Interview: Luboš Nevrkla, Attorney-at-Law, Mališ Nevrkla Legal

A plan to expand. Back in July 2009, Luboš Nevrkla became partner at the law firm now known as Mališ Nevrkla Legal. Later that year, in December, the firm moved to their new space in the Longin Business Center, a space that is double the size of the firm’s former location. Currently the firm contains eight lawyers, five legal assistants and two office management people.

“We needed to add space to add people. And we are eager to hire new people, but for a medium-sized firm, it can be hard to attract the right people,” Nevrkla explains. However, Mališ Nevrkla Legal has been getting its name out there. They are getting acquainted with local and regional law students by co-sponsoring an annual Research Group Competition put together by the European Law Students’ Association at the law faculty of Charles University in Prague.

Services offered by Mališ Nevrkla Legal include the areas of business, corporate, contractual, real estate, labor and family law. Nevrkla mentions that the latter area in particular has been growing, with the rise of international marriages and divorces. The firm also specializes in two distinct areas: intellectual property law and pharmaceutical/medical law—an expertise held by Nevrkla’s partner, Daniel Mališ, who is also an MD. Intellectual property law deals with conflicts over trademarks, patents and copyrights, and is an area in which the firm has a substantial amount of experience. “It’s not big in volume, but it is very interesting in scope,” Nevrkla points out.

In addition, Mališ Nevrkla has an alliance partner in a Florida-based law firm, where the Czech firm refers clients who need legal assistance in the US–and vice versa. One-third of the firm’s clients are typically expats who need legal assistance in setting up a company in the Czech Republic.

In 1998, Nevrkla was working at the Czech branch of Freshfields (an international law firm) when he met Mališ, and in the beginning of 2007, joined him to expand Mališ’s firm (founded in 2003), in order to form a team whose goal was to “provide strategic services and be able to resolve issues in the most efficient way,” Nevrkla explains.

As a partner, Nevrkla does find the work to be more demanding “because you can’t concentrate merely on law as much. I am more involved in the management, coming up with possibilities to shape the future of this firm. I am not just a passenger. I wanted to direct the way—not only the legal side of the work, but also the strategy of the firm,” Nevrkla says.

Part of the strategy is focused on the firm’s expansion, but rather than ending up as a “factory of law with hundreds of lawyers,” Nevrkla points out their desire is to become a law firm with 20-40 employees, and one which holds alliances with international firms. “Otherwise you lose that friendliness and closeness. We always try to do team-building activities so that we strengthen the loyalty of people within the firm,” he adds.

The past year has brought a lot of work for the firm, but when the interesting cases come up, Nevrkla says, “you don’t focus on the time spent. Time just passes by. The most interesting cases are when you need to find some strategy, think three moves ahead, like in chess. This gives you big satisfaction from the work. Of course winning court cases as well is nice,” he laughs.

Nevrkla mentions that the area of real estate law had been “staggering a little bit, but is starting to revive again. But other areas have grown rapidly. We see a big growth in litigation. It’s an organic growth through all areas, so if one is not doing so well, others are flourishing.”

As a child, Nevrkla recalls his “distorted view” of being a lawyer. “I thought it was just a guy sitting in an office, doing nothing and earning lots of money,” he laughs.

But he explains that being an attorney at law is more than sitting at the office. His role also involves frequent travel around the country both for meetings with clients and for trials held in courts outside of Prague.

“Being a lawyer means assisting your client in sorting out their problems. Every lawyer has to see the specific personal approach to each client, not just the legal methods. And this is especially important in family cases, the manner in which you choose to resolve the issues, so that everyone is still talking to each other,” he says.

For Nevrkla, it is important not only to represent and protect the interest of the client, but also to balance the client’s future activities in the community as well. “So you are not just concentrated on winning one small isolated case, but you might make a compromise so that collaboration can continue. That is why we try to really learn about our clients. You have to work with people, understand them,” he points out.

He believes that Mališ Nevrkla seems to be unique in its approach toward its clients, and the firm’s focus on “finding a strategic solution for the whole and not just the small part—I think it’s not so common in the legal field.”