Lawyers: Harmonising Personal with Professional Life

Elena Papadimitriou was born and raised in Thessaloniki. She studied Journalism and Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, including a semester of studies in The Hague under the European Erasmus program. She completed her postgraduate studies in Political Science and Sociology at the University of Athens. She has been working in the press and electronic media since her student years. From 2003 to 2006 she worked as an editor of free and cultural reporting in the newspaper CITYPRESS. During the period 2006 - 2014 she was a member of the journalism team of the morning news program of MEGA, writing at the same time as contributor for five years in protagon.gr. In July 2014, she started working in SKAI television and radio, covering international reporting in the main newscast and presenting news bulletins and shows. She has covered important events of European and international affairs in recent years, sometimes with long television broadcasts, in journalistic missions to places like Moscow, Turkey, Italy and Belgium. Maintaining to this day the longing for major festivals and concerts, she has traveled to dozens of European cities for cultural events, writing articles in a number of media. She speaks English, French and Italian. 

Ioanna Kalatzakou was born in Athens, daughter to Lawyer Christos Kalatzakos. She is the mother of two children and the wife of Alexandros Tsatsaronis. After graduating from Arsakeio school, she studied Law at the University of Athens and specialised in Commercial Law in Paris. She speaks English, French, and Italian. She is an active lawyer at the Supreme Court and specialises in Commercial, Bankruptcy and Financial Criminal Law. She was elected Adviser to the Athens Bar Association from 1990 to 2017. She was always a member of the Greek Delegation to the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and during the years 2002-2005 and 2011-2014 was Head of the Greek Delegation and representative of the Athens Bar Association in most of its Special Committees. She was a MEP candidate with the New Democracy party in the European elections of 1994 and 2014 and a candidate for the ND State Parliament in 2009 elections. She was also an acting member and Vice President for a number of years of the Board of Directors of the Scientific Association of Greek Commercialists. During the years 2005-2007 she participated in the Legislative Drafting Committee of the Ministry of Justice for the reform of the Bankruptcy Code. She has participated as a speaker in many Conferences of the Association of Greek Commercialists as well as other Scientific Associations and Bodies. She’s a member of the Disciplinary Board of the Athens Bar Association and since 2011 head of the 2nd Disciplinary Council of the Association. 

Anna Danali was born in Athens. She’s a graduate of the Athens Law School and the Department of French Language and Literature of the Athens School of Philosophy and a member of the Athens Bar Association. She is a lawyer at the Supreme Court, holds her own office and has practiced law since 2005, dealing with the whole range of civil and commercial law, as well as personal data issues, as she has received certification of Data Protection Officer (DPO), while at the same time she is a legal advisor to many companies in Greece and abroad, providing them with court and consulting law in all areas of their activity. Since 2014 she has been an accredited mediator from the Ministry of Justice, with active involvement and great interest in the development of the field of mediation in Greece and specialising in family mediation. She speaks English, French and Italian fluently. She is the mother of two children, Alexandra and Apostolos.

Themis Sofos was born in Athens in 1970 and has been a member of the Athens Bar Association since 1995. He is a graduate of the law school of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens with a postgraduate degree in criminal science from the University of Bonn in Germany. He’s mainly engaged with Criminal Law, Civil Law, Commercial - Company Law and Administrative Law. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Athens Bar Association since 2017, vice-president from 2017 to 2020 and current candidate president. He is also an active member and general secretary at the Institute of European and International Criminal Law. Furthermore, he has a permanent participation in the Conferences of the Society of Criminal Law and in the Conferences of the Association of Greek Criminologists, of which he is a member. Finally, he teaches in weekly seminars on Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure for Lawyers at the Athens Bar Association (the latter is already being held in the current academic year).