Simon Žgavec
Attorney at Law I Partner
He entered legal practice early. In 2005 he joined an international law firm as a student trainee and, after graduating in 2008, continued there as a trainee and Associate. Having passed the State Bar Examination, in 2011 he joined one of Slovenia’s leading law firms as an attorney candidate, where he further developed his expertise, in particular in commercial disputes and transactions. He has been registered with the Slovenian Bar Association since 2012.
In 2018 he established his own law practice and in 2021, together with Andrej Brezavšček, founded the law firm Brezavšček Žgavec. Under their leadership the firm has quickly grown into a recognised commercial law practice: in 2024, the international directory Legal 500 moved it from the “Firms to Watch” category to its ranking of leading law firms in Slovenia. The firm is a member of the international network Alliott Global Alliance, which allows it to support clients particularly on international projects.
He advises domestic and foreign companies on setting up and structuring their business, mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions and banking and finance matters, with a particular affinity for technology companies and issues in the fields of IT, intellectual property and FinTech. When a deal runs into difficulties, he represents clients in commercial disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals, always looking first for the solution that makes business sense for the client and only then for the one that is legally elegant. He also publishes on legal topics and is the author of articles on company law, securitisation and dispute resolution in Slovenian and international professional publications.
Law, for Simon, is the art of turning a tangle of interests into a clear way forward – and the moment it clicks is still what he enjoys most.
Outside the office he remains true to precision and quick decisions: he is a certified judge for ski jumping and Nordic combined at the Slovenian Ski Association. He likes golfing whenever he has time.
Foreign languages: English, German, Croatian, Serbian, (basic Spanish)
Practice areas:
- commercial law
- real estate law
- M&A
- banking and finance
- IT, IP & FinTech
- dispute resolution and alternative dispute resolution
Publications:
- The Banking Regulation Review, Slovenian Chapter, Law Business Research Ltd, 2016, London, United Kingdom
- International Commercial Arbitration: Practice and Procedure – Enforcement of Foreign Awards Covering More Than 75 Countries, Chapter: Slovenia, Universal Law Publishing Company 2012, New Delhi, India, co-author
- Article: Special and irregular revision in accordance with Companies Act-1 (Posebna in izredna revizija v skladu z ZGD-1), Legal Practice, No. 41-42, 25 October 2012
- Alternative dispute resolution of labor disputes with the support of social dialogue or what is good to know, author of the draft Ethical Codex for Arbitrators in the proceedings of alternative dispute resolution of labor disputes, Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2011
- Article: Universal legal succession in statutory changes of corporations (Univerzalno pravno nasledstvo pri statusnih preoblikovanjih gospodarskih družb), Legal Practice, No. 24-25,17 June 2010
- Alternative dispute resolution of labour disputes with the support of social dialogue (Alternativno reševanje delovnih sporov s podporo socialnega dialoga), Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2010, co-author
- Article: Special cases of representation of proxies and managing directors (Posebni primeri zastopanje prokuristov in poslovodstva), Legal Practice, No. 43, 5 November 2009, co-author
- Article: Securitization (Listinjenje), Legal Practice No. 40-41, 17 October 2008
- Series of articles in the Slovenian newspaper Finance, business and corporate law