A CHAMBER GROUP AMONG SOME BRASS BANDS

Braykov’s Legal Office was set up back in 1990 when the profession in Bulgaria really became private.

We are a team of ten lawyers in Sofia plus five associates across the country and we do not intend to grow bigger just for the sake of looking western. One has to remember the Columbus rule that he who goes too far to the west will turn up in the east. But we think we are capable of putting together a larger legal task force of top free lancers on specific projects. The environment and the players we know since 1976.

Our office is neither the best nor the worst. This is not a constellation of professional stars under a Sun but a circuit which lights when it is internally well connected. We are delighted by the achievements of other law firms and try to learn from their success and disappointments. In a country where lawyers have never been the rulers’ favorites.

Our main fields of expertise are law of contract, commercial law, company law, intellectual property rights (no patents) and commercial litigation.
The no-go area - criminal law. Privatisation is treated with extreme caution because of too much politics and alleged corruption.

We can communicate in English, French and German.

We are proud of a long-term relationship with IBM, Xerox, British American Tobacco, Diageo, EDFM, General Motors, Kodak, HBO, Playboy, Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund, Scotch Whisky Association, Anschutz, Henkel, General Electric (GECAS), Alta and The Ihtiman Cast Iron Foundry. We feel extremely privileged with the appointment to be the honorary legal adviser of His Excellency the British Ambassador to Bulgaria. This is a continuous and most friendly professional cooperation matched by mutual personal confidence and not just a virtual rendezvous of expected images. We try to provide a preventive service in order to avoid court intervention. But we also recognize that an out-of-court settlement is a projection of the inevitable court decision.

It should be very clear to those who would use our services that we have not recently dined with a minister and we can demonstrate no familiarity with a top magistrate.

Bulgarian lawyers are already faced with the challenges and opportunities of the EU membership of our country. Along with the efforts of the Bulgarian society and government they should provide their unqualified contribution to the judiciary reform and against the unreasoned discretion of the selective justice.

From our personal experience we know that a lawyer is made not when a bar exam is passed or a directory is entered but when he overcomes the first professional humiliation and with a fierce indignation wins the case in the appeal instance. In the fire of that indignation a new lawyer is born. To achieve this he should not be afraid to call things by their own names and should have the courage of the Little Red Riding Hood saying : “This long-teeth creature in the bed is not my grand mother”.