Dimitris Paraskevas

Dimitris Paraskevas is an attorney by the Supreme Court (Άρειος Πάγος) in Athens, Greece, specialised in international M&A and privatisations and former Secretary for Privatisation of the Hellenic Republic.He is the son of Elias Paraskevas (07/07/1912 - 23/09/1991), known as the “Dean of Greek lawyers” and former Vice President of the Athens Bar Association, who is recognised as having shaped the case law of the Supreme Court and the Council of State in Greece for over 45 years.

Career

In early 1993 Paraskevas was appointed Director of the Office of the Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology and soon thereafter he was appointed Secretary for Privatisation at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Technology of the Hellenic Government (now Ministry of Economy, Development & Tourism). During his tenure as Secretary for Privatisation, the Greek Privatisation Programme raised approx. $10bn in proceeds in just six years (1993 – 1999), approximately eight times the proceeds of the Greek Privatisation Programme from 1977 to 1992. For this achievement the Financial Times named Paraskevas ‘Super Salesman’ and praised him for his ‘unflappable’ style of closing deals.

He is currently the Managing Partner of Elias Paraskevas Attorneys1933, an international law firm with offices in Athens and London, and the Président Délégué of the firm’s Monaco consulting arm, Paraskevas S.A.M. In 2014 he was appointed European Forum Liaison Officer of the Banking Law Committee of the International Bar Association, and on January 2016 he was promoted to Treasurer of the Banking Law Committee.

He is consistently named one of the international leaders in M&A law worldwide by the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers (2005-2015) and the Legal Media Group Guide to the World’s Leading M&A Lawyers (2007-2015). The Legal 500 Guide (2015) referred to him as 'a legal genius with extremely advanced business and legal sense'.

Personal life

Paraskevas established the Elias Paraskevas Foundation, through which he donated among other things the Elias Paraskevas floor at the new academic building of the London School of Economics, which was inaugurated by H.M.Queen Elizabeth II.

He is also a keen collector of modern artworks by Greek sculptors and painters. The ‘Paraskevas Collection’ is considered unique and is often quoted in art scholarship discussing modern sculpture in Greece.

He often participates as a speaker at international conferences. In June 2010, at the eve of the Greek government debt crisis, in an IIF event in Vienna, Austria, Paraskevas stated publicly to George Papandreou, then Prime Minister of Greece, in front of an audience of 400 bankers, lawyers and regulators, that it was not expected that the Hellenic Government will service its debt. In response, Papandreou affirmed that Greece will service the debt, but 18 months thereafter, the Greek PSI proved Papandreou wrong.