Former Hogan Lovells partner Agnieszka Majka has joined NGL Legal’s Warsaw office as the independent Polish firm seeks to expand its healthcare practice.

Majka joins the firm along with senior associate Celina Bujalska and associate Anna Wiktorow-Bojska. Majka is an experienced litigator, specialising in product law and pharmaceutical and healthcare regulations.

Krzysztof Wiater, managing partner at NGL Legal, described Majka as “a valued practitioner who brings to the team many years of experience and practical knowledge, but also fresh insights and ideas for solutions for these industries.” 

Wiater, who was previously head of DLA Piper in Poland before joining NGL in 2018, added that the team’s arrival “was an element of the strategy of building a universal legal practice and a significant strengthening of our competences in the pharmaceutical, medical devices, supplements, and chemical and food sectors.”

While at Hogan Lovells, Majka focused her practice on product liability disputes, and became known for her work on internal investigations and compliance consultancies for clients in the healthcare sector, including white-collar defence work.

Majka said she was “extremely pleased with the prospect of working for an organisation with such an innovative approach to providing legal services and built on the values that have always guided me in my work.” 

NGL Legal works co-operatively—in what it calls a hybrid model—which aligns independent regional law firms across Central and Eastern Europe, and the Baltic states, with their global counterparts to provide suitable sectoral expertise. 

The new team will work with clients from the pharmaceutical, health and life sciences industries, and will provide all industries with general regulatory advice on product safety and compliance, as well as representing them in product liability disputes at European and national level. 

The team’s expertise will be particularly valued in the face of any future potential liability challenges arising out of Covid-19 treatments, as well as assisting with product advice generally on EU and local law matters.

Majka leaves Hogan Lovells after 12 years, while Bujalska and Wiktorow-Bojska depart after six and four years respectively. 

In June this year, two mid-sized Polish law firms merged to create B2R Law, while US employment law firm Littler allied with Polish specialists Paruch Chrusciel Schiffter.

In April, CMS Poland hired a five-person team of private equity lawyers from Clifford Chance to expand its transactions practice in anticipation of a hoped-for revival in M&A deals, boosting CMS’s local client offering in comparison to their Magic Circle rivals.

Clifford Chance reported good financial results recently, including in Europe, while CMS showed a slight dip in revenue compared to last year, with global revenues topping £1.3bn.