WOLF THEISS LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Wolf Theiss has been awarded ACQ Finance Magazine’s Law Firm of the Year Award for the Czech Republic. Paul Sestak, Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss Prague office, said, "We are delighted to have won ‘Law Firm of the Year’ for the Czech Republic this year. This prestigious award, voted for by our peers, reflects the success of our firm this year, building on our hard work and achievements since opening in 1998."

In its first year, the prestigious ACQ Finance Magazine Country Awards for Achievement recognise leaders in their field, and experience and skills in transactions across 35 geographical regions. The poll is totally independent, with industry peers invited to nominate and report on who stood out from the crowd in the last year. A panel made up of in-house editors and fellow professionals then study the nominations and make final decisions about the winners based on numbers of nominations and recommendations about exceptional performances deserving recognition.

A highly successful firm
Paul Sestak, Managing Partner of the Wolf Theiss Prague office, said, “We have established ourselves as one of the big international names in the Czech Republic. Right now, we have about 40 staff, over half of whom are lawyers. We operate as a full-service commercial firm, concentrating on three main areas: corporate M&A, banking and finance, and property. We also tackle an increasing amount of dispute resolution work.”

Riding out the financial crisis
Wolf Theiss in the Czech Republic has not yet seen any adverse impact from the global credit crunch, and this was an influencing factor for the judges making the award. Paul Sestak said, "This is partly because the region itself has been spared so far. Here in Prague, we had a record first half in terms of performance. We acted for UniCredit in the sale of a very large building society; we do a lot of work for PE funds; we represented Cerberus when they bought an Austrian bank; and we also represented Dr. Oetker in a major food company acquisition – so there has been a lot of M&A work. The main impact of the financial crisis is that there have been fewer property acquisitions in the Czech market. Property developers and real estate investors have been hit quite heavily. So far it has been less drastic than in the US, but significant all the same. On the other hand, we have also seen a lot of sales by real estate funds to raise cash. So while there has been a decline in acquisitions, many of our clients have started selling their assets here and in the Balkans."

Emerging trends
In terms of specific regional trends, Paul Sestak identifies two main factors: “The first is the increasing strength of the Czech currency, which has driven investors to seek out cheaper locations further east, towards Ukraine and Turkey. It makes sense for us to expand and follow our clients in that direction, so we are actively targeting markets in Ukraine, Turkey and other Eastern European regions. “The other major trend is that, as Czech companies become richer, they have started to invest abroad and in the wider region. That applies to a whole range of industries. We have represented several companies based in Prague who are now making acquisitions in South Eastern Europe.”