Interview with partners Veronika Dvořáková and František Korbel, who 7 years ago stood at the foundation of HAVEL & PARTNERS Academy and still manage it today.
How would you evaluate 7 years of the Academy’s activities?
We founded the Academy at a time when the new Civil Code was newly effective, so there was a great demand for professional seminars from our clients. We were a little worried about how it would develop once this wave subsided, but we are getting better every semester. I am confident that we will maintain this reputation in the future and that the firm’s clients will benefit from our know-how and expertise.
The H&P Academy has established itself very well during its existence and is a unique educational platform in the legal market. For František and me, it is also a matter of the heart.
Are the seminars only for your clients?
Our seminars are not closed in any way, but it is true that we target them primarily at the firm’s clients to whom we want to provide additional added value.
They are also widely used by all our colleagues, including students, who have the opportunity every Friday to deepen their knowledge across all specialisations.
7 years with HAVEL & PARTNERS Academy
240
seminars
125
lecturers
6,000
participants
Can your competitors also attend your seminars? Are you not afraid for your know-how?
Even colleagues from other law firms have their doors open to us and we really have no concerns about the know-how. Our seminars are practical, but they last for 3 hours and in such time we share only a fraction of the knowledge we have in the field.
On the contrary, we are very pleased with the constantly growing interest of lawyers from other law firms. When your competitors are training at your academy, it shows that your courses are of the highest quality and that you are a step ahead of your competition.
What topics do you focus on most in the Academy?
We prepare seminars based on a plan of legislative news, research of current trends in law, and the demand of our clients and their needs. For example, recently there has been a lot of demand for the topics on computerisation and digitalisation and we have a lot to offer there. We have the largest dedicated team in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in this area and have been involved in the drafting of the last two Acts of the Year, namely the Digital Services Act and the Bank Identity Act.
We also give space to topics with an overlap into business, marketing, management, or practice areas, such as ICT. And if someone expresses interest in a tailor-made seminar, it is no problem for us to prepare it. We also offer the possibility of individual consultations or independent expertise by our academics.
How was the interest in training and the operation of the Academy affected by the pandemic?
We were able to respond quickly and transfer the Academy in a fully professional quality to the online environment, which has increased the interest in our training by about 30 percent, because people can attend from virtually anywhere and at any time (they receive a video recording of the seminar and a podcast from us) and we do not encounter limited capacity.
In this respect, the pandemic has brought a positive trend and the online form of courses will remain part of our offer. Nevertheless, we are very much looking forward to hopefully soon starting to meet again in person at our seminars.
