Litigation & Arbitration

As part of our firm’s commitment to ESG principles, the POTAMITISVEKRIS criminal law team provided pro bono legal representation before the First-Instance Criminal Court of Athens to eight minors who were victims of abuse, duress and endangerment. These minors were former residents of the renowned child protection foundation “Ark of the World” (“Kivotos”).
On November 14, 2024, after an extensive judicial process, five individuals—including the foundation’s prominent founder—were convicted on multiple charges. This outcome marks a pivotal judgment in the realm of child protection and the oversight of institutions tasked with caring for vulnerable minors.
Our team included Konstantinos Papadiamantis (Partner), Natalia Chrisagi (Senior Associate), Andreas Matsakas (Associate), and Evgenia Kordou (Associate).
This decision underscores the importance of safeguarding children’s rights and ensuring accountability within institutions designed to provide care and protection.

Our criminal litigation team has successfully represented and acquitted an executive of Credit Suisse against the accusation of fraud during the sale of structured products of a total value of 32 million euros. After 6 months of trial, the client was unanimously acquitted by the Piraeus Court of Appeal for felonies.
Our team was led by the head of our Civil & Criminal Litigation and Arbitration practice, Konstantinos Papadiamantis (Partner), with the assistance of Natalie Chrisagi (Senior Associate) and Evgenia Kordou (Associate).

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Andreas Matsakas, members of our White-Collar Crime Team, have been successfully representing numerous Members of the Boards of Directors of Damavand S.A. and Deca Investments A.E.D.O.E.E. as suspects, whom Damavand Trading L.T.D. has accused of fraud amounting to € 950.000 and relating to an option in favor of Diorama Investments Sicar S.A., a foreign company managed in Greece by Deca Investments A.E.D.O.E.E. The said option had been provided for in a private agreement between Damavand Trading L.T.D. (as seller of shares within Damavand S.A.) and Diorama Investments Sicar S.A. (as buyer of shares within Damavand S.A.), its activation had been defined to depend on whether the bankruptcy of Producta S.A. (an old company related to Damavand Trading L.T.D) would have been completed or not within 24 months of the conclusion of the above private agreement and its exercise ultimately led to the free acquisition of shares of Damavand Trading L.T.D. by Diorama Investments Sicar S.A. The criminal complaint for fraud lodged by Damavand Trading L.T.D. against the above suspects has been rejected by the competent Prosecutor of First Instance and Second Instance.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis, Evgenia Kordou and Andreas Matsakas, members of our White-Collar Crime Team, successfully represented, achieving their acquittal, the founding members of a company, who had been accused of and at first instance (represented by another defense counsel) convicted of illegal copying, by computer, of the design of a subsequently registered trademark from the electronic file of the opposing company, which (design) was considered a professional secret, as well as of usurping a false certificate due to the submission of this design to the competent Trademark Service for its registration as a trademark.

Our White-Collar Crime Team successfully represented (on a pro bono basis) Mr. Andreas Georgiou, former Head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which ruled in favor of the conviction of Greece for a violation of Article 6 ECHR regarding the right to a fair trial. Subsequently, on the legal basis of this decision of the ECtHR, Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Natalia Chrisagi, leading members of our White-Collar Crime Team, lodged a request for a retrial before the Court of Cassation of Greece, requesting the cassation of Mr Georgiou’s conviction for breach of duty for having sent official fiscal statistics to Eurostat concerning Greece’s fiscal deficit for the year 2009, as well as the suspension of the criminal prosecution for the said offense, due to the lapse of its statute of limitations. Pending the decision of the Court of Cassation of Greece on the above request, its Prosecutor proposed that it should be deemed accepted.

Our Senior Associate, Natalie Zourenko Chrisagi, achieved the acquittal of the accused CEO along with our Head of Dispute Resolution & White collar crime, Konstantinos Papadiamantis. The executive of German military defense manufacturer was facing the charges of corruption and was acquitted of all charges by the Greek Court for felonies after 4 years of trial.

Natalia Chrisagi and Andreas Matsakas, members of our White-Collar Crime Team, have been representing NEXI PAYMENTS GREECE S.A., in the capacity of the universal successor of Alpha Bank, as the civil claimant appearing in support of the charge within the context of criminal proceedings against four (4) companies accused of fraud at the expense of the said Bank, specifically in the form of bank-mediated fraudulent internet transactions, as well as accused of forgery and/or money laundering in the context of a criminal organization in some of these cases. One (1) of them has been referred to the Three-Member Felonies Appeals Court of Athens, pending the hearing before it, while the remaining three (3) of them are still at the pre-trial stage, pending before either a Prosecutor or an Inquiring Judge.

Andreas Matsakas, member of our White-Collar Crime Team, successfully represented the Cooperative Bank of Dodecanese SYN.P.E. – which is in special liquidation, conducted by PQH Single Liquidation S.A. – as the civil claimant appearing in support of the charge before the Three-Member Felonies Appeals Court of Dodecanese, operating as a criminal court of second instance, which convicted an employee and a prominent customer of the abovementioned Bank of the felony of embezzlement, as well as the said customer and his wife of the felony of fraud on the courts, thus issuing formal res judicata.

Our Criminal litigation team has successfully represented an American citizen before the Supreme Court for espionage and participation in a criminal organization. The Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision by recognizing the right of the accused to be provided with translated indictment and other important documents of the criminal case file into the language that he/she understands.
The decision, blazes a trail for cases where the accused part is not a native Greek speaker, thus is entitled to have the basic documents of the criminal file translated.
Our team was led by Konstantinos Papadiamantis, partner and leader of our Civil Criminal litigation practice, with the collaboration of Natalie Chrysagi, senior associate.

Our Partners Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Stathis Potamitis together with Senior Associate, Theodora Souma, represented a domestic company in ICC arbitration proceedings for claims arising out of a Share Purchase Agreement, amounting to approximately €160 million. They also assisted the client on settlement negotiations and on the termination of the dispute through the issuance of a consent award.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Konstantina Panagopoulou Perez successfully represented a Servicer before the Appeal Court, which issued an essential ruling on a disputed issue regarding Greek NPL’s. More specifically, the Athens Appeal Court ruled that it is legal for the Servicer to undertake the judicial proceedings at his name and request the adjudicated amount to be paid directly to the fund, if so provided by the Servicing Agreement; the parties right to undertake such agreement was contested. Moreover it may be inferred from the ruling that the parties have the opportunity to adapt the servicing agreements, to a large extent, to their specific needs.

Partners Theologos Mintzas and Konstantinos Papadiamantis, supported by Associate Ilia-Aikaterini Boura, successfully represented the winning consortium of a public port sub-concession in an intervention before the Court of Auditors. The intervention succeeded to annul a decision by the Court of Auditors that required prior to the signing of port sub-concessions the preparation and issuance of master plans, a requirement imposing significant and unnecessary, both from a legal and a policy perspective, delays on the conclusion of the sub-concession program of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF / ΤΑΙΠΕΔ). HRADF led the challenge and was exceptionally represented by KLC Law Firm whose team was led by Partner Theodora Xythali and Senior Associate ANDREAS ABATIS.

POTAMITISVEKRIS team with Maria Ferfeli successfully represented a foreign bank in litigation proceedings before the Greek Supreme Court (Areios Pagos), which confirmed the legality and validity of an exclusive choice-of-court clause in a dispute with consumers. It was ruled that consumers claims for abusive clauses are not investigated ex officio by the court.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Evgenia Kordou, successfully represented a charity, a jewelry manufacture company, and a jewelry designer in litigation proceedings before Athens Single and Multi – Member Courts regarding an application of interim measures and a lawsuit against our clients, requesting the Court to order cessation of production and distribution of a certain object and 500k € as indemnity. The Court issued a judgment in favor of our clients, rejecting in substance the application of interim measures of the plaintiffs. Subsequently, the lawsuit was withdrawn and the trial was dismissed.

Head of Litigation Konstantinos Papadiamantis and associate Evgenia Kordou, successfully represented, in a pro bono case, before the Athens Multi-member Court, the editor and a journalist of an investigation journalism site against claim for defamation by an investigated party.

POTAMITISVEKRIS’s litigation team, headed by Partner, Konstantinos Papadiamantis, represented Andreas Georgiou before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),  former head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) during the crisis years. ECHR ruled that Andrea Georgiou did not have a fair trial, when he was condemned for breach of duty, regarding his actions as head of the ELSTAT. ECHR considered that the “reopening of the proceedings before Court of Cassation” would constitute the appropriate just satisfaction.

Andreas Georgiou an Amherst Scholar and internationally revered statistician, served as head of ELSTAT in the crisis years, and adapted the method of the Greek statistical authority to the European standards, revealing, thus, the real figure of the Greek Public Debt. He has been accused of “falsifying the Greek statistic data” by various political figures, an accusation met with the disapprobation of the international statistical community and the EU authorities, who qualified him as “the scapegoat” for Greece’s political and economic crisis.

PV’s litigation team defended Andreas Georgiou before various Greek jurisdictions. It is a pro bono case that our firm handled and reflects our values ​​as lawyers since it’s a way to promote social justice.

Konstantinos P. Papadiamantis, supported by Katerina Michaela Perraki, successfully represented before the Criminal Court of Athens the legal representatives of a leading supermarket chain in Greece, accused of personal injury by negligence and illegal dismissal of a former employee and trade unionist.

Konstantinos P. Papadiamantis and Dimitra Dai represent the former CEO of one of the Greek leading football clubs, during preliminary examination for breach of trust, regarding an audit which was carried out during the period of his management.

Konstantinos P. Papadiamantis and Dimitra Dai successfully represented before the First Instance Court of Thiva, three executive officers of a global supermarket chain which operates over 200 stores in Greece, accused of defamation and coercion following a criminal complaint filed by a former employee who has been an active member of a trade union. All involved defendants were acquitted.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis, Head of Litigation, supported by Konstantina Panagopoulou Perez (Associate) and Katerina Michaela Perraki (Junior Associate) successfully represented before the Athens Appeal Court a leading company of the Greek supermarket industry in the context of insolvency litigation proceedings. The pending dispute related to the judicial revocation of numerous transactions whose total value (summing all pending disputes of the same client handled by the firm) exceeded the amount of 5.5 million Euros.

We are delighted to announce that the Athens Bankruptcy Court ratified the rehabilitation agreement (involving more than €0.5 billion debt) between our client, a widely known listed entity –parent of a multinational group of jewelry and fashion companies– and a group of international creditors. In the context of the restructuring, our team successfully represented the client in the first litigation for the appointment of a special proxy substituting the shareholders in the company’s GA for the approval of the restructuring. POTAMITISVEKRIS’ team was led by Stathis Potamitis, Head of Restructuring & Insolvency, and Konstantinos Papadiamantis, Head of Litigation, supported by Eleana Baya (Senior Associate), Catherine Androulaki (Senior Associate), Konstantinos Rachianiotis (Associate), and Evangelia Natsi (Junior Associate).

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a multinational company in the pharmaceuticals sector in litigation proceedings against Minister of Health regarding the imposition of clawback of 2020 with a total value of €20m.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a multinational company in the medical devices sector in litigation proceedings against Minister of Health regarding the imposition of clawback of 2018 with a total value of €350K.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and Theodora Souma are currently representing a foreign company in ICC arbitration proceedings against a foreign credit institution, for a disputed amount exceeding 6,5 M.

The former President & CEO and the former Commercial Director of a fast growing Greek brewing company have been accused by one of the major beer companies worldwide for false testimonies within the framework of the investigation of Hellenic Competition Commission against the latter. Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his white collar crime team successfully represented the defendants who have both been acquitted by the First Instance Court of Athens being convinced that the content of the evidence brought by the defendants before HCC was true and accurate.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his white collar crime team successfully represented the former CEO of a Stock Broking Company against accusation of breach of trust brought by a former investor. By a unanimous judgment, the Five-Member Court of Appeal of Athens acquitted the defendant holding that he did not violate the rules of diligent management and that the claimant has not suffered certain material damage.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his white collar crime team successfully represented the ex CEO of a veterinary company against accusation for tax evasion in the amount of 2 million euros following non-accounting computation of the taxable VAT, whose prosecution had been criticized by the Greek press.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his team successfully represented a foreign-based company in litigation proceedings before the Greek courts, regarding the allegedly wrongful forfeiture of a bank demand guarantee (damages/unjust enrichment claims of approx. 2,2M. €.). The Court adopted a commercially oriented approach, whereby the creditor of the demand guarantee may pursue collection of its claim against the bank, on the basis of legitimate legal and factual arguments, with no obligation to await a judgment on the disputed underlying claim and without such behavior being construed as tortious.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his team successfully represented the domestic subsidiary of a Danish publicly listed company in litigation proceedings before the Athens Court of Appeal, regarding the annulment of an ICC domestic arbitral award for an amount of approximately 1,1 M. €

Alexandros Kortesis and team advised the local arm of a multinational pharmaceutical company before the Negotiation Committee of Ministry of Health.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his white collar crime team successfully represented the former head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority accused of false certification, whose prosecution has caused great concerns in Europe and the USA.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a leading multinational medical devices company on a dispute arising from a public procurement proceeding set up by the National Procurement Committee of the Ministry of Health for the supply of National Hospitals with intracoronary stents and angioplasty balloons, with a value of €15m.

Alexandros Kortesis and team advised a leading multinational company regarding legal issues arising out of tenders for supplies in the Defence Sector. The scope includes review and commentary of tender documents, bid submission support.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a multinational company in the sector of fireplaces in litigation proceedings against its former distributor in Greece for claims related to clientele compensation and damages, with a value of 1,4m.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and his team successfully defended a foreign bank before the Athens Court of Appeal, within the framework of a cross border reorganization and winding up of a foreign credit institution under the directive 2001/24/EC of the European Parliament, against creditors of the wound up institution attempting to enforce their claims on real estate assets of the latter. A number of similar cases are pending before the Greek courts, for assets amounting to an overall 89,7 M. € book value.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a leading medical devices company on disputes arising from public procurement proceedings set up by National General Hospitals for the supply with artificial-kidney units for haemofiltration and haemodiafiltration.

Alexandros Kortesis and team advised a leading cultural organisation on a public procurement tender for insurance services.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a leading multinational medical devices company on a dispute arising from a public procurement proceeding set up by the National Procurement Committee of the Ministry of Health for the supply of National Hospitals with pacemakers and defibrillators, with a value of €39m.

Stathis Potamitis and Vicky Psaltis successfully represented a foreign client in an international ICC arbitration arising from an acquisition dispute.

Vicky Psaltis and team successfully represented a Greek subsidiary of a multinational group in an ICC arbitration relating to a tax indemnity claim pursuant to a share purchase agreement.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a leading multinational medical devices company on a dispute arising from a public procurement proceeding set up by the National Procurement Committee of the Ministry of Health for the supply of National Hospitals with intracoronary stents and angioplasty balloons, with a value of €39 m.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented the Greek subsidiary of a multinational consumer goods company on the collection of a €2m claim against a major super-market chain.

Alexandros Kortesis and team is defending a major Greek franchising company in the food sector against a lawsuit of a former franchisee arising out from the termination of a franchise agreement.

Alexandros Kortesis and team represented a leading multinational medical devices company on a dispute arising from a public procurement tender set up by a hospital for the supply of cardiology material, with a value of €9.6m.

George Bersis and team advised a foreign bank on the process for carrying out international tenders and the sale of three hotels in Greece. Konstantinos Papadiamantis and team represented the bank on the complex open litigation issues in need of resolution for the transaction to go ahead.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and team advised a Greek bank in arbitration proceedings to set aside the award relating to a dispute with a joint venture partner in the credit card business.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and team successfully represented a bank before the Supreme Court in their application to overturn an award of €30m by the Athens Court of Appeal.

Alexios Papastavrou and team successfully represented a tobacco company in unfair dismissal cases concerning employees, including members of the union executive, and in pensions cases disputing the passing from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution one.

Alexios Papastavrou and team successfully represented an international bank in employment law litigation, following its exit from Greece.

Alexios Papastavrou and team acted on behalf of an international bank on an advisory basis and successfully represented it in individual and collective employment law litigation arising from the employment and pension issues stemming from the transfer of its consumer business sector, including negotiation with the employees’ representatives, involvement in the drafting of the relevant clauses of the SPA and advising on the liquidation of the pension plans.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis led a team representing board members of a Greek bank, including the CEO, in their defence against criminal charges for breach of fiduciary duties.

Stathis Potamitis and Vicky Psaltis acted for an international investor in an ICC arbitration of an acquisition contract dispute. The case led to a settlement following an ad hoc mediation.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and team represented a foreign Bank in respect of the protection of the assets received as part of the winding-up proceedings of another foreign credit institution against claims by the debtors, under the European regime governing the reorganization and winding-up of credit institutions.

Alexios Papastavrou and team have represented over 100 different clients in the second half of 2014, more than 90% of which were employers and more than 80% of which were multinational companies, in more than 150 Court hearings with a success rate of over 95%.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and team successfully obtained a ‘special receivership’ order against the debtor of his client, an enforcement remedy rarely granted by the Courts.

Konstantinos Papadiamantis and team successfully defended the administrators of a company charged with criminal liability for abuse of dominant position further to a decision by the Greek Competition Commission.