HAVEL & PARTNERS office in Frankfurt,
The gateway to global business
In May, we were the first law firm from the CEE region to establish direct representation of HAVEL & PARTNERS in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, which is a gateway for international business. Through this step, we continue to deepen our exceptional international reach and cooperation with clients and business partners abroad.
HAVEL & PARTNERS’ Frankfurt office focuses on supporting international clients targeting the CEE region as well as clients from the Czech Republic and Slovakia wishing to expand further abroad. Our Frankfurt team provides advice in particular on the Czech and Slovak legal aspects of corporate and financial transactions involving international elements and also provides strategic advice for German and Central European markets.
“We do not compete with local law firms, instead we want to deepen our cooperation with local partners and law firms in Germany. A number of local and international businesses are interested in long-term cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, we have a growing number of Czech and Slovak clients who want to do business in Germany or elsewhere in Western Europe. By opening our German office, we will further develop our existing infrastructure and offer enhanced cooperation to our clients and business partners,” said Jaroslav Havel, the law firm’s managing partner.
Strong team for German-speaking clients
The Frankfurt team is led by Philip Smitka, a partner, who has 24 years of experience in the German and Czech legal market and 18 years at Noerr, one of the largest German law firms, including 7 years as the firm’s partner in Prague. Prior to joining our law firm, he worked for more than 5 years as a partner at the international law firm Squire Patton Boggs in Stuttgart.
HAVEL & PARTNERS has another senior lawyer with extensive experience in the Frankfurt office: Josef Bouchal, who specialises in M&A, private equity, venture capital, financing and alternative funds.
In addition to Jaroslav Havel, the managing partner, and Philip Smitka, other partners such as Robert Nešpůrek, Jan Koval, Martin Peckl, and Marek Lošan will be responsible for cooperation with clients in the Czech Republic, while partner Štěpán Štarha will be responsible for cooperation with clients in Slovakia.
At HAVEL & PARTNERS, we have a team of 25 people – including 7 partners – focusing on German-speaking clientele, which makes it one of the largest teams in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We work for about 500 clients from German-speaking countries from all business sectors.
On the road to international success Legal advice without borders
We provide our clients with the most comprehensive international support available to Czech and Slovak law firms. With our unique knowledge of the legal and business environment, comprehensive services and unique international reach, we are able to execute and manage cross-border transactions and projects anywhere in the world. With ONE FAMILY OFFICE, a new multi-family office created in cooperation with HAVEL & PARTNERS, we are giving our international support a new and more global dimension.
Across the border
We have long been able to maintain the highest international standards of quality of our services. We take a flexible, creative approach to our clients’ legal matters and deliver business-oriented solutions. We provide legal and tax advice in 12 languages. Up to 70% of our advisory engagements feature an international element. We have assisted clients in more than 110 countries.
We work closely with leading domestic and international law firms in Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australia, giving our clients access to international and local knowledge and expertise through more than 90,000 lawyers in approximately 160 countries.
Around the world
Our M&A practice extends far beyond Central and Eastern Europe. Thanks to our large team of 80 transaction specialists, including 17 partners, their superior language skills, exceptional know-how and the wide network of international contacts that we have been building for two decades at HAVEL & PARTNERS, we offer comprehensive support to companies and entrepreneurs heading abroad. At the same time, we are a long-term strategic partner for international clients expanding their businesses to the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In Austria, we recently advised a leading Czech manufacturer of protective clothing and footwear for rescue workers on the acquisition of a company with the same focus. In Norway, we handled the acquisition of a hydrogen propulsion manufacturer in maritime transport for an investment fund. In Sweden, we assisted the world’s leading arms manufacturer during the acquisition of a manufacturer of optics for handguns. We helped a European steel pipe manufacturer from Slovakia to acquire competitors in Hungary and Spain. In Italy, we assisted a Czech manufacturer of railroad switch structures during the sale of part of an establishment as part of its Italian subsidiary reorganisation.
Moreover, we also help clients outside of Europe. We have assisted a Czech manufacturer in the field of electron microscopy in the acquisition of shares in competing companies not only in Germany but also in Arizona, USA. In Kazakhstan, we handled a joint venture structure that allowed our client to enter the sports betting market there. We also have experience in setting up joint venture structures in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and China
Around the globe with multi-family office
Thanks to the ONE FAMILY OFFICE (OFO) structure, we have expanded our opportunities for international cooperation even further. When forming OFO’s investment team, our main aim was our own asset diversification in collaboration with elite financial professionals in key global financial centres such as New York, Silicon Valley, London, Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Most of the colleagues in our investment team have previously worked in international environments at institutions such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse or at Erste. With profound knowledge of the European and global markets, ONE FAMILY OFFICE meets partners’ needs with a global reach while using local expertise.
ONE FAMILY OFFICE invests and plans to invest internationally in stocks, bonds, and other publicly traded securities, funds and ETFs, as well as in leading hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, and real estate and infrastructure funds, primarily in the United States. Multi-family office also makes investments in individual private transactions, in venture capital, growth equity and IPOs on international stock exchanges, and in individual trophy real estate.
Why invest globally?
The economic map of the world has changed fundamentally in recent years. The economic and political situation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in particular, but also in Germany, on which we are critically dependent, is growing more challenging. USA, India, UAE – especially Dubai, but also Latin American countries (such as Mexico, Brazil) or Indonesia and Vietnam – provide an attractive alternative for investors due to the size of the market, lower degree of regulation, younger population and its higher labour force
“Global investments and the international mobility of assets and high-net-worth individuals were the main reasons why ONE FAMILY OFFICE was established. Money in public budgets is dwindling; logically, this will soon result in a sharp rise in taxation of the wealthy. Therefore, the multi-family office will, to a substantial extent, allocate the money earned in business and duly taxed in our country to attractive assets in countries with better economic prospects,” said Jaroslav Havel
ONE FAMILY OFFICE is therefore actively seeking investment opportunities in the global market. It prefers the most successful investment institutions with an excellent track record in the US markets, but also in India, and other selected countries in Asia or Latin America. It focuses on PE funds, which deliver long-term returns of around 20% p.a. with a relatively high degree of certainty. Together with its partners, it invests in funds that are not easily accessible and that typically require a minimum investment of USD 10–25 million. These are some of the opportunities that even top-tier investors like W. Buffett, K. Griffin and B. Ackman trust.
Closer to the West and the world
Through the direct representation of HAVEL & PARTNERS in Frankfurt, ONE FAMILY OFFICE also moves even closer to foreign business partners, global private equity and venture capital funds, investment and private banks, family offices, and other stakeholders.
Thanks to our presence, the multi-family office will support cooperation with OFO’s business partners from the Czech Republic and Slovakia who are looking for co-investment opportunities on the global market and wish to diversify their portfolio towards the West. At the same time, OFO’s presence in Frankfurt will intensify cooperation with international funds and foreign business partners, who in turn are looking for opportunities and co-investments in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
ONE FAMILY OFFICE also works closely with international investment banks, in particular with the most prominent Swiss, Austrian, and Liechtenstein private banks. At the same time, thanks to its unique composition and interdependence with the largest law firms in Central Europe, ONE FAMILY OFFICE has the opportunity to work closely with selected family offices not only in the Czech Republic and now also in Germany, and in Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy, the United States, and Dubai.