Dear
Clients and Business Friends,
Let us express our support and sympathies to you and your families during this
difficult time when a large part of the world is afflicted by the COVID-19
virus outbreak and governments are adopting severe measures with
considerable healthcare, social, legal as well as economic impacts on the
entire society.
The health of our clients and colleagues is our top priority, along with our
ability to ensure the continuity of the best possible legal and tax services
for you. We have taken an ultimately responsible approach to the work of
our offices in order to protect the health and well-being of our clients and
colleagues alike. We nonetheless also fully realise that your business cannot
come to a halt, and that our countries and economies need your activity. Our
aim in turn is to ensure maximum legal and tax support for you. We are taking,
to the maximum extent possible, a flexible and dynamic approach to this
extraordinarily complex, evolving situation. The robust technology we use
allows us to fully switch to remote work without physical presence in our
offices, while our more than 220 legal professionals and tax advisers are
prepared to provide full support and service to our clients during this
challenging time.
Dedicated COVID-19 task force
HAVEL & PARTNERS has established a dedicated task force to coordinate
the management of any and all legal, tax and economic issues relating to the
consequences of the COVID-19 situation. This dedicated task force is sharing
best practices with colleagues to promptly attend to our clients’ needs.
Apart from standard communication with our law firm’s partners and senior
associates, with whom you have liaised so far, you can also contact members of
the task force directly. The dedicated task force comprises the following
senior partners covering in particular the practice areas indicated below:
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Special discount for clients and business partners afflicted by COVID-19
Due to the serious nature of the situation and the anticipated economic and other losses that many organisations will suffer in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, we are offering a discounted blended hourly rate of EUR 100 / CZK 2,600 for legal services to all our clients and business partners effective as of today, i.e. 16 March 2020, until the end of April 2020. The discounted hourly rate applies to all legal entities as well as individuals from all jurisdictions if they request the discount prior to the commencement of the service and the current situation is placing a serious economic burden on them. This is without prejudice to our services rendered under the current PRO BONO scheme.
PRO BONO scheme: doubling the extent of legal services provided free of charge, and increased financial support
Effective from 16 March until further notice, we are increasing the volume of our PRO BONO services from 3% to 6% of our total annual service volume, i.e. 18 thousand hours per year, or 1,500 hours per month. In addition, we will double our financial assistance – contribution from our firm’s projected profits. If the transition to remote provision of service permits, we would like to further increase this scope. Within our PRO BONO scheme, free-of-charge legal services related to the COVID-19 outbreak are now an absolute priority. The PRO BONO scheme related to COVID-19 is the responsibility of the partners indicated below:
Czech Republic
Slovakia
HAVEL & PARTNERS as a strategic partner for crisis situations
We trust that HAVEL & PARTNERS, being the largest independent law firm in central Europe, is fully equipped to handle crisis situations. We are capable of managing such situations with our clients comprehensively, well beyond the frame of purely legal and tax issues, including legislative and commercial aspects, practically and consistently. It has always been the case at HAVEL & PARTNERS that we ourselves must be able to carry out what we are advising our clients to do. We verified this during the latest global economic crisis of 2008–2012, when we helped many of our clients to overcome the difficult time while our law firm made it through that challenging time as successfully as our clients did. We firmly believe that thanks to our strategic thinking, dynamics, individualised approach, and extensive know-how, we will be able to help you as well.
Above all, we wish you and your loved ones good health and optimism.
On behalf of the whole team,
Jaroslav Havel, Managing Partner
