With Croatia becoming more economically prosperous by the month, many international law firms are showing an interest in setting up shop in Zagreb. However, the political stalemate over the arrests of alleged war criminals from Croatia means the Balkan country’s timetable for joining the European Union (EU) is still far off – 2010 is still the year being mooted, but that may change.
For law firms wanting to take advantage of the growth that clients investing in Croatia are seeing, there are still Bar restrictions in place to stop them from establishing a full-blown local presence. In many cases, Croatian firms are not allowed to market themselves online, a heavily punitive rule in terms of making West European firms aware of their presence. Zagreb’s lawyers are in a strong position to market themselves for referrals from US, UK and European firms, but getting their name known has to be done via face-to-face visits, or networking at conferences. Even the Croatian members of regional networks such as SEE Legal are not allowed to market themselves on the network’s own website, unlike fellow members – a name and phone number are all that is permitted for Zagreb member Divjak Topic & Bahtijarevic.
