A hiker who finds her perspective at the top of a mountain.
A basketball fan who believes in “free flow offence” and that knowing when to manage and when to coach is essencial.
A lawyer who is happiest where the road ends and the trail begins.
At first glance, they may seem to have little in common.
Yet together they shape Apostolska Aleksandrovski & Partners, one of the firms that make up the SELA story.
Emilija Apostolska, founding partner, advises domestic and international businesses and investors in North Macedonia on mergers and acquisitions and on competition law — from the first term sheet to merger clearance, and on the integration that follows. Outside the office she is a passionate hiker and traveller, drawn to the challenge of reaching the top and to the perspective found along the way — a love of the mountains she now shares with her children.
“Our clients rarely ask us a purely national question anymore. SELA is how we answer the regional one — not with a directory of names, but with colleagues I trust with my own clients. After ten years, that trust is the real deliverable.”
Igor Aleksandrovski, partner and member of the SELA Executive Board, advises on major investment and infrastructure projects, with particular involvement in North Macedonia’s renewable energy sector. He also leads the firm’s technology, media and telecommunications practice and its work on compliance and legal risk — the places where new technology, new regulation and new energy meet, and where the answer is never in last year’s precedent.
Away from the office he is on the water in a kayak, and in almost every other free moment he is following basketball. He will readily admit that the game has taught him as much about running a law firm as any management book: that talent on its own wins nothing, the best players make everyone around them better, and above all that leadership is knowing when to coach and when to manage — when a colleague or a client needs the play drawn up, and when they simply need the ball.
“SELA is a team in the truest sense of the word. We keep our own colours, our own markets and our own way of doing things, but when a client needs the region covered, we play as one. Ten years have taught me what every player learns early: the best results come from people who trust each other enough to pass.”
Svetlana Trendova, partner, advises employers across the full range of labour and employment matters and leads the firm’s data protection and regulatory practice — the areas of law that reach people most directly, and where getting it right is measured in how an organisation actually behaves. Outside work she is rarely indoors: travelling, hiking, camping and almost anything else that comes with fresh air and a horizon.
“Regulators stop at the border. Employers, data and business do not. SELA lets us give a client one coherent answer for the region instead of a different answer in every capital — and, along the way, it has turned colleagues into friends. After ten years, that is the part I value most.”
Different practices. Different mountains, rivers and courts.
Over the past ten years, SELA has brought together lawyers from different markets, cultures and experiences.
Not despite those differences. Because of them.