Mladen Vukmir is the founder of Vukmir + Associates, one of the ten largest law firms in Croatia, based in Zagreb. Founded in 1991, the firm has pioneered intellectual property law in Croatia for more than three decades while building a full-service practice in commercial, banking, corporate, and dispute resolution matters. Mladen has served on the board of directors of INTA and as president of ECTA, is a published contributor to the Oxford University Press Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice, teaches at the postgraduate level at the University of Göttingen, and serves as honorary Danish consul.
I asked Mladen what led him to start his own firm.
"I came back from the U.S. and I only had a job in Italy," he told me. "I worked in Milan at what was then the largest law firm in Italy. And then immediately after the war in Croatia, I was here — and at that time, it was even more important to know how to be visible to U.S. clients."
He returned to Zagreb in 1991, at the moment Croatia was emerging from conflict and foreign companies were scrambling to re-register their intellectual property rights in a newly independent state. He was, as he puts it, lucky to be there at the right time.
"We had from day one huge orders of re-registering entire portfolios — 50, 80 trademarks at once," he said. "That enabled us to grow."
But the vision was always larger than IP. Mladen built toward a full-service firm, deliberately avoiding commodity legal work in favor of complex advice — a conscious decision that cost him in short-term profit but defined the firm's identity. He also built it on his own terms, refusing the culture of endless hours and hierarchy he had seen in Milan and Silicon Valley.
"I created better working conditions," he said. "At the expense of my own profits, I was persistent. I knew that one of the reasons I came back was to create a better work-life balance. I didn't want someone in London telling me I didn't bill enough."
The firm's office reflects that philosophy — a residential building surrounded by embassies and green space, where windows open onto gardens and the atmosphere is deliberately unlike the conveyor belt of big law.
What has shaped Mladen as a leader is the discipline of holding his own convictions without letting them override the firm's needs — a balance he has maintained across more than three decades in one of the most demanding professions there is.
"I never tried to steer the firm fully in what I think because that would drive it out of business, but I created this framework in which I could really say what I think and do what I think and say to the clients, no, when I think it's something that's not good for them. This enabled me to largely stay healthy throughout all of this."
He is candid about why that matters.
"I really think our profession is one of the hardest. And many people came to realize that — this is why so many lawyers leave the profession."
When I asked what he'd want people to know about the firm, his answer was simple. "It's important to have a good team," he said. "You are stronger for the differences."
More than three decades in, Mladen is now writing for Oxford University Press on the future of intellectual property and what he calls the law's shifting position in modern societies. He is thinking about where the profession needs to go — and what lawyers owe their societies in getting there.
Are you a multinational or startup looking for sophisticated IP, commercial, or corporate legal counsel in Croatia? Connect with Mladen Vukmir and check out VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES, LLC.