In this age of intricate transnational ties, the international business community is placing an ever-increasing emphasis on the swift and economic settlement of disputes. Major arbitral institutions are adopting rules on expedited proceedings, promoting mediation, and/or embracing summary disposition procedures. All these initiatives are focused on managing the process and the taking of evidence: the focal points of procedural efficiency.
Fine at Five: Dentons Continues to Move Forward
In 2013 the SNR Denton, Fraser Milner Casgrain, and Salans law firms merged into one entity: Dentons. The firm capitalized on its momentum by merging two years later with China’s Dacheng law firm, making it the largest law firm in the world. On the occasion of the firm’s 5th anniversary, CEE Legal Matters reached out to Dentons Partner and Europe Chief Executive Officer Tomasz Dabrowski in Poland and Dentons Partner and Global Vice Chair Evan Lazar in Prague to ask about the first five years and to see what’s next in Denton’s strategy for Europe and CEE.
Guest Editorial: Will A.I. Ultimately Be Our Undoing?
Less than 30 years after the wholescale introduction of computers into the legal profession, we find ourselves on the brink of a 4th industrial revolution. Today, we have cars that can drive on their own, we can print almost anything (including entire buildings and human body parts) on a 3D printer, and the Internet of Things is becoming a natural part of our everyday lives. All these tools are making our lives easier and more comfortable. And as the business world adapts to this new era, the legal profession obviously cannot stay behind.
A Bridge, Not a Wall: Interview with ECCE Founder Tomas Hulle
The Prague-based European Centre for Career Education focuses on providing students a practical and complimentary education, focusing on kinds of practical experience and inspiration they rarely receive in their university studies. After they complete the program, ECCE helps participants obtain useful internships with companies such as Siemens, Unicredit, Exxon Mobile, T-Mobile, and Lego, and with law firms including DLA Piper, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, and Dentons.
The Decision of the Court
Czech and Slovak lawyers turn to what’s really important: Basketball
Chasing Czech Traces in Foreign Places: JSK Partner Roman Kramarik Makes Solo Flight Around the Globe
45 days. That’s how long it took Roman Kramarik, Partner at JSK in the Czech Republic who recently became the first-ever Czechoslovakian pilot to fly around the world, to complete his 36,863-kilometer mission. After crossing three oceans, surviving monsoon rains, facing the cold of Alaska and the warmth of the Far East, all behind the controls of his Cessna P210N Centurion airplane named the “Winged Lion,” Kramarik returned to his office at the Prague law firm, rightly proud – and more than a little exhausted.
Current Trends in the Prosecution of Bid Rigging in the Czech Republic
In its most recent annual report, the Czech Competition Authority stated that the investigation of bid-rigging cartels would be its highest priority. The issue of bid rigging is a hot topic that has attracted the attention not only of the CCA, but also that of the Czech police and public prosecutors, who have been very active in investigating bid-rigging cartels in recent years.
Legal Regulation of Virtual Currencies in the Czech Republic
The legal regulation of transactions with virtual currencies and Initial Coin Offerings / Initial Token Offerings is a topic of ever more frequent discussion in the Czech Republic. The ano-nymity of cryptocurrency transactions has been reduced by the introduction of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules, while the Czech regulator’s approach to the regulation of trading with virtual currencies is very liberal.
The Corner Office: Mentors
In The Corner Office we ask Managing Partners across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: Who was your mentor, and what was the most important lesson you learned from him or her?
Inside Insight: Ondrej Plesmid, Chief Legal Officer at King’s Casino
Ondrej Plesmid is the Chief Legal Officer at King’s Casino in the Czech Republic. His career as a lawyer started in a small law office, and he subsequently worked for over three years in the Czech Ministry of Finance and then the Ministry of Regional Development. In 2017 he moved to the private sector and started to work at King’s Casino.
Inside Out: Czech Media Invest’s Acquisition of CEE Radio Businesses from Lagardere
The Deal: On April 25, 2018, CEE Legal Matters reported that Clifford Chance had advised Czech Media Invest on its acquisition of Lagardere’s sale of its radio businesses in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. Herbert Smith Freehills and Wolf Theiss advised Lagardere on the deal.
Regulation on Addressing Unjustified Geo-blocking and Other Forms of Discrimination
Internet traders, who have not yet managed to recover fully from the effects of the GPDR on their activities, are already facing another regulation likely to have a significant impact on technical solutions used in the operation of Internet businesses. In March 2018, Regulation (EU) 2018/302 (the “Regulation”) was adopted, the purpose of which is to solve so-called “unjustified geo-blocking” by removing certain obstacles to the operation of the internal market and by preventing discrimination based on nationality, place of residence, or place of establishment in cross-border online transactions.
Changes in Real Estate Due Diligence on the Horizon?
When acquiring a company owning real estate or an independent property, a check of the seller’s title to the real estate is an integral part of the due diligence process. The scope of the due diligence that is necessary is about to be narrowed.
Serving the Start-Ups: A Czech and Slovak Round Table
Start-Ups represent a unique subset of clients for major law firms, as they are often unable to pay the fees those firms generally require, but – particularly in the tech sector – hold out the potential of significant profitability down the road. Intrigued by the unique challenges and opportunities for law firms offering their services to these cash-poor but potential-high clients, we invited partners from four prominent law firms in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to share their strategies and experiences with Start-ups with us in the offices of Kocian Solc Balastik in Prague. KSB Partner Christian Blatchford moderated the conversation.
Guest Editorial: A Quarter Century in the Czech Legal Market
I started my legal career back in 1993 as a student clerk, and over the past 25 years I have literally grown up with the firm. I’ve had the pleasure of advising clients during some of the most exciting periods in Czech history – from the “Wild Wild East” of the nineties, to EU accession, through the global financial crisis and recovery.
Four Years With a New Civil Code – Where Are We Now?
It has been more than four years since new legislation revolutionizing Czech private law came into effect, mainly through the adoption of a new Civil Code. Among the most affected industries was real estate, traditionally a very strong investment sector on the Czech market. How has life been since this revolution?
Gauging the GDPR in the Czech Republic
On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation finally came into effect, imposing new requirements on organizations within the European Union and on those outside the EU that offer goods or services to EU data subjects or monitor their behavior. To learn more about the state of readiness in one such country, we spoke to Schoenherr attorney and Data Protection specialist Eva Bajakova in Prague.
GDPR Misconceptions
The GDPR comes into effect on May 25, 2018. Since data processing concerns a wide range of activities, very few companies or entrepreneurs will be unaffected. Numerous articles and discussions have been posted about the GDPR in the media, some of which contain false or misleading information and therefore give rise to concern, especially considering the possibility of high penalties. Failure to adopt national implementing legislation does not help the situation either. In this article we would like to highlight some of this misleading information and explain the inaccuracies.