Former Counsel Tomas Sequens has been promoted to Partner at Kocian Solc Balastik.

On October 7, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Kocian Solc Balastik had advised Czech technology accelerator AI Startup Incubator on its investment in US-Bangladeshi OpenRefactory. CEE In-House Matters spoke with Angelo Burgarello, Business Development Director at AI Startup Incubator, to learn more about the investment.

Havel & Partners' Veronika Dvorakova and Ivan Rames have become Equity Partners, while Lenka Stikova Gachova, Michal Smrcek, and Josef Zaloudek have been promoted to Partner.

Contributed by PRK Partners.

While real estate in the country is still going strong, according to BPV Braun Partners Partner Miroslav Dudek, bankruptcy disputes and the financial problems of tenants from industries hit by COVID-19 restrictions are on the rise in the Czech Republic.

At the end of 2020, the Chairman of the Czech Competition Authority (CCA) was replaced. Petr Rafaj, who had been in the position for more than 11 years and who had been linked to several controversial cases, resigned. The government, through a tender procedure, selected his successor: Petr Mlsna. The aim of the 42-year-old lawyer, who has extensive experience working in senior government positions, is to return the good reputation of the CCA. Mlsna emphasizes strengthening the importance of competition law as part of the CCA’s competencies.

Jan Holasek, a Czech Senator and founder of Havel, Holasek & Partners – now Havel & Partners – has joined forces with HKDW Legal to form a new law firm under the name HKDW Holasek.

White & Case has completed a new round of firm-wide promotions, appointing 28 Local Partners and 40 Counsels. Among these were new Local Partners Jakub Gubanski, Aleksandra Oziemska, Bartosz Smardzewski, and Pawel Zagorski in Warsaw, Gokce Uluc in Istanbul, and Marianna Galusova in Prague.

Former Clifford Chance Senior Associate Pavel Bogusky has joined the Restructuring, Insolvency, and Bankruptcy practice of Dentons’ Prague office as a Partner.

Despite the ongoing political events, the Czech Republic is keeping up with the global trend of a record-breaking number of yearly M&A transactions, according to Taylor Wessing Partner Janka Brezaniova.

Eversheds Sutherland's Head of the Bratislava Office Bernhard Hager has been appointed Managing Partner for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Principal Associate and Head of the Labour Law team Radek Matous was promoted to Partner in Prague.

Contributed by Rowan Legal.

An interview with Tristan O’Connor of CMS, about his path from Australia to Czech Republic.

On January 1, 2021, an amendment to the Czech Companies Act came into effect, which brought many minor and major changes to the current life of business companies in the Czech Republic.

On May 25, 2018, the personal data protection rules in the Czech Republic were substantially changed. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council – the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR – became directly applicable law in all EU Member States, after a two-year transition period. Thus, the principles of personal data protection in the Czech Republic, the rights, duties, and processing requirements are regulated primarily by the GDPR. 

The pandemic has transformed the Czech real estate market. While the residential and logistics real estate markets strengthened, the retail, tourism, and hotel sectors are among the worst affected. However, interest in investing in real estate has not waned as, in uncertain times, the purchase of real estate represents a safe place to park one’s funds and watch them appreciate. There has been no significant decline in property prices, even in the case of commercial real estate, as some investors had anticipated. The Czech market still lacks enough quality investment opportunities. The clear winner of this situation is the logistics segment. Our Prague office assisted in several transactions in the logistics segment, the largest being the purchase of 130 hectares of land intended for warehouse development, at one of the exits of the western D5 motorway. According to some real estate players, we can also expect increased interest in the industrial segment soon, including sale & leaseback transactions.

Most of our readers might be familiar with Roman Pecenka as a Partner at PRK Partners. For years though, he has also been serving as the Vice Mayor of Podolanka. CEE Legal Matters spoke with him to learn more about his life in elected office.

With Havel & Partners celebrating 20 years of existence this year, CEE Legal Matters spoke with Robert Nespurek, one of the firm’s founding Partners, to look back at the past two decades and the firm’s plans for the future.