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Johannes TrenkwalderBirth: 1974First arrived in Ukraine: 2005Nationality: AustrianPosition: partner at CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz law firm.Family: Married; two daughters, 11 and 8How to succeed in Ukraine: “This was the key to success for us – finding the right clients who are stable investors in Ukraine."

Lawyers have work to do, in good times and in bad. That’s certainly the case for Johannes Trenkwalder, the athletic, angular Austrian who manages the 16-member Kyiv law office of CMS Reich-Rohwig Hainz. It’s part of the global CMS network with 3,000 lawyers and tax experts in 59 nations.

Trenkwalder is a member of the transactions team, specializing in mergers and acquisitions.

“All the lawyers are busy, for all the wrong reasons. We are seeing a lot of exits from the market,” he said during an interview in his office on Institytska Street. He said investors started getting out during the administration of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, whose circle of insiders were notorious for shaking down or taking businesses they wanted. Or, as Trenkwalder put it diplomatically: “It was difficult if you were in a sector that certain people had an interest in.”

Trenkwalder hopes some of these clients and businesses will return to Ukraine in better times.

He said his firm could have more billable hours if it was less picky about clients and willing to engage in Ukraine’s “pay-to-play” bribery.

Without naming names, Trenkwalder said that the firm was approached for help in getting European Union sanctions lifted against some ex-Yanukovych officials. “We turned down all of them. In the end, we are an international law firm. We don’t want to be involved with that sort of people.”

They also won’t help clients who want them to bribe their way out of legal jams. “We are not involved, never, in any funny things,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, the native of Innsbruck, Austria, is an alpine skiier and is coming off a recent winter family skiiing vacation with his snowboarding older daughter.

Besides great mountains, Austria is a country that offers low taxes on investment income. The friendly attitude towards rich people’s money has helped attract many Ukrainian and Russian magnates. Ukrainians known to favor Austria are Dmytro Firtash (wanted on criminal bribery charges by the United States), ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov (suspected of financial corruption in Ukraine) and Andriy Klyuev, a former top Yanukovych aide.

Low taxes are not the only appeal. “Austria during the Cold War was something in between the East and West. It’s a beautiful, safe environment, not a lot of crime around.,” he said.

If Trenkwalder’s firm won’t touch dirty money or dirty people, how would he feel about helping the Ukrainian government track down assets allegedly stolen by Yanukovych and his allies?

He said he would be in favor of that sort of work, but the government hasn’t asked him. Recovering such assets, however, will be hard. The toughest challenge is getting such assets returned after they’ve been transferred through a maze of intermediaries.

He agreed that governments have legitimate interests in stamping out opaque arrangements designed to avoid taxes. But that, too, is hard to do. If Switzerland cracks down, the money “caravan moves on” to other nations. While European nations and the United States can do more against money laundering, he said, “from a practical perspective, it’s difficult to extinguish that practice.”

Trenkwalder said he’s motivated by the thrill of making deals happen. “It’s a lot of pressure involved, but it’s very rewarding if you get the deal done, if you achieve what you wanted,” he said.

He sees his profession as “a people business. You have to be able to see where the other person comes from…It’s about matching interests.”

Mergers and acquisitions can be done as quickly as a matter of weeks, but usually take three to six months, he said.

Trenkwalder arrived in Ukraine during the relative prosperity and high hopes of the post-2004 Orange Revolution period. He took over management of the office in 2009, amid the global financial crisis, and has no plans to leave despite the current crisis deepened by revolution and war.

“We never know what life will bring about,” Trenkwalder said. “We found a team here that works, that is able to produce good results. You should never change a winning team.”

Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected]