From an ambitious
start-up
to the top of
Central European
law firms

From a small law firm founded from scratch by five young lawyers, HAVEL & PARTNERS has managed to develop into a new generation, world-renowned Central European firm with a unique position on the Czech-Slovak market. It has been writing its success story for 20 years. Today, it has a turnover of over one billion Czech crowns and 2,500 clients whom it navigates through today’s business environment, all while helping them fulfil their business and personal visions and goals.

The story of the firm, whose motto is “Connected through success”, began in 2001, when five young lawyers founded their own law firm. They knew each other from their studies, four of whom also met while working for the international law firm Linklaters, which at the time was the most elite law firm in Europe, especially in the field of mergers and acquisitions. In addition to Linklaters, other prestigious law firms based in London (the so-called ‘Magic Circle’) and American law firms such as Skadden, Arps, and Jones Day, i.e., international firms with comprehensive services and professional management, were the role models for their ambitious start-up.

They started in 2001 in a small room, working seven days a week on computer and file boxes around one table. Their colleagues and friends often did not understand why they gave up well-started careers, and many predicted that they would just be assisting in founding limited liability companies for the rest of their lives. However, their vision was to build a leading modern firm with comprehensive advisory services for domestic and foreign clients. “We had the know-how from an international law firm, we knew the languages and we had a great determination to succeed. From the beginning, we worked hard and invested not only in the development of the firm, but also in hiring the best young lawyers,” recalled Jaroslav Havel. Within half a year of the firm’s founding, they managed to set up a team of 15 lawyers with similar experience and vision, which was able to meet most clients’ needs.

M&As as a flagship

Initially, the firm worked with Deloitte; it thus made it easier to reach new clients, and soon began to penetrate foreign markets as well. This cooperation lasted four years, during which the firm grew in terms of turnover and staff. In 2005, it set out in its own direction without a strategic partner.

It was a time when the global wave of mergers and acquisitions contributed to rapid economic growth. Within a year, the firm managed to double its revenues and profit, and within two years it became the top Czech law firm in the number of M&A transactions completed. Advisory in this field is still the flagship of HAVEL & PARTNERS. In the last 15 years, it has completed over 750 transactions worth CZK 750 billion and, according to prestigious foreign ratings, is the number one in this field in the entire Central European region. It helps Czech and Slovak companies to expand abroad, and foreign companies expand their business in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Our future is in innovation which will allow us to do things better. We want to continue to focus on the strategic building of corporate business intelligence and remain the intellectual leader in the Czech and slovak legal and tax advisory market.

However, from the beginning, the firm didn’t specialise only in M&A, its goal was to provide clients with comprehensive services in all areas. Therefore, it systematically gradually extended and innovated its portfolio. The number of clients grew, and in addition to the most successful domestic and foreign companies, leading Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs, top managers and successful athletes also came for advice. As a result, in 2008 the firm was the first on the market to create a special team for private clients, which is today the largest advisory group of its kind in Central Europe with more than 30 lawyers and tax advisors.

Crisis as an opportunity

At the time of the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009, the ability to adapt to sudden changes was crucial to success. At that time, the firm generated most of its revenues from M&A advising, but the market stopped for some time due to the recession and it was necessary to come up with a quick solution. At a time when most law firms were firing and saving, HAVEL & PARTNERS chose the opposite strategy. It invested in further development, transformed its portfolio of services extremely quickly to meet the-then needs of clients and the market, and even hired new top and, therefore, expensive lawyers. “Clients were leaving large international firms at the time. It was a huge opportunity that we managed to seize. Thus, we took adecisive advance on our competitors,” recalled another of the founders, Robert Nešpůrek.

When the crisis subsided, the firm was much better prepared when compared to the competition and was able, as one of the few, to offer clients really comprehensive legal services. Thanks to this, it became the most dynamically growing law firm on the Czech and Slovak markets, and at the turn of the first decade of its operation, it became the Czech-Slovak market leader.

The continuous growth of HAVEL & PARTNERS was not even interrupted by the coronavirus crisis. The firm has once again proven that it can respond quickly to changes and that it is extremely well equipped to deal with crisis situations. It thus concluded last year in terms of turnover, number of lawyers, quality of services and awards received as the most successful year in its history.

International reach and added value

The firm has gained an international reputation over two decades, assisting clients in almost 110 countries around the world, and up to 70 percent of its cases have a foreign element. HAVEL & PARTNERS is also a leader thanks to its unique operating model and comprehensive range of services in all areas of law and business. “We work in teams set up not only according to legal specialisations, but also according to individual business sectors, in which we constantly monitor all trends and continue to keep ourselves up-to-date. We thus better understand the areas in which our clients do their business,” said Robert Nešpůrek.

Our firm’s experienced experts fully focus on our clients and their business, and work intensively with them to gain an edge over others. The big advantages are the firm’s business intelligence, business and management knowledge, as well as experience with the international dimension of advisory. “From a legal and tax viewpoint, we accompany clients through their business and help them with its development. Thanks to an excellent reputation, a unique network of contacts and exceptional knowledge of the market and the context of the Czech-Slovak legal and business environment, we can lead them to new opportunities, business and people,” added Jaroslav Havel.

At the same time, he dispels the preception that the firm provides advice only to the largest and most successful companies: “As the market leader, we target successful and prosperous companies and their owners or top managers, but these also include so-called future champions or companies interesting for their unique product or business personalities. We ourselves were an ambitious start-up 20 years ago, but we have achieved world-unique growth and a uniquely strong market position. So we can also really help smaller companies and support them in their growth and development, which we have implemented ourselves, not only in legal and tax terms. Ideally, we strive to have our clients grow with us and we grow with them – exactly in the spirit of our motto “Connected through success”.”