HELENA VARVAYANNIS

Senior Partner

Email

hvarvayannis@vglawyers.gr
Telephone

+30 210 72 56 047

BIOGRAPHY

Helena Varvayannis is a Supreme Court Lawyer, a member of the Athens Bar Association since 1993, and Senior Partner at VG Lawyers. She graduated from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens School of Law with High Honors in 1991. She holds an LLM in International Commercial Law from the University of Kent in the UK (1993) and gained her MSc degree in International Medicine – Health Crisis Management from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens School of Medicine in 2014 with High Honors. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Medical History Department of the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens School of Medicine.

Helena’s main field of activity is Greek and International Commercial Law (Competition Law, International Distribution & Agency Agreements, Industrial Property – Intellectual Property & International Protection, Corporate Law, Mergers and Due Diligences), Public Contracts Law, Telecommunications Law (Broadband & Cable TV Services and Networks) and Pharmaceutical Products. Among other things, in the past and as part of a three-member team, Helena has worked on proposals that were submitted to the Greek Ministry of Trade regarding the amendments to laws on “Unfair Competition” and “Monopoly and Oligopoly Control and Protection of Free Competition”. She participated in a team of legal advisors that represented major Greek and Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies as well as the Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Companies (SFEE) in cases regarding the fairer pricing of proprietary medicinal products in the Greek market and the application of annulment of the first list of proprietary medicinal products brought before the “Council of State”. She also took part in the team of legal advisors to OTE Group (Greek Telecommunications Organization) when it was first listed both on the Athens Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, when it founded the COSMOTE mobile telecommunications company, the organization’s Pay TV & Broadband Services Project, and OTESAT-MARITEL, an OTE subsidiary company providing satellite communications in the Greek maritime market. Helena also provides legal services to large-scale national and international construction companies that deal with projects such as highway, tunnel and bridge construction.

Helena is fluent in English (C2 level), has basic knowledge of French (A1) and a good knowledge of Italian (B2).

She has served as General Secretary of the “International Medicine – Health Crisis Management Alumni Association”, the first alumni society of the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens School of Medicine post-graduate program. She volunteers as a member of “RSF Hellas – Communications and Rescue Volunteer Team”, which is a regular member and the liaison office of “Rescue International Assistance League” for Greece. She is a provider of First Aid and a First Aid Trainer, certified by a number of prestigious Greek and international bodies. In this capacity she also participates in covering the health management needs of major national and international sports and other large-scale events. Finally, she trains management executives and employees of large private and public corporations in a wide range of topics that have to do with First Aid.

She is a member of various organizations, including the Association of Greek Commercialists, the University of Kent at Canterbury Society, the British Graduates Society, the European Resuscitation Council, the European Society of Cardiology, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

FIELDS OF ACTIVITY

Greek and International Commercial Law
Competition Law
International Distribution & Agency Agreements
Corporate Law
Telecommunications
Industrial Property – Intellectual Property & International Protection
Mergers and Due Diligences

EDUCATION

National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, School of Law, LL.B.

University of Kent, UK, Faculty of Law, LL.M.

National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, School of law, LL.M.

National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, M.Sc.

National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Ph.D(c)

PUBLICATIONS – CONFERENCES

See Helena’s publications below:

“Center for Research and Education in Disaster Medicine in the Southeastern Mediterranean – The Establishment of the Research Center”, Master’s Thesis published by the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens School of Medicine Library, May 2014.
“A Centre for Modern Research and Education in Disaster Medicine in Southeastern Mediterranean”, May 2013.
“Copyright Protection for Satellite Broadcasting in the Community”, Master’s thesis published by the University of Kent at Canterbury Library, October 1992.
“Competition Laws of Europe-Chapter IX”, Butterworths, 1995, “Greek Business Law: An Update”, Vol. 6, issue 11, 1995, European Business Law Review.
Comments on the Ministry of Commerce Proposal for the Amendment to Law 703/77, Naftemboriki, 22 July, 1994.
Contributor on developments in Greek Commercial Law to European Business Law Review, Kluwer Law International Publications [Graham & Trotman].
Contributor on the implementation of European Union Legislature in the field of Commercial Law to Corporate Acquisitions and Mergers – Newsletter, Kluwer Law International Publications.
Contributor on topics relating to Commercial Law to International Trade Law & Regulation, Sweet and Maxwell / ESC Publishing.
Publications in European Competition Law Review, Sweet and Maxwell / ESC Publishing, on topics related to the recent amendment to Law 703/77 and Competition Committee decisions.

In handling every new case, cost, time and efficiency are key.