Karanović & Nikolić is in the finals for the first ever Deal of the Year Award, organized by the renowned CEE Legal Matters magazine. Beginning in 2018, these accolades are a way of recognizing the biggest and most important deals by law firms in Central and Eastern European jurisdictions. Out of a total of three deals which are in the finals for the jurisdiction of Serbia, Karanović & Nikolić has been shortlisted with two: the EBRD Financing of Vektroelektrane – Čibuk Windfarm, and the National Bank of Greece’s sale of Vojvođanska Banka to OTP.
In order to avoid any chance or possibility of favouritism or bias, The Deal of the Year Award is strictly peer-judged. So, the winners are selected not by the organizers, but instead by a two-tiered panel of leading lawyers from across the region who do not themselves stand to benefit from the final results.
The first tier of judges consists of senior partners at leading law firms in each CEE jurisdiction who have agreed to carefully review the submissions and rank them for complexity, size, and market significance.
After that, the shortlisted deals are sent to the Final Selection Committee, which consists of CEE Legal Matters Knowledge Partners and attendees to the annual End of Year Expert Summit, who independently rank the final nominees, identifying the ultimate winner in each market. Critically, members of the Final Selection Committee are not allowed to vote on deals their own firms worked on.
The winners will be announced on the 6th of June, 2018, at the CEE Legal Matters Annual Dinner and Awards Banquet.
