Bird & Bird s.r.o. advokátní kancelář

The firm: Bird & Bird is an international law firm, with a long-established reputation for having a rare and invaluable grasp of strategic commercial issues. The firm combines exceptional legal expertise with deep industry knowledge and refreshingly creative thinking, to help clients operating at the forefront of their industries to achieve their commercial goals.

Bird & Bird has over 1,400 lawyers and legal practitioners with broad advisory transactional and contentious capability, with a particular focus on key industry sectors. The firm has an extensive international reach with 32 offices across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, offering a seamless, cross-border service between locations and sector and practice groups.

Bird & Bird’s offices in Prague and Bratislava were established as greenfield operations in 2008. The Czech office is lead by Ivan Sagál, Managing Partner of the Czech and Slovak offices, supported by Partners Vojtěch Chloupek and Ján Kuklinca.

The teams serve Czech, Slovak and international clients in all areas of business law such as intellectual property, data protection, technology, media and telecommunication, corporate/M&A, real estate, banking and finance, life science, public sector, energy and utilities, and renewable energy. The firm takes pride in its young, enthusiastic and proactive team, with a deep understanding of the businesses in which its clients operate.

Both offices are a fully integrated part of the Bird & Bird network, co-operating effectively with other Bird & Bird offices, in addition to close co-operation with the other CE offices in Bratislava, Budapest and Warsaw.

Areas of practice: Underpinned by deep client and industry knowledge, the firm’s key sectors include:

Automotive: advising on all stages of a life cycle of a motor vehicle, from initial design, to sales and distribution, through to disposals.

Aviation, aerospace, defence and security: advising on asset management and financing, civil aviation matters, including airlines, regulatory and competition issues, and aerospace and defence, including PPP/PFI and product liability.

Energy and utilities: advising large multinationals, investors, project companies and large energy consumers on electricity generation, energy trading, renewable energy, cleantech and climate change, and upstream oil and gas.

Financial services: advising global clients in the financial services sector, such as global retail and investment banks, investors and hedge funds, on transactions, regulatory issues, commercial contracts and dispute resolution.

Retail and Consumer: advising on a full range of areas, including branding, labelling, health claims, fair trade and patents on novel foods.

Life sciences and healthcare: advising clients in biotechnology, bioinformatics and pharmaceutical companies on licensing and drug development agreements, R&D collaboration, IP acquisitions and joint ventures.

Media, entertainment and Sports: advising clients from across the media spectrum on a wide range of issues, including exploitation across all forms of digital media and emerging areas, such as user-generated content exploitation. In the sports industry, advising national and international sports governing bodies, event organisers and sponsors on issues including exploitation of commercial rights, brand management, regulatory and disciplinary issues.

Technology and communications: advising international corporations, local businesses, regulators, financiers and public sector entities on the full scope of technology and communications matters, from regulatory and commercial to M&A, intellectual property and disputes, on matters ranging from smaller innovative projects to some of the largest, most complex and ground-breaking transactions and disputes of recent years.