Bríza & Trubac

Overview: Bříza & Trubač is an ambitious boutique law firm in Prague that continuously strives to serve its clients’ interests and needs with excellence; the law firm upholds diligence, client loyalty and responsibility as their core values. The firm, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary in autumn 2023, has firmly established itself on the Czech legal market in recent years and continues its expansion: its team has grown, it has moved into new premises and its revenues have grown again.

Practice areas: The firm's main areas of expertise include:

• international trade and arbitration
• litigation
• restructuring and insolvency
• tax law including criminal aspects
• compliance
• EU and international law
• corporate law and transactions
• real estate
• energy law
• family and inheritance law
• data protection.
• labour and immigration law
• sports law
• e-commerce and marketing

People: The law firm currently has 6 partners. In addition to the founding partners Petr Bříza (who specializes in international trade and arbitration, disputes, EU and international law, energy) and Ondřej Trubač (tax law, compliance and criminal law), they are Barbora Klimešová (transactions and labour law), Marta Zavadilová (private internation law, litigation, family law), Tomáš Hokr (international trade and arbitration, disputes, real estate, tax law) and  Patrik Koželuha (transactions, energy, real estate, tax law).

The team is complemented by 12 attorneys and other fee earners, including associates.

Examples of recent important mandates in tax law and transactions:

• Providing legal counseling to APOGEO, a leading Czech consulting company, in connection with administrative court proceedings and tax proceedings.
• advising Czech Energy Parks , a.s. in a complex project related to development of large photovoltaic power plants is various regions across the Czech Republic
• advising BizzTreat , a Czech technology company focused on data analytics, in its acquisition by the SUDOP project and engineering group
• advising Opero and the affiliated companies Black Lunch and Fazole Venturesin connection with the unification ownership interests in the target company Whalebone.

The main focus of the dispute resolution team lies in cross-border disputes being either litigated in the Czech Republic or arbitrated in the Czech Republic or abroad. International arbitration both commercial and investment is a key specialization of the dispute resolution practice. The team has successfully represented domestic and foreign clients in LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration), ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), DIS (German Institution of Arbitration) and ICSID arbitration cases.

The team is also very active in the field of foreign judgment recognition and enforcement. The team has successfully defended a Czech company against a $23 million US judgment. The members of the team often work as legal consultants for other Czech law firms in complex cases where an international element is present.

Other notable work: The firm has also recently worked with other competitors in the market to create model investment documentation for startups, funds and other early stage companies, following the example of foreign markets such as the Baltics and the UK. The market standard of unified investment documentation brings significant financial savings to companies, often at an early stage of their existence. For their legal representatives, it means time and cost savings compared to creating investment documentation "greenfield".

Legal awards:  The firm and its individual members have repeatedly received significant awards and rankings in legal rankings over the past year. The law firm has been rated as a highly recommended (tax law) or recommended firm (dispute resolution and arbitration, telecommunications and media, criminal law, energy and power projects) in the domestic competition Law Firm of the Year 2022.

Also,  analysts at Chambers and Partners have included Bříza & Trubač in their Chambers Europe yearbook for the first time in 2023 in the area of tax law.

Ondřej Trubač, the founding partner of the firm, was also awarded third place in the Czech Tax Advisor and Tax Firm of the Year competition, which was organized by Wolters Kluwer, a publishing house of professional literature.

Lectures and publications: Members of the firm have also continued to give lectures, presentations and training sessions, whether to business people, judges, prosecutors or fellow attorneys. Seminars covered topics such as anti-corruption, tax compliance, criminal tax law, as well as litigation, EU law and private international law.

Petr Bříza has co-authored two important legal publications that have recently been published - National Application of European Union Law and Transfers of Business Interests and Shares.

International cooperation: Since 2018, the firm has been a member of the prestigious international network of law firms SCG Legal, which brings together 122 independent law firms in more than 60 countries with a total of over 12,000 lawyers.