Law firm White & Case is adding five lawyers to its Prague office. Both founding partners of law firm Horák & Chvosta, Luděk Chvosta and Jiří Horák, plus three senior lawyers from the firm — Barbora Rovenská, David Padyšák and David Ilczyszyn — will help to strengthen White & Case’s advisory expertise in litigation and corporate law. The move will complete strengthening of this practice at all White & Case offices across Central and Eastern Europe, the law firm said in a press release.
“The arrival of Luděk Chvosta and his team will enable us to further expand the scope of advice that we provide, and to offer clients on the Czech market a supreme quality of services in the area of corporate disputes,” Jan Matějček, the managing partner of White & Case for Central and Eastern Europe, said in the press release.
“This step is in line with our global strategy and strengthens our position as the European leader in the area of arbitration and insolvency process. It represents a logical response to the growing demand for services related to litigation, both on the Czech market and globally,” he added. ‘This step is in line with our global strategy and strengthens our position as the European leader in the area of arbitration and insolvency process.’
Chvosta has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of corporate and business law, international transactions, litigation, arbitration and insolvency proceedings, and will manage an expert team of corporate lawyers. “Our decision to drop anchor in the international waters of White & Case was a culmination of a natural progression. We also reached an understanding with the partners of White & Case on a personal level, and I am confident that with the backing of an international firm, we will be able to offer an even more comprehensive range of services to our clients,” Chvosta said.
He will take part in the strategic development of the firm’s litigation practice and head the corporate practice group.
Horák, with 32 years’ experience, will continue focusing on business law, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, insurance and litigation at White & Case. In 1990, he helped establish the Prague branch of Nörr, Stiefenhofer & Lutz, and in 1991, he was one of the original founders of Horák Chvosta Vích, now known as Horák & Chvosta. He mainly represented international clients there, and worked in particular, in mergers and acquisitions, insurance, restructuring, and real estate.
Rovenská specializes in intellectual property, unfair competition, personal data protection, advertising and consumer competition. At White & Case she will work on the formation of an IP/IT team, and will further focus on unfair competition, advertising, personal data protection and labor law. She worked at Horák & Chvosta since 1992 and was made partner in 1999.
Padyšák will specialize in real estate and construction law. He has been focusing on these areas of the law, as well as business and corporate law, since joining Horák & Chvosta in 1994He became a partner there in 1999. Recently, he has worked extensively on contractual aspects of capital expenditure projects, real estate transactions, as well as the construction of wind and photovoltaic power plants, but his practice also extends to other obligational business relations, and partly also to litigation, where he has represented clients in international arbitration. He is a member of the Czech-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Ilczyszyn will focus on litigation, corporate and business law, representing clients before state administrative bodies, and providing legal advice regarding the launch of their products on the market. He joined Horák & Chvosta in 1995, and was made partner in 1999. During this time, he was involved in mergers and acquisitions and restructuring. He also specializes in competition law, as well as regulatory aspects of various business segments under public law in the Czech Republic.
White & Case’s junior team will also be joined by Emil Fischer, a restructuring and insolvency expert with long-standing banking experience, who has also been working as an insolvency trustee for the last six years; Petr Topka, an attorney specializing in IP/IT law and environmental law; and Petra Kutáková, a trainee attorney who joined Horák & Chvosta in 2009.
The Prague office of White & Case has been providing legal and tax advice in the Czech Republic since 1991, and is the largest international law firm in the Czech Republic. It specializes in mergers, acquisitions, private equity investment, complex banking and financial transactions, real estate investment, privatization projects, litigation and insolvency. The Prague office provides advice under Czech, English, Slovak and New York State law, according to its press release.
