How we help
We draft, review and negotiate the contracts a business relies on every day: sale and supply, services, cooperation, lease and loan agreements. We also draft template contracts and general terms and conditions that the business can then use on its own.
A good contract answers simple questions: who does what, by when, for how much and what happens if things turn out differently. We write it in plain language so that the people who will carry it out understand it – not just the lawyers.
Law in the daily work of a business
Beyond contracts, we help with ongoing legal matters: relations with business partners, regulatory issues and the obligations the law places on a particular sector. We check what the business must do, what it may do and what it had better avoid – and we say so plainly.
With every contract, we look straight away at its tax consequences and how it will be recorded in the books. That way, a clause that looks good in the contract does not lead to surprises in the tax return later. We help foreign businesses set up their first contracts in Poland – we write about this on the Entering the Polish market page.
Payment institutions and fintech
We help businesses that want to provide payment services or issue electronic money: from assessing whether the planned service requires authorisation at all, through choosing the route – registration as a small payment institution (MIP), authorisation from the KNF (the Polish Financial Supervision Authority) as a domestic payment institution (KIP), a payment services office, or registration for a provider offering only account information services – to launching the business. We write the programme of operations, internal procedures, rules for safeguarding users’ funds and preventing money laundering, and agreements with agents and technology providers.
We prepare the application, handle the proceedings and represent the business before the KNF – answering questions and requests until registration or authorisation. Afterwards we stay close by: we keep track of reports, fees and notifications, and help with changes to the management board, the owners and the agents, and with supervisory inspections. We describe the whole route on the Payment institution licence page.
The fuel and energy sector
We help businesses in the fuel and energy market on the legal side: we prepare applications for licences to trade in fuels, including cross-border trade, and to produce and store them, handle proceedings to amend or extend a licence and represent the business before the URE (the Energy Regulatory Office). We help put in place the financial security required for a licence and make sure its amount and validity keep pace with the business.
We draft and negotiate agreements for supply, storage and logistics services, check that the licence conditions match what the business does day to day, and keep track of reports and other obligations towards the market regulator. When the regulator announces an inspection or opens proceedings, we handle them together with the business. The tax and accounting side of this sector is covered by our Energy and resources practice area, and we describe the whole picture on the Fuel and energy trading page.
What we cover
- Commercial contracts: sale, supply, services, cooperation
- Template contracts and general terms and conditions
- Negotiations and opinions on business partners’ contracts
- Keeping the business in line with the law
- Ongoing legal support for the management board and departments
- Payment institutions: MIP registration, KIP authorisation, payment services offices, account information services
- Issuing electronic money
- Internal procedures, agreements with agents and technology providers
- Proceedings before the KNF and ongoing obligations towards the regulator
- Licences to trade in fuels, including cross-border trade, and to produce and store them
- Financial security, supply and storage agreements
- Reports, inspections and proceedings before the URE
When to talk to us
- You are signing an important contract and want to know what it really means for you.
- The business uses template contracts that nobody has reviewed for a long time.
- You are starting a new line of business and are not sure what obligations come with it.
- You are planning payment services and wondering whether registration is enough or whether you need KNF authorisation.
- You are entering the fuel or energy market and need a licence.
- A business partner proposes changes to a contract and you want to know the consequences.
