Péter Köves

Professional experience

Dr. Péter Köves, founding partner of Lakatos, Köves & Partners, is a respected lawyer both in Hungary and in Europe. He is a formidable trial lawyer, a champion of litigation cases and a judge at the arbitration courts. 

Dr. Péter Köves acquired his law degree at the Faculty of Law of ELTE University with „Summa Cum Laude” qualification and a year after, he got an absolutorium at the Faculty of Sociology at the Department of Sciences of ELTE University. He became a member of the Budapest Bar Association in 1985 and founded the Lakatos, Köves & Partners Law Firm in 1991, which office acceded to the global network of Clifford Chance shortly thereafter.

Dr. Péter Köves has been an equity partner of Clifford Chance for more than 15 years and after the exit of the Budapest Office of Clifford Chance, he became the senior partner of Lakatos, Köves and Partners Law Firm.

Dr. Péter Köves has been a key player in several privatization transactions from the very beginning of the new era and has been a professional leader of the banking and finance legal practice. He has been the brains behind of various new type of banking and finance treaties in their Hungarian adaptation. Lately, he has introduced complex structured financial transactions, in particular PPP (Public Private Partnership), out of which transactions both the M5 and M6 motorway projects were awarded the “Deal of the Year” in 2004 and 2007 by Project Finance International and EuroMoney. Péter was awarded by the Minister of Economy and Transport for his role played in the introduction of the PPP constructions into the Hungarian market. Recently, he has been involved in arbitration matters; he has been acting as arbitrator of MKIK-, ICC- and other permanent and ad hoc (UNCITRAL) arbitrary tribunals.

Dr. Péter Köves was a member of the Board of Budapest Bar Association between 2006 and 2018 and the Board of the Hungarian Bar Association. He was the Vice President of the Budapest Bar Association between 2010 and 2018 and led one of the Disciplinary Appeal Chambers of the Hungarian Bar Association.

Dr. Péter Köves has been actively taken part in the international lawyer public life since about 2000. He has been a delegation member of Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and represents the Hungarian Bar Association in the Council of the International Bar Association (IBA).

Dr. Péter Köves has been elected the president of CCBE, the umbrella organisation of the European Bar Associations in 2008, and he was the first elected as such out of 12 states that joined in 2014-2017. Dr. Péter Köves held several key positions of the Bar Issues Commission (BIC) - which is the biggest organisation of attorneys-at-law - of the International Bar Association from 2012 on, and in 2019, he became BIC president and member of the Operative Board of IBA.

Between 2010 and 2016, Dr. Péter Köves was the Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law, and was the President of the European Lawyer’s Foundation between 2014 and 2018 in Haag.

He is a co-author of numerous banking and finance professional publications and the editor of the only PPP handbook published in Hungary.

He was awarded with the Eötvös Károly Prize in 2004 by the Budapest Bar Association and “The Lawyer” Award in 2006 and "For the Lawyers" Award in 2019 by the Hungarian Bar Association. He was granted the Great Cross of Austria by the President of Austria and the highest appraisal of the Bar of the Russian Federation and Poland as well.