Costas Apokides

When I set up this practice, I did not start from what a law firm is supposed to look like. I started from a different question.

What would I want, if I were the person on the other side of the desk?

I work with companies and the people who run them, with a particular focus on real estate and construction: developers, contractors, estate agencies, property managers, and investors who hold property through a company. Their owners' time belongs in the business. Good legal work should make that easier: contracts that hold, a company that is in order, and someone ready when something does go wrong.

Ten years of litigation taught me where companies get hurt: the sale contract with a gap in it, the construction agreement nobody read, the partnership with nothing in writing. I would rather meet those problems at the desk than in court. And because a company is more than its property, I cover the rest of it too: the people, the shareholders, the contracts and the disputes.

How I work

There is a way I work that matters more than the list of areas.

You never have to ask where things stand. Progress, and bad news, reach you first, while there is still time to do something about it.

You get a recommendation, not a list of options. I tell you what I actually think, including when your position is weak.

Fees are agreed in writing before work starts. No invoice should be a surprise.

Client experience is not something you set up once. I write down what works and what does not, and that shapes how the next matter is handled.