these challenges are opportunities for Luxembourg. The firm is very well equipped and well-placed to manage these challenges as well as to find cross-border solutions.​​
Can you describe DLA Piper in a few words?
DLA Piper is a global business law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world. We strive to be the leading global business law firm and we position ourselves as lead counsel, always ready to support and advise our clients wherever they go or expand. We achieve this through practical and innovative legal solutions heavily leaning on and integrating technology and fully integrated team working across sectors and continents. We have spent the past 5 years building a 60 person team in Luxembourg that is a true reflection of Luxembourg’s economic and financial drivers. We are thus able to service the legal needs of the real economy and its industrial players while also covering all financial services sectors and investment funds in particular in line with what we do around the globe. What sets DLA Piper apart is our ability to build bridges across countries and practices and work in a collaborative manner. Our teams work mostly on cross-border projects and are able to manage the complete legal needs of an investment lifecycle. We are multi-lingual, culturally sensitive and never lose sight of commercial objectives.​
“The regulatory burden is at risk of outweighing the perceived benefits of a well-regulated financial services industry and this is obviously having a significant impact on our clients especially in the early implementation phases.”
How are the latest regulatory developments impacting the business of your clients?
The regulatory burden is at risk of outweighing the perceived benefits of a well-regulated financial services industry and this is obviously having a significant impact on our clients, especially in the early implementation phases. If you are adding the technological change and the speed at which it is coming, you can immediately identify the pressure points between the conduct of business and the application of regulation. Be it AIFMD (2), MifiD (2), GDPR or ATAD (2), the business impact of these changes will produce deep and lasting impacts on the way business is done in Luxembourg and around the world. The rippling effects are stronger than ever, third country impacts are increasingly felt and require a global perspective on the effects of EU rulemaking merely taking one side of the impact. While I am convinced that Brexit is not good for anybody, it will nonetheless have a positive impact on Luxembourg. We are working closely with our colleagues in the United Kingdom and other locations to mitigate the most likely impacts.
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How does your approach stay in line with clients’ changing needs?
We address client needs and projects from two angles: practices and sectors. We have knowledge management teams, project managements teams, analysts and economists all over and coordinated centrally. This gives lawyers a perspective of trends beyond their own borders and legal practices, building strong, cross-border knowledge of the sectors and constraints in which our clients operate. We, globally, look after the entire value chain: for PE, RE or private debt investments for instance, we would typically cover all aspects, from structuring and setting up the fund to tax and regulatory assessment at both investment and investor level to financing and structuring of the investments up to the making of the investments themselves – all on a global basis with the required tax, legal and regulatory expertise.
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FACTS&FIGURES
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Birthplace: Metz
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Nationality: French
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Number of children: 2 + 2
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Languages: French, English
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Hobbies: Horse riding, travelling, cooking and of course taking care of my family
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MY FAVOURITE
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Towns: New York, Berlin, Munich, Lisbon and Luxembourg
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Places: My bed, a nice beach and even my office
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Books: Smart collaboration by Heidi K. Gardner, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and more recently Principles of Ray Dalio and an outsider, The Four Agreements of Don Miguel Ruiz
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Restaurants: for Luxembourg, La Mirabelle, Yamayu Santatsu, Château de Bourglinster, Due Galli and Guillou Campagne
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Music: Daft Punk, Claude Debussy, Eric Satie, Henri Salvador
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Artwork: Carole Feuerman, Photography in general and the art works of my girls
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OTHER POSITIONS
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Founding member of Dress for Success
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Supporting member of LILLA
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Part of the Promotion Committee of the LPEA
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Member of the ALFI
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Lecturer at House of Training on PE Fund Structuring
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