Prica & Partners is a historic brand. "Prica was one of the best ten years ago with Spasic," one partner says....
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Prica & Partners is a historic brand. "Prica was one of the best ten years ago with Spasic," one partner says. "Prica, it's a good law firm. Old man Prica was the main guy but he died. Mihajlo took over and he is a very nice guy," another partner says. Nonetheless, in terms of market share, it retains the residual function of the older brand. The firm was originally in combination with what has now become Spasic & Partners. However, following the unfortunate death of Mr Prica (senior), differences in vision between Mihajlo Prica and Darko Spasic led to differing paths as Prica (junior) retained the lion's share. Despite this, Prica & Partners is a small office that punches above its weight; however, it is apparent that nostalgia grips the market. "When the old Mr Prica was around it used to be a bigger and better law firm. I'm not quite sure that they're at the level of tier two and I truly mean that," one partner says. "It's a tiny five lawyer firm, [it] was a historical law firm, they worked together [and] Prica kept most of the lawyers and Spasic left and recruited another three or four people, in terms of volume, size, market awareness, it is there because it had a historical name," another partner says.
Nevertheless, the firm is still able to bring in some notable mandates. It has been active in the field of M&A and advised Istrabenz in the €382 million acquisition of Droga Kolinska, the majority shareholder in Kras, Grand Prom and Palanacki Kiseljak, by Atlantic Grupa. The firm also threw its weight behind Duferco in its potential acquisition of a limited liability company in Serbia. This included due diligence, structuring of the transaction and the drafting of its pertinent documents. Additionally, despite PPP (public-private partnership) projects being at an embroyonic stage in Serbia, Prica & Partners advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in PPPs for waste management in the Jagodina and Leskovac municipalities.
"At least from the local perspective, although they are doing alright, they have been losing the market share for years. I haven't seen them hire any new associates. They have been stagnating or reducing head count for several years now," one competitor says, with another adding: "Prica, the size of the firm [is] at a standstill. [it is] not growing".
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