About us
KONSTANTINOS KYRIAKOU | SUPREME COURT LAWYER | THESSALONIKI BAR
Our firm’s experience covers the entire spectrum of legal services, from setting day-to-day strategy to fighting for our clients in court.
Whatever the field, our work has always been guided by our philosophy to think ahead, pay attention to detail, speak the truth and represent our clients with dedication and loyalty.
As counsel, we are at our clients’ side to advise them and aggressively but cautiously defend their interests, enlisting the law as our ally to successfully meet whatever challenge may arise. Indeed, the long-standing personal relationships of trust that Konstantinos Kyriakou builds with his clients are a hallmark of his law practice.
“One with the law is a majority.”
“The law is the public conscience.”
“The safety of the people shall be the highest law.”
“Law is order, and good law is good order.”
Advice
Legal advice serves equally well in dealing with a challenge stemming from the past, in assessing current conditions, and also proactively in forging a strategy for the future. Responsible advice is both substantive and revelatory. It avoids needless conflict and tactical maneuvers, focusing instead on the essential, providing insight and forging an approach to managing issues that is geared to prevention rather than correction. A good lawyer is an experienced and a loyal consultant, perceptive and broad-sighted at the same time.
Konstantinos Kyriakou is an advocate of ongoing legal advice and open, systematic communication. We urge our clients, whether individuals or companies, to reach out and share with their lawyer their plans and concerns.
“Without law men are beasts.”
“Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.”
“At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.”
“More important than your obligation to follow your conscience, or at least prior to it, is your obligation to form your conscience correctly.”
Representation
Whether in or out of the courtroom, a lawyer represents his client at all times. Legal proceedings, negotiations, and actions pursued under power of attorney all fall within the purview and responsibilities of a legal advisor, who acts in the interests and on behalf of his client. The relations between the two are governed by a code of strict confidentiality protected by law.
In addition to knowing the subject at hand in great depth and detail, the lawyer must be willing to do battle for his client but know when to exercise restraint. Representation is both art and diplomacy—and as such requires determination, poise, maturity, and discretion.
The ultimate objective, of course, is to achieve the desired outcome. But beyond this, representation is a clear and distinct reflection of the client’s personality. Konstantinos Kyriakou believes that the opposite is true as well: that the client reflects on his representative—which is why the relationship between client and attorney must be close and, more importantly, tightly structured.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men.”
“The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.”
“Arms and laws do not flourish together.”
“Necessity knows no law; I know some attorneys of the same.”
Litigation
To put it simply, a lawyer “must always win”, however idealistic this may sound. Winning, however, rarely means shouting; on the contrary, remaining calm and composed in court is usually much more effective. The old saying that “every battle is won before it’s ever fought” is also true—litigation requires disproportionately more time and resources out of the courtroom than in it. Litigation is only the final act in a carefully staged, strategic course of action that is anything but random. Demanding and often disagreeable, it is a process that calls for research and assessment, astute judgment and clear-sighted decisions, and one that demands steady nerves and considerable doses of patience.
Konstantinos Kyriakou is one of the most successful lawyers of his generation in Greece, with hundreds of judgments in his favor at all levels in the civil, criminal and administrative court system. Part of his reputation is due to his excellent and well-deserved reputation as a litigator.
That said, our firm’s general policy and the advice we give to clients is to avoid the courtroom when possible and consider litigation as a last resort only.
“This is a court of law young man, not a court of justice.”
“Courts are places where the ending is written first and all that precedes is simply vaudeville. ”
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
Retainer
The main reason for engaging an attorney on retainer is the recognition that legal advice is not just a matter of handling crises or emergency situations. The truth is that there is a legal dimension to most human endeavors, professional and otherwise, and at least in some matters of daily life, a lawyer’s advice is useful.
Forging an attorney-client relationship on this basis is a long-term investment that benefits both parties. In addition to a deep understanding of the law, a legal advisor must also be aware of any particularities and the overall idiosyncrasy of the individual or firm he represents. The retainer enables the lawyer to quickly familiarize himself with the details of what is at first a wholly unfamiliar ecosystem, a process that would otherwise require a significant amount of resources and time. Among the duties an attorney on retainer ordinarily performs is to coordinate additional legal counsels that may be recruited for emergency or highly specialized situations.
For the last two decades, Kontantinos Kyriakou has served as permanent legal counsel for a multinational clothing manufacturer, construction companies, investment firms and numerous eminent Greek and international entrepreneurs.
Location
At 15 Komninon St and Tsimiski, at the very heart of the historic center of Thessaloniki, on the first floor of an emblematic building, a true specimen of the eclectic architecture the city’s produced after WWI, designed by French architect Jacques Mossé in 1927 and built in 1929 for the prominent entrepreneurs Benroumpi and Mordoch.
More on the building here.
[ Point of contact: Konstantinos Kyriakou Legal Advisors ]
15 Komninon St, GR54624, Thessaloniki
Τ: +30 2310 279100 F: +30 2310 279109
E: info@kkyriakou.gr