25
Wed, Dec
91 New Articles

With ESG having been a buzzword in the Czech real estate market for a few years now, Clifford Chance Partner Emil Holub, Kocian Solc Balastik Partner Jiri Hornik, VIDD Partner Ondrej Hampl, Taylor Wessing Counsel Radka Nenickova, and Act Legal Czech Republic Partner Tomas Slaby look at how ESG principles are being applied in practice and in what areas there is still room for improvement.

The impact and perception of ESG considerations in the CEE region, and specifically in the Czech Republic, is still in the early stages of its evolutionary path, compared to, say, the U.K., the U.S., or larger Western European economies. There is certain skepticism and uncertainty as to what this new trendy acronym means and if, at the end of the day, it will really impact a Czech industrial family business, a hotel, or a high-tech start-up. ESG considerations, policies, and metrics are likely to be more familiar (and implemented to a certain degree) to a large Czech company – moreover, when it’s a part of an international corporate group – rather than a smaller Czech enterprise, but of course, there are exceptions to the rule.

Did You Know that a total of 20 Partners worked on five or more reported CEE client matters in the first half of 2023? According to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, that group of 14 is led by Alper Onar of the Aksan Law Firm in Istanbul, who worked on 12 client matters, and Milos Felgr of Clifford Chance in Prague and Bratislava, who worked on nine reported client matters in the first half of this year.

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. 

The commercial legal markets of Central & Eastern Europe didn’t appear automatically. They didn’t develop in a vacuum. They were formed, shaped, and led, by lawyers – visionary, hard-working, commercially-minded, and client-focused individuals pulling the development of CEE’s legal markets along behind them as they labored relentlessly for their clients, their careers, their futures. 

On the evening of December 10, 2015, experts from law firms across the region gathered in Prague for an exclusive and select invitation-only Round Table conversation on business and political realities across CEE, the changing nature of CEE legal markets and increased visibility of regional law firms, and much more. 

Page 3 of 3

Kocian Solc Balastik at a Glance

Kocian Solc Balastik (KSB) is one of the few Czech law firms who have been on the market for over 30 years and is still independent. With a team of almost seventy legal and tax specialists operating in Prague, Karlovy Vary and Ostrava, KSB is one of the largest law firms in the Czech Republic.

Thanks to the ratings of clients and our competitors, we are a highly respected and acknowledged law firm, as evidenced by a number of prestigious awards, especially the four-time Chambers Europe Award for Excellence for the best law firm in the Czech Republic, often we have been the only purely Czech law firm among the nominees.

Our priority is to provide added value to clients. Therefore, we know the specifics of their business and adapt the proposed solutions to the client’s context, with great emphasis on professional ethics and building long-term relationships based on mutual trust and respect.

Firm website.

Our Latest Issue