Once a lawyer always a lawyer

Georgina Noakes talks to Vassilis Sarantitis in Piraeus

A MAN of quiet but determined focus lies behind the gentle persona of Vassilis Sarantitis and the family ethos that is clearly evident in the management of his law firm. He is a man with a huge appetite for achieving the tasks he sets both for himself and for those around him. This has led to success in two careers - as a lawyer and as a politician.

Vassilis Sarantitis was born in Neapolis, in southern Greece, in November 1938. His twin passions, politics and the law, were kindled from an early age. During his childhood, Vassilis's uncle, a politician, was a regular visitor to the family home. Vassilis Anastastatos was general manager of the Piraeus Port Authority at the time and played a pivotal role in the modernisation of the port. The young Vassilis was to later follow in his uncle's political footsteps.

After school, he went on to study at the law faculty of Athens University, where he also undertook financial and political studies, obtaining his degree in 1963. In London, Vassilis did postgraduate studies in marine transport and insurance law at the University of London. It was in London, just after his studies, that he met and subsequently became a lifelong friend of Norwegian lawyer, Ole Lund. (see The Maritime Advocate, January 1999).

Vassilis returned to Greece in 1965 to work for another lawyer before setting up his own law firm, Sarantitis & Partners. From the beginning he co-operated closely with Sinclair Roche and other major UK law firms, while creating and growing good relationships with many Norwegian lawyers, such as Ole Lund, Stephen Knudtzon, Nicholas Hambro and Georg Scheel. His law firm is now one of the largest in Greece, with offices in Piraeus, overlooking Akti Miaouli, and in central Athens.

Fifty per cent of the practice is still maritime, based in Piraeus, while the Athens office concentrates on corporate, banking and investment work, as well as new areas of expertise like telecoms and IT law. During his career, Vassilis has worked closely with most of the well-known names in the Greek shipping industry as well as with an array of foreign shipping companies and banks. He is also an official arbitrator of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping.

Vassilis's desire and willingness to promote Greece led him to become one of the founders of the Arab Hellenic Bank of Athens and, for many years, he was chairman of the Arab-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce. During the 1980s he was drawn into active politics.

In 1982, Vassilis was appointed secretary-general to the ministry of mercantile marine, with a brief to create a five-year programme for shipping, and eighteen months in which to implement it. His appointment as a minister led to a complete suspension of his practice. In reality, this meant that the firm ticked away quietly, with a few long-standing partners such as George Latsis and Despina Maroulis continuing to operate a shipping practice.

Vassilis was twice elected a member of parliament for Piraeus between 1985-89 and served as deputy minister for the ministry of defence from 1986-87, minister for trade and commerce in 1987, minister for transport & telecommunications between 1987-88, and minister for mercantile marine from 1988-89.

It was Vassilis's strong relationship with Andreas Papandreou that first drew him into the political arena. Initially, he was a cautious entrant. "I had been my own boss for too long to start taking orders," he explains. Like all new politicians, he decided that he would try to change things. Along the way he lost some friends who thought they could use friendship to their personal benefit. "A minister is a servant of the people," Vassilis used to say in office. "My door was always open to everyone, but closed to anyone who tried to take advantage of a 'young and innocent' politician like myself."

One suspects that it was shrewdness rather than innocence that stopped this from happening. To illustrate the point, Vassilis recalls his first day at the ministry of mercantile marine. He noticed that a large limo had parked on the footpath outside the front door to the ministry. Vassilis immediately ordered all cars to be removed and forbidden to park within a distance of five hundred metres from the entrance to the ministry, ignoring the fact that the limo belonged to an influential Greek shipowner, whom he knew well. "Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and they have to respect the state," was Vassilis's message. His ministry continued under the same rule and

At the termination of parliament after the short-lived elections of 1989, Vassilis retreated from official political activities. Despite many offers to participate in subsequent elections, he decided to return and devote himself on a full-time basis to the law firm he had started in 1965. In fact, 1989 heralded a new beginning for his firm, including a diversion into corporate law and other new areas.

The major changes Vassilis has seen over the last ten years in Greek maritime law are the improvements to the judicial service and the establishment of a maritime bench in Piraeus. There is now a school for judges which includes exams and a two-year course for qualified lawyers who want to become judges.

The Greek Maritime Law Association has recently been making a lot of noise about foreign lawyers operating in Piraeus. Vassilis takes a pragmatic view of this, which suggests that the GMLA is barking without reason about foreign lawyers who have been operating in Piraeus for a long time.

In Vassilis's view, foreign lawyers do not constitute a threat. "There will always be work for Greek lawyers," he says "because they have a comparative advantage in the Greek market for legal services. However, all practitioners should comply with the regulations of the EU and respect the professional ethics of their place of establishment". We don't feel threatened by foreign law firms that have established offices in Piraeus. Competition may be bad only for some firms, but we are confident that we can compete successfully".

"Clients have become much more demanding. They are looking for alternative finance and better terms, and have become much more organised in their approach. I like to keep involved and I like to complete a job that I have started." this is perhaps the reason why he left the political scene so early.

The cyclical nature of the shipping industry means that maritime lawyers have to follow the ebb and flow of the markets, but Vassilis believes that the shipping market will survive its current downturn and start to move upwards over the next couple of years.

While keeping a close eye on his burgeoning corporate practice and his management role as senior partner of the firm, Vassilis is still actively involved in the big shipping cases that are handled from his Piraeus office.

"Clients have become much more demanding," he says. "They are looking for alternative finance and better terms, and have become much more organised in their approach. I like to keep involved and I like to complete a job that I have started."

Vassilis has taken a keen interest in shipping companies floated on the Greek stock exchange as an alternative means of raising finance, and he drafted a law for the stock exchange as far back as 1987 for this to happen.

In true Greek style, Vassilis's son Yiannis, also a lawyer, is following in the steps of his father and is actively involved at Sarantitis & Partners. The average age of lawyers in both offices is early 30s, combining the experience of older partners with the drive for success of dedicated younger member. Vassilis, meanwhile, remains at the epicentre, acting as both mentor and patriarch.

Vassilis has a reputation for encouraging individual development and the ambitions of his team. Rather than hold onto clients for himself, he actively endorses the development of personal relationships between his young lawyers and clients of the firm. While giving them a free hand, though, he still likes to be updated. After all, it is a second generation of clients who now use the firm, the children of the clients for whom Vassilis started his practice in the sixties. So he still looks after the fathers, leaving their siblings to the next generation, including his son. A nineteen-year-old daughter, Eleni, is also waiting in the wings and is currently studying law at London University.

Is Vassilis never tempted back into the world of politics? "No," he says emphatically. "My main interest is the practice, which is happier now I am back."

When we have finished talking, Vassilis leaves for the supreme court. So while he may be a private man trying to keep a low profile, he cannot help but continue to be involved in shaping and influencing the law and his practice. The overall impression he gives is that the law, where he originally started, is better suited to his temperament. He looks happy at the helm of the practice he founded, and it looks like this is where he will stay for some time to come.