About us

Pohla & Hallmägi was founded in the summer of 1997 by Asko Pohla, from the law firm Asko Pohla, and Andres Hallmägi and Jüri Ploom from Heta law firm. Before founding his own law firm Asko Pohla worked as a an attorney at Raidla & Partners (today Ellex Raidla). 

Toivo Viilup joined Pohla & Hallmägi in 1998, Martin Männik in 2003 and Teele Viilup in 2006. All mentioned colleagues joined the law firm immediately after graduating from the University of Tartu or even before that. Lawyer Madli Astok has also been with us since 1997.

Name partner Andres Hallmägi started working as a judge in 2013. Velmar Brett, the judge of the Criminal Chamber of Supreme Court of Estonia also worked in Pohla & Hallmägi between 1998-2004.

Partner Rait Kaarma and counsel Elena Lass joined our firm since the beginning of 2022.

Former trainee Kärt Meri joined our firm in the end of 2022 and started as a lawyer. 

At present Pohla & Hallmägi is a medium-sized, dynamic, modern and independent law firm offering the highest quality professional legal and business advisory services to mostly corporate clients in the fields of private law and procedural law. We are market leaders and internationally recognized in a number of specific areas such as litigation and maritime law.

Our litigators Asko Pohla and Toivo Viilup practice as arbitrators at the international level in addition to regular legal counselling.

Asko Pohla has been the chairman of Council of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Arbitration since 1997, since 2018 he has been a member of International Arbitration Court (Paris, France) and since 2013 a member of the Panel of Arbitrators and Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Washington, USA). Between 2012 to 2018 Asko Pohla was a member of the ICC Arbitration and ADR Committee (Paris, France). Since 2021 he is the Member of Nomination Committee of ICC Estonia. Asko Pohla is currently an arbitrator at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICAC) of the Russian Federation and its Marine Arbitration Commission (MAC) and International Commercial Arbitration Court (ICAC) at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry .

Partners Asko Pohla and Jüri Ploom are the members of the International Bar Association (IBA). Jüri Ploom was a member of the board of Norwegian Estonian Chamber of Commerce (NECC) between 2009-2020 and continues to be a member of Team Norway at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway.

Partner Martin Männik is the member of Competition law commission of Estonian Bar Association since 2015.

Partner Rait Kaarma is the member of Fiscal Association Estonia, member of Protection of fundamental rights commission of Estonian Bar Association and member of International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD).

Our office is a member of the Norwegian-Estonian Chamber of Commerce (NECC), the Estonian-Swedish Chamber of Commerce (ESCC), ICC Estonia and the world's largest shipping network Shiparrested. 

Due to the international nature of our business, we have day-to-day cooperation and partner offices in many countries around the world. Pohla & Hallmägi values ​​independence in the selection of international partners and has refrained from joining networks connecting different law firms. Professional independence allows us to recommend only the best experts in our field to our clients in international work.

Our experts are highly regarded in independent legal publications evaluating prominent law firms such as Chambers, Legal500, CEELEGAL, Expert Guides, PBV, Who's Who Legal, Shiparrested and others.

Throughout the years we have been one of the most profitable law firms operating in Estonia and have found constant notation. Business daily Äripäev ranked Pohla & Hallmägi among the 5 best law firms in Estonia in the market overview of business consultants published it the end of 2020 covering the 38 largest law firms. Pohla & Hallmägi has been in the Top 10 in previous rankings and market reviews. Äripäev published in the end of 2022 a list of most successful Estonian law firms based on which Pohla & Hallmägi is as high as No 3 of the most successful law firms in Estonia. We are grateful for such a high recognition both to our own clients and, of course, to our colleagues, whose work is not conceivable to achieve such a result.

The size of Estonian market and the services we provide do not require the involvement of major number of attorneys. Our core principle – hire top specialists from different legal fields, dedicate to the practical work and not to disturb our valuable clients with the trainees, less experienced lawyers and supporting staff – has been a right choice for us over the last 25 years and has proven to be profitable for our clients. Our clients get fast solutions from highly experienced lawyers.

In addition to Estonian, our office also advises clients in English, Russian, Finnish and French.