Our expertise

Our firm provides legal services in all areas of business law, with specialization on M&A transactions, labor law, construction law, compliance, personal data protection, company law, real estate law, litigation, arbitration and intellectual property law.

Among our clients are global corporations, medium-sized companies, private investors as well as  top management from variety of sectors, e. g. automotive, machine, banking, finance, construction, development, energy, chemical, IT and media industry, followed by retail, wholesale, hotel and tourist industry.

Our team assists during the process of entering the Czech market to a number of foreign international or middle-sized companies as well as provides legal advices to Czech companies during their foreign investments and business activities with focus on Germany.

The UEPA Team has in-depth experience in a range of legal areas including:

We advise banks and financial institutions as well as business entities seeking bank-leasing- or alternative financing. Structuring financial transactions and drafting financial documentation are one of the strengths of our practice. Our banking team also offers advice on more complex financial deals, including Mezzanine Financing and Syndicated Loans. We are also familiar with Loan Market Association (LMA) Standard Loans, along with having in-depth knowledge of the local banking customs.

Leasing companies play an important role among our clients and we advise them on all legal aspects of leasing including a regular scan and update of their contract portfolio. Knowing „both sides of the negotiation table“ enables us to provide financing institutions as well as their clients with high-quality legal solutions that are tailored to their respective needs. Due to our vast experience we know which conditions usually are negotiable and which are not. This permits us to work very efficiently.

Commercial law, general contract law and distribution law are traditional fields of most Czech law firms including us. While these areas are often somewhat overlooked due to increasing specializations, they should not be undervalued. We will be your partner and guide you through the complexities of commercial law. We will draft all documents necessary for your business, from model contracts and general terms and conditions to long-term project documentation and ad hoc contracts.

Our services include full negotiation and drafting services for national and international contracts of all types and values. In case foreign law is the basis of your contract, we closely cooperate with our network of partners from numerous countries, whom we know very well both on personal and professional level.

We draft contracts for your business representatives as well as setting up your franchise concept. Delivery contracts, agent contracts, etc. are in the best hands with us.

Compliance becomes increasingly important for our clients businesses. A few years ago, this topic did not attract much public interest in the Czech Republic and neighbouring CEE countries, but nowadays the contrary is true. Compliance more and more does not only concern mostly large enterprises any more, but also medium-sized companies. The reasons include ever more frequent official inspections as well as pressure from large customers, notably in the construction materials and the automotive industry, who force their suppliers to be compliant. Another stimulus to introduce compliance systems are the financial penalties, assessed by authorities from the turnover generated by the entire group, that often have a devastating impact. All of this motivates many of our clients to introduce a strict compliance system, the effectiveness and observance of which will be regularly supervised by us.

The range of our compliance and cartel law services is wide. In addition to analysing business risks, including a comprehensive contractual and legal audit, interviews with the company management and heads of the departments which are particularly at risk, we also offer intensive training of your employees, exactly tailored to your business and its needs. We can simulate dawn raids on the basis of multilingual PC key word search lists. We will train your employees in the manners of correct behaviour and dealing with inspection authorities. Naturally, we will intensively support you in structuring and putting in place of a compliance system in your company and, upon request, will regularly control and update your system.

We also offer traditional cartel law advice, such as representing you in proceedings at the Czech Republic’s Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS).

In compliance and cartel law, just like in other fields of law, it is up to our clients to decide how extensive our work will be. That said, we will always be happy to review a specific contract for its conformity with antitrust law. However, the core of our work consists of the long-term support to our clients’ businesses in putting their compliance systems in place.

Corporate legal advice is an integral part of our services for both domestic and international clients. You can approach us in all corporate matters, from choosing the type of company and incorporating it to comprehensive domestic and international transactions.

We will guide you through any stage of the company life cycle and its legal and regulatory requirements. We will design creative deal structures for you, plan and implement acquisition strategies for both acquirers and potential acquisition targets in domestic and cross-border transactions, often in cooperation with our trusted international partner law firms. We will also perform all necessary legal due diligences in an effective way. You can fully rely on our special expertise. We know the typical problems in transactions and solve them efficiently. We understand that a lot of deal structures are tax-driven and therefore closely work together with tax specialists from the very beginning of any transaction.

We will also assist you with obtaining regulatory approval, in particular from competition authorities.

Harmonious employer-employee and shareholder-management relations are an integral part of any company’s success. Therefore, we provide you with comprehensive legal advice in respect of all employment and labour issues that form a part of everyday life in your company. We will draft employment contracts or manager agreements as well as other documents governing the relations between employers and employees, including collective agreements, work rules and other internal regulations. We will also advise you on employee redundancy and all related issues to ensure smooth and successful company operations.

Ideas are valuable. However, they are not tangible assets. Intangible property is an important element of everyday business life and therefore we advise our clients to ensure the protection of intellectual property, their brands and business identity, which are essential for activities in the Czech Republic, the European community or even on worldwide markets. We will arrange for the protection of your trade marks on a national, international and/or community level and will represent you at the respective competent offices.

We will provide you with comprehensive legal advice in the field of copyrights, domain names, designs, utility designs and unfair competition, including legal advice regarding disputes arising from intellectual or industrial property rights, license agreements and agreements on assignments of rights.

Your company will benefit from our rich experience in information technology law. Our mission is to help you maximize profits from innovations developed by you and your business partners. Software implementation projects are complex and, due to the common practise of determining the full scale and final price only after finalisation of a blue print, they often cause legal disputes. We draft standard implementation contracts for professional IT companies and carefully negotiate and draft tailor-made legal solutions for customers of IT companies who are aiming at implementing software solutions for their businesses.

Our expertise in this field of law encompasses regulatory issues, such as data protection law as well as drafting general terms of business and individual customer contracts.

In 2017 and the following years we will put a special focus on the preparation of our clients companies for the new data security law, given the EU-law development in connection with the new General Data Protection Regulation, which has a direct impact on all companies in the EU. The preparation of clients of all fields of business is so demanding, that we built up a team of lawyers that currently almost exclusively focuses on this topic, be it by holding information seminars, by analysing the current situation in clients’ companies or introducing of data protection systems and methodology to our clients. Our data protection team closely works with specialized IT companies.

Arbitration is one of the most popular alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, namely in the field of disputes arising from commercial contracts. However, the question, whether an arbitration clause can be the best alternative how to protect the interests of one or even both parties, has to be considered carefully in each individual case. Not only potential time savings, but also higher costs, the fact that the hearings are not public as well as the usual absence of a possibility to appeal, need to be kept in mind. One of the crucial points is the choice of the right arbitration court. Our arbitration team is familiar with this field of law, both from the perspective of the arbitrator as well as of the representative of one of the parties in front of a arbitral tribunal. We also assist you in ad hoc proceedings.

In 2016 one of our attorneys was chairman of a large ICC arbitration case, which was successfully concluded within just ten months.

Recently, mediation has also become an increasingly important method of ADR for our practice.

In whatever aspect of arbitration or ADR you might need assistance, UEPA is the right choice for you due to the vast experience of the team.

Litigation also forms a part of our everyday work. We advise and represent many of our clients in court proceedings and we reached a successful result for our clients in over 85% of cases which were concluded during the year 2016.

Real Estate Transactions form a part of the daily business of many of our clients. Our practice encompasses all aspects of real estate projects including finance structures, construction and sale, developers’ projects, commercial leases and property management. We advise on both commercial and residential real estate projects.

Large real estate transactions demand guidance from experienced lawyers who have deep legal knowledge not only in real estate law, but also in many other fields, including banking, finance, tax, securities and environmental law. When proposing and implementing a transaction solution, we take into account zoning planning issues, construction permit issues and environmental concerns. Each transaction is structured with an eye to tax optimization.

Our company has one of the leading Real Estate & Construction Teams in the Czech Republic, ready to help you successfully execute the most demanding real estate deals.

More detailed information and references are available upon request.

Renewable energy sources are promoted in many parts of the world. Their importance within the energy sector has grown significantly. The Czech governments surprising withdrawal of support for new larger-scale photovoltaic powerplants as well as the introduction of the withholding tax on solar energy revenues in 2011, significantly changed the renewables sector in the Czech Republic. Numerous investors were concerned about the profitability of their investments and instituted damage compensation disputes or arbitration proceedings under the bilateral investment treaties the Czech Republic had concluded with other countries. State support to biogas plants has also been stopped in the meantime.

Despite all this, we still consider the renewable energy sector to have potential in the Czech Republic on a mid- to long-term perspective, as wind power plays an increasing role for investors. UEPA´s legal team was during the first period of the „solar boom“ the leading expert in this field and had advised many investors and thus gained a lot of experience.

We are a ‘full-service’ law firm regarding renewable energy. We primarily offer the following services to our clients:

  • Preparation of the schedule of any and all permits required for a planned power facility
  • Support with the application for all required licences and permits
  • Support in negotiations with local authorities, or representation in dealings, for example, with the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ)
  • Performance of a Due Diligence as part of the preparations of particular projects
  • Reviewing the conditions for state support
  • Drafting of all required contracts
  • Participation and support in contract negotiations
  • Advice on financing, negotiations with financing banks
  • Representation in court proceedings, including damage compensation disputes
  • Representation in arbitration proceedings, including BIT arbitration

For banks and leasing companies we currently work on several projects including workouts and the sale of solar plants.

Contact

UEPA advokáti s.r.o.
Voctářova 2449/5 (DOCK in One)
180 00 Praha 8 – Libeň
CZECH REPUBLIC

Tel.: +420 234 707 444
Fax: +420 234 707 404
E-Mail: office@uepa.cz

UEPA advokáti s.r.o.
Lazaretská 23
811 09 Bratislava
SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Tel.: +421 2 43330283
E-Mail: office@uepa.sk