January 2020 – Kristóf Ferenczi, Partner and Head of Kinstellar's firm-wide Energy & Natural Resources practice, has been appointed as the new Managing Partner of the Budapest office as of January 2020. Kristóf is replacing Csilla Andrékó, who led the Budapest office for 11 years as part of Kinstellar and prior to that as Managing Partner of Linklaters Budapest. Csilla will continue her role as head of Kinstellar's Banking, Finance and Capital Markets practice regionally and in Budapest.

A Partner since 2009, Kristóf is a highly regarded legal professional in Hungary and Central & Eastern Europe with extensive experience handling major transactions in the energy sector. For a number of years Kristóf has been consistently recognised as a tier-1 lawyer by the leading international legal directories Chambers Europe, Legal 500 and other benchmark publications. In recent editions clients report: "He knows what we look for and understands the commercial side," while others commend his "exceptional standard," highlighting that "he focuses on quality, meets deadlines and is always well prepared." (Chambers Europe, 2019).

Kristóf holds a degree in law from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, after which he pursued post-graduate studies in Business Law at the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. He is a member of the Budapest Bar and speaks Hungarian, English, French and Italian.

Kristóf comments: "I am proud and honoured to be entrusted with this leadership role. I am confident that alongside the other Partners and the committed, talented and dynamic team in our Budapest office, we will continue to deliver outstanding client service.''

Csilla Andrékó is a co-founder of Kinstellar and has been practicing law as a Partner of international law firms for 20 years. She is one of the best-known Banking & Finance specialists in Hungary and has a stellar reputation on the market. This change in local leadership reflects Csilla's request for a more flexible arrangement with Kinstellar to allow her to have less management responsibilities and more business and client development focus going forward, including exploring potential business opportunities on the Italian market, where she will spend more time partly due to her family ties.

"Our Budapest office is recognised as one of the top law firms in Hungary, receiving consistently high rankings from the international legal directories. I am proud of our excellent team and what we have achieved so far. We have been contemplating this change for some time and the handover to Kristóf is taking place at a time of growth and continued success following the office's first 11 years as a part of Kinstellar. Kristóf represents management continuity in Budapest, and I am absolutely sure that the office will continue to prosper and thrive under his leadership", says Csilla Andrékó.