Key experts
Milan Kučera
partner and attorney
Milan Kučera specialises in energy law and advisory services, as well as partnerships between the public and private sectors.
He provides strategic legal advice not only to company management, but also to representatives of public administration, with a particular emphasis on decision-making processes and compliance with the duty of due care.
“A modern lawyer cannot rely on the law alone – the key to success lies in taking an interdisciplinary approach. Only then can we deliver a service that holds genuine value for clients within the context of their activities.”
Milan Kučera
Milan Kučera joined Portos while studying at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. He was handed the reins of a legal team in 2020 and became a non-equity partner in 2023. Originally, his work was centred on representing legal entities in criminal proceedings, especially in the effective pursuit and enforcement of compensation claims.
Since the beginning of his career, he has worked for a major petrochemical company, helping it to secure numerous landmark court victories that have had a society-wide impact and drawn significant media coverage. His involvement in petrochemicals subsequently opened doors into the energy sector, to which he now devotes his comprehensive expertise. For example, he contributed to the proposal for incorporating the Energy Efficiency First principle into Czech legislation and has played a role in the end-to-end preparation of major energy projects for both the public and private sectors.
His practice also covers the preparation of capital projects, particularly in water management, including matters of financing and public procurement (which also encompass FIDIC contract conditions).
Topic
Harnessing the potential of public–private collaboration
Cooperation between the public and private sectors has always been complex, yet it has consistently proven to be a path to mutual prosperity. What was once seen as “nice to have” is now being recognised by both sides as a “must have”.
Milan Kučera
topic lead
This cooperation cannot be confined merely to the performance of public contracts. The ever-increasing regulation of key industries involving public administration bodies makes it essential that both sectors use every tool at their disposal to forge close relationships. This will provide the bedrock on which they can efficiently realise their investment and development plans.
Energy \ Brno-Dukovany hot water pipeline
It is also evident that, unless public institutions and private companies work together, the development of infrastructure and services, particularly at the municipal level, will slow down significantly in the future. Positive changes are already under way across all important areas.
The key to further development and increased efficiency lies in closer integration across fields which are often in competition with the private sector. These may include culture and sport (such as the operation of cultural venues and sports facilities or the hosting of events), health care and social services, transport, waste collection and management, electricity and heat production and distribution, and many other areas.
Regardless of whether such responsibilities are managed directly by municipalities, organisations partly funded from the public purse, or subsidiary companies, these sectors are frequently systemically underfunded or understaffed. From a long-term perspective, decisions will therefore inevitably have to be taken not on whether, but to what extent, strategic partnerships with the private sector are to be established.
Without such partnerships, it is highly unlikely that all sectors can develop on an equal footing (despite the constant influx of subsidisation) and ensure not only the maintenance of current living standards, but also their improvement in line with contemporary Western trends.
On one hand, the public sector will need to align formal rules and processes more closely with common corporate practice, ensuring cooperation is transparent yet free from excessive bureaucracy (beyond legal requirements). On the other hand, the private sector will need to consider not only the business aspect, but also public interest factors – that is, the reasons why a municipality is moved to establish such cooperation in the first place.
Finding a suitable strategic partner will certainly not be straightforward. However, it is in the interest of municipalities, and indeed all of us as their inhabitants, that their future planning moves firmly in this direction.