Q&A | Panayotis Yannakas | Litigation

Hello, my name is Spanotis and I am a freelancer lawyer based in Eosia Cypus. When people ask about my specialism, I actually like to introduce myself as a general lawyer. I know it is a term we don’t hear very often today as everyone wants to be strictly specialized but for me it is a strategic choice. My clients are mostly private individuals and I provide them with what I call 360 degrees care. I don’t just solve one isolate problem. I manage their entire portfolio. This goes from

their family matters and inheritance all the way to their sales or their duties as company directors. I strongly believe that a good lawyer needs to see the big picture. Let me to give you a quick example. If a company takes a loan and the directors acts as personal garanders, a specialized corporate lawyer may only check if the company has the capacity to sign. But as a general lawyer, I also protect the very personal rights of those gars.

You know, I work entirely solo. Of course, I have many open outsourcing partnership. I borrow top expert when I need them and they borrow me when they need me. But for my client, this is actually a massive advantage. When they hire me, they speak directly to me every single time. That means zero information loss, absolute confidentiality, and lighting fast response. Sometimes a quick 5inut call is all it takes. That is the premium service you simple don’t get in big firms where precious time gets wasted bouncing between junior

lawyers and the partner who finally builds the case. My second main area is litigation. Naturally, my first choice is always to resolve dispute out of court. But the court system is incredibly useful tool even when everyone gets along.

For example, even when two parties fully agree, like in a family dispute or a complex long destructuring, I always advise turning that voluntary agreement into a formal court order, a concess order. I don’t wait for a contract to be breached to take action.

I use the court proactively by making everything official from day one. We simply avoid future conflicts. Most of my clients first come to me during a difficult moment, a foreclos, a divorce, a business dispute. These are not pleasant situation. But what happened after is what I find truly rewarding. Once we get through that first challenge together, cast builds and over the time that that same client who came to me about a debt problem is now calling me to de a property investment or to handle the sale of a

trademark. This unity is actually a massive operational advantage because I already know the full picture. the family structure, the company setup, the assets. I can move in accountably fast. A good example is the money laundering and know your client compliance.

When a new transaction come up, I don’t start from zero. I have empty history in front of me. What may take an overfirm days of back and forth, I can handle in matter of hours. And to support all this, my office is fully equipped with modern tools. My clients have access to a dedicated web app where they can check the status of their bill at any time. For document exchange, I use a hybrid cloud platform. So we never waste time hunting through emails attachments or worrying about security.

Everything is organized, accessible and protected. So in short, the unique feature of my service is not just legal expertise. It is a long-term partnership, one that combines legal and economic thinking backed by technology and built on trust that compounds over the time.

At the moment I am handling very close to nightly active court case and I think that number says something about the peace and the variety of this work. The largest part of my case loads sit in administrative law. Many of these cases involve immigration and citizenship matters. people navigating the complexities of nationality application in Cypus. Others deal with customs dispute. The rest of my cases is what I would call real life law, civil claims for damages, unpaid debts, dishonor checks and inheritance dispute. These are the these are this

these are these are these are these are the kinds of a cage that touch people at very personal and often stressful moments. These are the kinds of cases. These are the kinds of cases that touch people at very personal and often very stressful moments. And honestly, there is where the general model I mentioned before prove its value because a family dealing with a inheritance dispute today maybe need help restructuring a loan tomorrow. So my clients are not defined by a single legal problem.

They are individuals, families and small business owners who need a lawyer who can stay with them across different chapter of their lives. I would like to share two cases that I think capture what makes legal work truly interesting. The first involve an employee who worked at a foreign embassy here in Cyprus. Their contract was terminated following a conflict with a senior college. a conflict that also involved bullying based on sexual orientation.

Now the challenge was not the employment claim itself. It was the principle of actra jury imper the doctrine of diplomatic immunity that in many situation shield foreign states from being sued in local courts. My task was to convince two separate jurisdictions that this specific conflict fell outside the protection of that doctrine that it was not an act of sovereign authority but a private employment matter and I succeed. It was a case that the quiet threating together employment law, tort law and principle of public international law all at once and that

for me is exactly the kind of complexity I find mosting. The second case is a foreclose matter and it is a perfect example of how procedural precision can change everything. A bank pursuing a foreclose and the administrator of a deceased guarantor happened to be the same person as a another living guarantor. The second case is a foreclosed matter and it is a perfect example how procedural precision can change everything. A bank was pursuing a foreclose and the administrator of a disit and the administrator of a deceased Gondor

happened to be the same person as a another living Gondor. The bank threat this as one and sent only one notification. But under Cypus case law that was not enough. That individual needed to receive two separate notices. One in their capacity as a gallandor and a second one in their capacity as administrator of deceased Gallandor. The bank failed to do that and that procedural gap become the turning point of the case.

Cypus courts are extremely strict on these protocols and rightly so. It is a reminder that in law the details are never small. The answer is actually quite simple. As a freelance litigator, there are moments when hiring a highly specialized professional is simple. The light core and as a general lawyer, I deal with matters that cross borders where a locally licensed lawyer in another jurisdiction is not optional. It is essential. So from both anchors, collaboration is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Global law expert for me is

exactly that, a hub for building working relationship with trusted colleagues around the world. Not just a directory, but a network where I can find and offer expertise across the borders. and frankly that kind of professional community I was looking for.