Since the New Year the largest, and according to the Law Firm of the Year competition, the most successful Czech-Slovak law firm HAVEL & PARTNERS has again significantly extended the number of attorneys in its top management. With effect from 1 January 2019, Filip Čabart and, in Slovakia, Juraj Steinecker were promoted to the position of partner. At the same time, Jiří Buryan, Martin Ráž and Petr Opluštil were promoted to the position of counsel, the second highest managerial level, and Martin Drahotský and Veronika Filipová became senior lawyers. Thanks to these career shifts, the number of the firm’s partners has increased to 29, of whom 25 got to this position on the basis of internal promotion. HAVEL & PARTNERS has long been building on the extraordinary stability of its senior lawyers’ team, providing a unique opportunity for rapid career growth.

“We are aware that only top lawyers will keep the top-ranked law firm on top. That’s why within the firm we are developing a motivating environment with a clear vision of career growth that can be much faster than at our competitors,” says Jaroslav Havel, managing partner of the firm, explaining:“In terms of clients and work, the firm has always grown to such an extent that we could create other partner positions and offer them to our best and most talented colleagues. Some of them have achieved partnership faster than the average 8-10 years. The second highest managerial position of counsel was then created in 2014, together with the economic and personnel development of the firm, when in some areas it was necessary to extend the competencies of the most experienced lawyers who typically do not aspire to the position of partner, or for whom the position of counsel is a pre-level to the position of partner, and also to support their academic growth, pedagogical or other professional activities. Currently, seven of our colleagues are in the position of counsel. I am glad that all the newly promoted lawyers have given the long-standing support to individual legal teams and that we are successfully pursuing the strategy of raising the next generation of top senior colleagues in the firm.”

One of the firm’s new partners, Filip Čabart, will be co-responsible for managing the banking and finance team. Filip specialises in all types of financing, including syndicated loans, dealing with claim portfolios, and legal and regulatory aspects of providing financial services and collective investment, securities offerings and admission to trading on public markets. In recent years, he has been involved in numerous international and domestic transactions, providing legal advice to major international and domestic financial institutions and major companies.

The second new partner, Juraj Steinecker, will join the management of HAVEL & PARTNERS’Bratislava office and develop its practice in the field of competition law and M&A, which he has been specialising in for a long time. In the past, Juraj has represented clients from different sectors before competition authorities and courts in matters of anti-competitive agreements, and in merger notification matters. He also advises on competitive aspects of mergers and acquisitions, and on compliance matters.