For the tenth consecutive year, HAVEL & PARTNERS has topped the ranking of law firms in the TOP Employers 2024 survey. Czechia’s law students have again chosen HAVEL & PARTNERS as the most attractive potential employer. The firm has also repeated its last year’s success in the related Lawyer category, in which only students with the best academic results vote.
“Our work with students is long-term and continuous. Colleagues from our law firm hold lectures at universities, we organise educational seminars for students, so we are closely in touch with the young generation. Since our senior colleagues are committed to working with the students, we have the chance to pass on our experience to them, and our law firm works directly with those who are interested and enthusiastic enough,” says Daniel Soukup, HR Director at HAVEL & PARTNERS. The law firm currently works with more than five dozen students.
350 lawyers, tax advisors and patent attorneys make HAVEL & PARTNERS the strongest team in the Czech and Slovak markets. With offices in Prague, Brno, Plzeň, Ostrava, Olomouc, and Bratislava, it is therefore the law firm of choice for complex business cases involving an international element or requiring a combination of know-how from several legal specialisations. By joining the firm’s team, students can benefit from the experience they gain by working on attractive cases and transactions under the guidance of senior colleagues.
A total of 11,416 students at Czech universities and 4,118 high school students participated in the 13th year of the prestigious TOP Employers survey, which is unique in the Czech market. Students fill in their answers in an online questionnaire, which is prepared using the experience and know-how of sociologists from the previous twelve years of the survey.
Robert Nešpůrek, one of the founding partners of the law firm HAVEL & PARTNERS, was the only one from Central and Eastern Europe in his category to be included in the list WWL Thought Leaders: Global Elite 2024, published by the prestigious rating organisation Who´s Who Legal.
“Telecommunications and media have been evolving at a truly frantic pace globally. Being on the cutting edge of legal advice in these fields means, among other things, that you must make sure you are constantly up to date with upcoming trends and innovations and know your clients’ needs in this respect. That is why I truly appreciate this extraordinary award, which was achieved by only 17 attorneys in this field from all over the world,” said Robert Nespůrek, the only representative of the CEE region in the areas concerned.
Robert Nešpůrek is one of the founding partners of HAVEL & PARTNERS and is the head of the firm’s team focusing on technology & commercial law, IP law, and telecommunications law. He advises clients on projects involving IT solution delivery and implementation, IT outsourcing, and dispute resolution of complex IT projects. He has led a number of M&A transactions with an overlap into these areas. His clients include internet and media companies, including global digital service providers.
With 40 lawyers, the HAVEL & PARTNERS dedicated group is one of the largest legal teams in the Czech Republic in the areas of IT, IP, e-commerce, film and gaming, digitalisation and data law. Members of the team are regularly recommended as top lawyers by other international publications such as Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, World Trademark Review, and IP STARS.
WWL Thought Leaders: Global Elite 2024 is an extensive global database of outstanding professionals covering a range of other legal areas in addition to competition law, telecommunications and media. It is published by the well-known rating organisation Who’s Who Legal, sponsored by the renowned company Lexology.
The rankings are compiled independently based on the company’s own research, an assessment of information provided by law firms, and interviews Lexology annually conducts with attorneys in the relevant jurisdictions. The awards are tiered, with the Global Elite Thought Leader being the most prestigious one to which only a very small fraction of the attorneys rated qualify.
HAVEL & PARTNERS advised Hungarian venture capital and private equity firm Lead Ventures on its investment, through fund Enter Tomorrow Kockázati Tőkealap, in CloudTalk, a Slovak start-up active in the field of cloud-based solutions for call centres. It was one of the largest venture capital investments in the history of Slovakia.
Lead Ventures was one of the two lead investors in the Series B investment round for a total of €26 million. A total of 6 investors from 4 countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and the Czech Republic) participated in the investment.
The legal advice comprised due diligence including foreign jurisdictions, structuring and negotiating transaction documentation, and closing the entire transaction. For HAVEL & PARTNERS’ Slovak office, it was led by partner Ondřej Majer and senior associate Peter Kosecký. Although this was a comprehensive and demanding work, the entire investment round was closed very quickly, in about one month.
CloudTalk was founded in 2018 and provides services that enable call centres to deliver call automation and quality excellence.
HAVEL & PARTNERS as the Czech legal counsel represented the French group Pernod Ricard, one of the world’s leading producers of premium wines and spirits, in the sale of the famous Karlovarská distillery.
The legal advice included conducting pre-transaction due diligence of Jan Becher – Karlovarská Becherovka, restructuring, and drafting transaction documentation.
For our law firm, partners Václav Audes and Ondřej Florián worked on the transaction, with significant support from senior associate Ivo Skolil, who was a team leader, senior associate Radek Riedl, and associates Ema Černá, Kateřina Trzaska, Václav Fajkus and Jan Krejčí.
The Polish food group Maspex became the new owner of Jan Becher – Karlovarská Becherovka.
The transaction should be finally settled around mid-2024 after being granted necessary approvals from the competition authorities.
The most famous product of Jan Becher – Karlovarská Becherovka is an iconic stomach liqueur with more than 200 years of tradition. However, the company is also one of the distributors of more than forty other premium alcohol brands on the Czech market.
Havel & Partners advised JSK Investments s.r.o. and its shareholders Simona and Jaromír Kijonka on the sale of a stake in Packeta s.r.o. Packeta is the parent company of a major domestic technology and logistics company, Zásilkovna, which operates not only on the Czech market but also in other EU countries. This is one of the largest and most significant transactions on the domestic market in the past year.
Havel & Partners’ legal advice during the negotiations of this major e-commerce transaction lasting several months was extensive and included mainly corporate and competition law aspects. For our firm the advice was provided by a legal team consisting of, among others, partners Václav Audes, Jiří Kunášek, Robert Neruda, Jan Šturm, managing associates Silvie Király, Martin Šimek, associates Kateřina Kabátová, Jan Palacký, Martin Rott, and junior associates Johana Němečková and Ján Mozol.
As Zásilkovna stated in its published press release, among those interested in the stake being sold were leading investors not only from the Czech Republic, but also from international investment groups. The new acquirer of the Packeta stake is ultimately a consortium of investor CVC Capital Partners and investment holding Emma Capital with capital support from R2G.
The final settlement of the transaction is subject to European Commission approval, which is expected to be granted before mid-2024.
Zásilkovna, a subsidiary of Packeta Group, was founded by Simona Kijonková in 2010. Since then, Zásilkovna has grown to its current form, operating in 7 European countries and employing more than 2,000 people. Among other things, it has also gained recognition as one of the most popular and trusted Czech brands.
The beginning of the year at HAVEL & PARTNERS is traditionally associated with internal promotions, with a total of 15 lawyers promoted to senior positions as of 1 January 2024. Pavel Ondrák and Petr Vohnický now work at the counsel level and the firm is also filling the position of Legal Technologist for the first time, which is to be held by Jiří Nečas.
“In the new year, we continue to follow our internal HR policy of allowing exceptionally fast career growth for all colleagues who demonstrate extraordinary experience in their branches of law and have a long-standing record of excellent performance,” explained managing partner Jaroslav Havel regarding the wave of promotions in the firm. “At the staff level, we are also responding to the changing needs of our clients. In the long term, we have seen an increased demand for advice related to digitisation, computerisation and new technologies. That is why we have introduced the new position of legal digitisation expert, whose task is to manage and implement innovative digital processes and technologies so that we can support our clients in this area as effectively as possible. Similarly, he will also coordinate technological developments within our firm,” Jaroslav Havel added.
Before becoming counsel, Pavel Ondrák was a senior associate at the firm. Pavel specialises in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, commercial law and public procurement law. In his practice at HAVEL & PARTNERS, he focuses primarily on comprehensive projects, including sales and acquisitions of distressed assets, creation of joint-venture structures and restructuring of companies and businesses. Pavel also participates in the representation of major clients in commercial law disputes, including disputes between shareholders. Pavel also has experience in providing legal services in connection with public procurement and concessions.
Petr Vohnický was promoted to counsel from the position of managing associate. At HAVEL & PARTNERS, Petr is a leading expert in litigation and insolvency proceedings. His work focuses primarily on representing clients in complex cases requiring both legal expertise and an understanding of complicated technical aspects. Petr has advised clients operating primarily in the banking, information technology, telecommunications, transportation, engineering and construction sectors. In the past, Petr dealt with several high-profile disputes on the defendant’s part for leading Czech banks or with a number of unfair competition disputes. Petr also has experience in competition law, including State aid. He is currently involved in several private competition law enforcement disputes before Czech and foreign courts.
Jiří Nečas, the firm’s new legal digitisation expert, has long specialised in connecting legal knowledge with modern technologies. As a senior associate, he has been involved in the development of applications that automate the preparation of legal documentation or use AI to conduct legal research. In his new position, he will continue to focus on implementing innovative legal technologies and digital tools to optimise legal processes, increase work efficiency and provide the firm’s clients with innovative and efficient legal services.
As of 1 January 2024, the management of HAVEL & PARTNERS has promoted another 12 lawyers. Pavel Amler, Josef Bouchal, Pavla Kaufmannová, Jan Králíček and Marián Minárik have become managing associates and Arbër Balliu, Ondřej Dostál, Tomáš Chmelka, Michal Kandráč, Kamil Kovaříček, Jozef Krkošek and Ivona Zurynková Hladíková have been promoted to senior associates.
In this year’s competition organised by CIJ (Construction and Investment Journal) Europe, a leading provider of online and print real estate news, HAVEL & PARTNERS was ranked as the best law firm in the Czech Republic in this practice area. This is yet another success for the firm’s dedicated real estate team after HAVEL & PARTNERS was awarded in the category of real estate and development projects in the Czech Law Firm of the Year competition this November.
“Our specialised team has been helping clients in the real estate and construction industry to manage their business affairs since 2001, and is one of the largest and most experienced in the Czech market. Thanks to our exceptional know-how and breadth of contacts, we are able to provide our clients with truly comprehensive care for their real estate portfolios, so to speak, from A to Z. We assist them in all phases of project implementation. We provide advisory services ranging from the preparation and permitting of projects, including construction law or engineering, to complete construction with all related contracts and, of course, we also handle transactions involving real estate of all types. We also support our clients in terms of real estate portfolio management, tax obligations, and litigation where necessary,” said partner Martin Ráž regarding the range of the firm’s services.
The real estate legal advisory services are handled by a total of over 30 lawyers, including 8 partners. The jurors of the CIJ Awards, an independent group of top real estate professionals, recognised HAVEL & PARTNERS in particular for its outstanding performance in the provision of legal services in this area.
The CIJ Awards gala took place on Thursday, 30 November at the Prague Marriott Hotel. This year, the award was presented for the twenty-third time in the Czech Republic.
Robert Neruda, a partner at the law firm HAVEL & PARTNERS, was the only one in his field from the Czech Republic (and Slovakia) to be included in the most elite group of the world’s best lawyers in the list of WWL Thought Leaders: Global Elite 2024, published by the prestigious rating organisation Who´s Who Legal.
“To be among the 94 best competition lawyers in the world is a great recognition that I deeply appreciate. In my view, it reflects the quality and long-term hard work of all members of HAVEL & PARTNERS’ competition law practice. I know most of the antitrust lawyers with whom I have been rated in the same category, and many of them have long been my personal role models. Being in the same group with them is a commitment for me,” said Robert Neruda. Apart from Neruda, only three experts from Austria and one representative from Ukraine appeared on the list in this sector from the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe.
At HAVEL & PARTNERS, Robert Neruda leads a team of lawyers and economists focused on competition law. He specialises, among other things, in advising on cartels, abuse of dominance, competition law assessment of mergers and acquisitions, significant market power, foreign direct investment and foreign subsidies.
Prior to joining HAVEL & PARTNERS, Robert Neruda held e.g. the position of Deputy Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition in Brno. He is the author of several books and a regular lecturer. In 2017, he won the Innovative Lawyer of the Year award.
HAVEL & PARTNERS’ competition law team comprises 28 experts and is one of the largest practices in Central Europe. Both the team as a whole and its individual members have repeatedly won prestigious awards and prizes in domestic and international legal competitions and rankings such as the Law Firm of the Year, Chambers and Partners, Global Competition Review, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal.
WWL Thought Leaders: Global Elite 2024 is an extensive global database of outstanding professionals covering a range of other legal areas in addition to competition law, telecommunications and media. It is published by the well-known rating organisation Who’s Who Legal sponsored by the renowned company Lexology.
The rankings are compiled independently based on the company’s own research, an assessment of information provided by law firms, and interviews Lexology annually conducts with attorneys in the relevant jurisdictions. The awards are tiered, with the Global Elite Thought Leader being the most prestigious one to which only a very small fraction of the attorneys rated qualify.
HAVEL & PARTNERS represented Česká spořitelna Seed Starter, one of the shareholders in Investown Technologies, in connection with the entry of a new investor into the company, which operates an online crowdfunding application for real estate projects.
Comprehensive legal support for Seed Starter throughout the transaction, including negotiation of the contractual documentation, was coordinated by partner Jaroslav Baier, senior associate Josef Bouchal, and junior associate Pavel Gapeev. The stake in Investown Technologies was acquired by Finbus, a real estate development company.
Investown was the first investment of Česká spořitelna Seed Starter fund, dedicated to venture capital investments. Investown focuses on crowdfunding for real estate and development projects, and currently has approximately 80,000 registered users. It works thanks to the increasingly popular method of crowdfunding, which facilitates access to investments in a wide range of real estate projects in the Czech Republic.
Now the project has reached a next stage and in the near future it plans to expand abroad, which is to be supported, among other things, by capital from the new investor.
