Your trusted partner for English legal advice in the UK and Eastern Europe
Our Eastern Europe international desk supports individuals, families, entrepreneurs, and businesses across the subregion who have legal, commercial, or personal interests in the UK or Eastern Europe.
Whether you're managing cross‑border wealth, identifying opportunity for growth, engaged in an international dispute (including Arbitrations) or seeking clarity on corporate, commercial or regulatory issues, our lawyers, in conjunction with our trusted partners, deliver strategic, commercially aware, and culturally informed guidance.
We have extensive experience of working with clients across Eastern Europe and understand the unique dynamics of international mobility, cross‑border investments, and the rapidly growing Eastern European market.
Contact usOur legal services for clients in Eastern Europe
We are able to provide a wide range of services to clients in Eastern Europe. Common services that our clients in Eastern Europe trust us to deliver include:
Aviation and transport
Our award-winning aviation and transport lawyers offer a one-stop shop for clients based in the UK and Eastern Europe and are highly experienced in advising on a very broad range of aviation matters such as:
- Regulatory matters and commercial disputes;
- Product liability claims;
- Subrogation recovery;
- General aviation, airline, airport, engineering and manufacturing issues.
Banking and finance
Our highly experienced banking solicitors are instructed by banks, borrowers and developers on all aspects of project, construction and development finance to provide advice on matters such as:
- Acquisition and leveraged finance;
- Asset-based lending;
- Asset finance;
- Project and infrastructure finance;
- Establishment, regulation and dissolution of investment funds;
- Public sector grant funding;
- Securities.
Corporate and commercial
We support entrepreneurs, family businesses, investors and established corporates based in Eastern Europe with the full spectrum of UK corporate and commercial legal needs. Our team advises on:
- UK company formations and structuring, including establishing subsidiaries, joint ventures and special-purpose vehicles for investment or expansion into the UK market.
- Shareholder agreements and governance frameworks, ensuring clarity, protection of minority interests and robust mechanisms for dispute prevention.
- Commercial contracts, including distribution, agency, supply, franchising, licensing and services agreements tailored to cross-border operations.
- Mergers, acquisitions and disposals, providing due diligence, negotiation support and transactional guidance for clients in Eastern Europe acquiring or selling assets or businesses in the UK.
- Private equity and venture capital matters, including early-stage investment structures, term sheets, funding rounds and exit planning.
- Regulatory and compliance requirements, ensuring clients based in Eastern Europe remain aligned with UK corporate governance, data protection (including GDPR), competition law and sector-specific regulations.
- Commercial risk management, helping businesses trading between Eastern Europe and UK navigate jurisdictional differences, contractual exposure and operational risk.
Cross border
The cross border and travel team are experienced in representing insurers and businesses with issues spanning across the UK, Western and Eastern Europe and other jurisdictions:
- Our travel solicitors provide advice on all aspects of the travel business. Providing support for companies including tour and cruise operators, air and coach travel, as well as their insurers.
- The cross-border team can assist clients with claims arising from incidents such as road traffic accidents, ski accidents, etc occurring across multiple jurisdictions, including Eastern Europe.
Dispute resolution, litigation and arbitration
Our commercial litigation solicitors represent individuals, businesses and financial institutions based in the UK and Eastern Europe involved in UK jurisdiction clause disputes and International Arbitrations, offering strategic, commercially focused dispute resolution with international reach. Our team is experienced in handling:
- High-value commercial litigation in the UK courts, including contract disputes, shareholder disputes, joint venture breakdowns, professional negligence matters and complex cross-border claims.
- International arbitration, particularly proceedings conducted through major arbitral institutions such as LCIA, ICC and DIAC, as well as enforcement of arbitral awards in the UK under the New York Convention.
- Civil fraud and asset recovery, including urgent freezing injunctions, tracing actions, fraud investigations and the protection of assets held in the UK.
- Banking and financial services disputes, representing lenders, investors and financial professionals with claims involving misrepresentation, contractual breaches and regulatory issues.
- Reputation management and crisis response, supporting clients facing defamatory content, privacy breaches or media-sensitive disputes with UK-based components.
- Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), including mediation and negotiated settlement strategies designed to protect commercial relationships and reduce the cost of cross-border disputes.
Energy and utilities
Our expert energy lawyers provide dedicated support and assistance to our energy, water, waste and telecoms clients, working closely with organisations to help them benefit from opportunities created by market regulation, policy and other market drivers. Our team advises on:
- Delivery of generation projects across the full range of technologies;
- Regulatory matters;
- Real Estate;
- Planning and procurement;
- Competition and commercial contracts;
- Dispute resolution.
Insurance and reinsurance
We have a proven track record of advising on complex high value insurance and reinsurance claims and disputes and we are well versed in arbitrations, mediations and court proceedings at all levels. We have been involved with large losses and catastrophes around the world, including Eastern Europe.
We regularly support UK and international insurers and reinsurers on matters relating to Eastern Europe involving:
- Underlying losses in Eastern European jurisdictions;
- Reinsurance placements spanning multiple markets;
- Coordination with foreign counsel, brokers, and experts;
- Conflicts of law and jurisdictional challenges.
Why choose Weightmans?
A connected, cross‑border advisory team
Our Eastern Europe desk brings together specialists from across Weightmans to deliver joined‑up support on matters involving both the UK and Eastern Europe. International desks at Weightmans act as strategic hubs, focused on key overseas markets, enabling deeper collaboration, local insight, and coordinated cross‑border delivery.
Our team regularly collaborates with trusted intermediaries and local advisers — including wealth managers, accountants and lawyers based in Eastern Europe — to provide a cohesive client experience.
Cross-border collaboration built in
By design, our international desk model is focused on:
- Knowledge sharing
- Relationship building
- Supporting inbound and outbound opportunities
- Coordinating international legal work across multiple jurisdictions
A strong UK base with global reach
With offices across the UK, seven international desks and a deep network of international partner firms, we can provide clients based in Eastern Europe with expert, multidisciplinary legal advice.
We utilise our trusted advisors to assist with facilitating legal service for our UK clients in Eastern Europe and are on hand to assist our Eastern European clients with all of their UK needs.
