TOP PRÁVNÍ BYZNYS: Interview with Petr Michal

08 \ 12 \ 2022

Partner Císař Češka Smutný responds for the magazine TOP PRÁVNÍ BYZNYS to questions mutually prepared by the partners of sixteen top-tier law firms as part of a series of cross-interviews.

What do you believe is the key to success in the legal services sector?

There will always be demand for top-quality legal services, regardless of how many providers are in the market. Clients themselves are well aware that finding a stable and long-term advisor-partner can be a multi-year endeavor. At the same time, we still perceive a lack of essential advisory services across many fields. That’s exactly the kind of service we offer to our clients. And based on our results, I believe we’re doing it well. So, the key to success is a combination of fundamental approaches to problem-solving, including context, competence, creativity, constructiveness, communication, and cultivation.

What was the biggest challenge your firm faced over the past year?

One of the biggest—and still ongoing—challenges for us has been the topic of ESG. This phenomenon of sustainable business is becoming a necessary reality for every company and public organization. Our major task is to thoroughly familiarize our clients with this new corporate management principle and guide them safely through all the rules and regulations so that they understand ESG and know how to properly grasp it and meaningfully implement it in their operations. This issue is so fundamental that it will remain with us and our clients in the coming years.

How significant is the challenge for your firm in expanding its legal services and consulting into areas on the border of law and management—such as corporate governance, corporate compliance, ESG, etc.?

Our firm has never focused on just one or two areas—legal or client-based. On the contrary, we’ve always offered a wide range of services to clients from various industries in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. This diversity has been a major asset and has provided resilience during market fluctuations. ESG is a perfect example—we’ve focused on this area for a long time, and our practical experience enables us to guide clients through often complex decision-making processes. Moreover, this is a field that’s becoming absolutely critical for many companies in the Czech Republic. Simply put, implementing ESG principles represents a fundamental shift in corporate governance, risk allocation, and the priority setting of business and organizational leadership. We’ve been part of this shift from the beginning, and we feel confident in our ability to make a meaningful impact and help our clients effectively.

Do your colleagues request sabbaticals? If so, do you grant these requests?

We consider it a given to provide our lawyers with space for personal and professional growth. Many of them actively lecture at universities or international conferences. Our legal teams consist of individuals who publish in professional journals both in the Czech Republic and abroad and work on rigorous or dissertation theses. Creative or study leave is one of our core benefits and is available to every member of our staff.

What is your opinion on hiring lawyers from other firms?

Hiring lawyers from other firms isn’t typical for us—it’s not part of our philosophy. We prefer the opposite approach: developing high-quality lawyers ideally from their student years. The success of this strategy is evident in the many stories of individuals who started with us as law students and now hold leadership roles within the firm. However, there are always exceptions—experts who have joined us from other firms. We are open to welcoming any outstanding lawyer, and if someone finds their way to us, we don’t turn them away.

What is your view on public tenders for legal services where the only criterion is price?

It’s a paradox, because the leading principle of the attorney-client relationship is mutual trust and its inviolability—not the price of legal services. Yet in public tenders, service pricing is a key issue in contemporary law practice. Hourly rates often don’t reflect the actual value of the service, but merely the time spent on a task. A well-spent half-hour can be more useful to a client than ten hours of fruitless analysis. However, this remains difficult to justify in the public sector and will continue to be a long-term challenge.

What area of law do you see as the field of the future?

Modern legal practice is no longer just about drafting legal analyses and opinions. Our attorneys solve problems in context and actively collaborate with leading non-legal experts from the Czech Republic and abroad. The future lies in the complexity of all legal fields. It’s no longer about offering a single specific service as it once was, but about transforming into comprehensive legal consulting with cross-disciplinary reach into key economic sectors.

Text: Jaroslav Kramer, Euro.cz, November 30, 2022

JUDr. Petr Michal, Ph.D.
Owner and Attorney