Czech law firms HKDW and HOLASEK merge to become HKDW HOLASEK

The merger created a new Czech law firm HKDW HOLASEK, senator and lawyer Jan Holásek merged with the law firm HKDW Legal

At the end of April, a new entity appeared on the Czech law scene. Experienced lawyer and senator Jan Holásek merged with HKDW Legal and the law firm HKDW HOLASEK was established. The office with its headquarters in Prague and a branch in Hradec Králové will focus not only on the Czech market but also on the international market. Due to the overlap abroad, the company name will not contain diacritics.

By the end of April, all administrative steps had been officially completed and a new law firm HKDW HOLASEK was established by merging HKDW Legal and Jan Holásk. Her key figures and capital partners are experienced lawyers Jan Hrazdira, Jaromír Kalužík, Lukáš Nývlt and Jan Holásek. HKDW HOLASEK plans to focus on comprehensive legal advice across segments, but primarily on litigation and arbitration, insolvency and restructuring, the real estate market, development and acquisitions, and last but not least, advice on insurance and banking. Due to the experience of the law team and the existing client portfolio of merging entities, HKDW HOLASEK has international ambitions mainly in Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Great Britain and other Anglo-Saxon countries.

The new law firm HKDW HOLASEK has a team of more than 20 members and wants to maintain the parameters of a medium-sized law firm in the future. "We plan to focus primarily on profile cases with an international dimension and provide legal services at the level of large international law firms. Our goal is the highest possible level of expertise and legal service, but maintaining a personal approach to the client and a family atmosphere in the company. Colleagues at HKDW Legal were used to working in a friendly spirit, in a narrower team and we want to maintain this character, although we do not oppose the reasonable growth of the office in the future, "says one of the partners of the new company Jan Holásek.

In addition to expertise and quality, HKDW HOLASEK will place emphasis on adhering to ethics and excellent relationships with clients. "Instead of a predatory and sometimes even ruthless approach, which sometimes appears in domestic advocacy, we want to rely on a 100% ethical approach and mutual trust with clients. We want to know our clients well, understand them and build long-term relationships with them that will go beyond simple invoicing for legal advice, "says Jan Hrazdira, founding partner of HKDW Legal, one of the merging entities.

Important clients of HKDW HOLASEK at the start include companies such as Raiffeisenbank, a.s, Equabank, a.s., Kooperativa pojišťovna, a.s., TEEKANNE, s.r.o., Vienna House Hotelmanagement GmbH and the investment group Nordic Investors.

The HKDW HOLASEK company is managed by all four partners, but the executive proceedings will not concern Jan Holásk. The main reason is his performance of public functions in the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and in his native Hradec Králové. "I received confidence from the voters of Hradec Králové to perform the position of senator and post of parliament. Within HKDW HOLASEK, I will focus on selected cases and clients so that I can fully focus on the performance of public functions. I am convinced that my work in advocacy within HKDW HOLASEK will also have a great advantage in that, as legislators, it will provide me with an up-to-date insight into the claims and problems that burden Czech advocacy and justice, "says Jan Holásek, who in 2001–2017 he worked in the law firm Havel, Holásek & Partners (now Havel & Partners), then engaged in real estate investment activities and subsequently entered public life.

The new HKDW HOLASEK law firm is managed by four capital partners - Jan Holásek, Jan Hrazdira, Jaromír Kalužík and Lukáš Nývlt.

- JUDr. Jan Holásek, LL.M. (1972)
He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, completed undergraduate studies in Great Britain and postgraduate studies in the USA at the New York University School of Law. From 1997 to 2001 he worked in the law firm Kocián Šolc Balaštík, then in 2001 he became a founding partner of the Czech-Slovak law firm Havel, Holásek & Partners, in which he worked as a partner and senior lawyer until 2017. he most often devoted and still devotes himself to the issues of real estate and construction, financing of real estate projects, commercial and contractual relations, comprehensive legal advice on investment projects and international business transactions.

From 2015 to 2020, he was involved in investment activities and projects in the field of real estate, among other things he participated in the establishment of two real estate investment funds and is also a co-founder of the first specialized Czech real estate crowdfunding platform Upvest.

- Mgr. Jan Hrazdira (1974)
He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, first worked professionally at AK Lžičař and in 2005 co-founded the law firm HKDW Legal. In his professional practice, he specializes in civil and commercial litigation and national and international arbitration. It also focuses on complex business transactions, their structuring and financing, transaction negotiations and subsequent contractual documentation. He also has significant experience as a lawyer in criminal matters.

He is an arbitrator of the Arbitration Court at the Economic Chamber of the Czech Republic and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic in Prague. He is on the list of arbitrators of the Vienna International Arbitral Center. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Czech branch of the Turnaround Management Association - a prestigious international organization associating experts in the field of restructuring, insolvency and crisis management of companies and a member of the Czech Institute for Popularization and Revitalization of Arbitration. Jan Hrazdira is a member of the Appeals Committee of the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition in the field of public procurement.

- Mgr. Lukáš Nývlt (1976)
He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague and in 1997–2010 he worked in the leading Czech law firm Glatzová & Co. In the period 2011–2017, he was a partner of the law firm NH Partners. In 2017, he became a partner in HKDW Legal. Lukáš Nývlt's legal specialization is litigation, legal relations in the energy sector, public procurement and general business law consulting.

Since 2010 he has been an arbitrator of the Arbitration Court at the Economic Chamber of the Czech Republic and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic.

- Mgr. Jaromír Kalužík, LL.M. (1974)
In 1997 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague and subsequently in 1999 postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Regensburg in Germany. At the same time, during his postgraduate studies, he worked at the German law and tax office Jürgen Geiling & Partner. In 2000 he worked in the international law firm Gleiss Lutz, in 2001-2005 he was a partner in the Czech-German law firm Geiling, Kalužík & Partner and in 2005 he became a founding partner of HKDW Legal. He also worked as an associate professor at DeutscheAnwaltAkademie and as a legal consultant for the Industrie und Handelskammer Südwestsachsen.

Kalužík specializes in corporate law, M&A, real estate law, insolvency and restructuring, competition law, intellectual property law, contract law, acquisitions, project consulting, representation in court and arbitration proceedings. Recently, he has worked on acquisitions in the automotive segment and on development and real estate projects (especially in the hotel industry).

Kalužík is an angel investor in the internet portal and search engine Gjirafa.com (nicknamed "Albanian Seznam") and the founder of the Premium Flats Investment project.

Source: HKDW HOLASEK and CTK