Martins Zalans
Managing Partner, Attorney at law
Admitted to the Latvian Bar Association in 2008.
Graduated from the Riga Graduate School of Law (LLM) in 2004.
Areas of expertise: financial law, regulatory, corporate, M&A, extradition,digital assets, blockchain-based instruments/solutions.
Overview
Martins is the founding and managing partner at Lawerton. He handles diverse cases related to mergers, acquisitions, financial law, regulatory and corporate law. His primary focus is high net worth individuals and business owners. Martins prefers to maintain full control over the case, which frequently involves the necessity to operate in multiple jurisdictions, resulting in comprehensive cross-border experience in financial law and M&A transactions spread over 20 different countries.
Apart from his routine financial and corporate law practice, Martins enjoys challenging extradition cases. All of these are defended with utmost diligence, leading even to denial of extradition and imposition of binding interim measures by the European Court of Human Rights on the governments involved.
Details
Recent Experience
- Serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of a private capital investment fund domiciled in New York.
- Heading the borrower’s legal team during a project finance assignment on raising a syndicated loan of EUR 20 mm for development of biogas cogeneration plants.
- Developing a defence strategy safeguarding fund managers (EUR 10 million AUM) from insolvency proceedings in US.
- Developing a defence strategy safeguarding fund managers (EUR 30 million AUM) from insolvency proceedings in EU.
- Leading the purchaser’s legal team in acquisition of a major retail bank in Bosnia.
- Achieving interim measure (Rule 39 of rules of the ECHR) suspending extradition of a Latvian national to the USA.
- Opposing and fully preventing extradition of a politically exposed Lithuanian resident to the Russian Federation.
Other Experience
- Leading legal representation of client during bid to acquire major Italy-based luxury yacht producer.
- Leading client’s legal representation in raising capital of EUR 150 million for a major aviation carrier in the Baltics.
- Leading takeover of a major Latvian cargo aviation carrier.
- Leading the establishment of a business jet aviation carrier.
- Leading acquirer’s legal team during concession of a strategic industrial site in the Balkans.
- Leading mandatory share redemption of a commercial bank in Latvia.
- Leading acquisition of a substantial holding in a major commercial bank in Latvia.
- Leading acquisition of a financial brokerage company in Latvia.
- Leading acquisition of a life insurance company in Latvia.
- Leading legal due diligence team of a major commercial bank in Montenegro.
- Leading subordinated capital issue for commercial bank in Latvia.
Career
- 2014 Managing Partner at Lawerton.
- 2012 Founder of the legal team forming Lawerton.
- 2007 Head of Legal department (Banking).
- 2004 Associate at attorneys at law “Borenius”.
- 1999 Inhouse lawyer (Banking).
Publications
Contributed to the Latvian section of the book “EU Banking and Insurance Insolvency”, edited by Gabriel Moss QC and Bob Wessels, Oxford University Press.