Stepan Holub is relatively new at Eurojuris but you might have already met him in Prague last October at our International Congress. Managing Partner with his mother Bohumila, they have been successfully running the family business founded more than 25 years ago. Some time later, another partner, Klara Dvorakova, joined the law firm.
Klara Dvorakova is leading expert on travel law in the Czech Republic. She also deals with professional liability cases. In 2016, she was in the lime light with her class action case against insurance companies at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. Her efforts led to changes in the relevant Czech law regulating insurance in the Travel Industry.
Stepan Holub is specialised in corporate and private clients, advising mostly on real estate law. He is also listed as recommended arbitrator by the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic.
He is also an enthusiastic and energetic individual born with a passion for coaching and mentoring young entrepreneurs and start-ups. Pro bono in some cases, he loves to give his clients opportunities to grow and shine by helping them with a number of legal & business issues blocking their path to success.
We asked Stepan a few questions regarding his law firm, as well as his recent membership with us.
You joined our network a few months ago, could you tell us a little more about your experience so far ?
We joined Eurojuris based on recommendation of our international colleagues, Thomas Rinne and Valerie Crevecoeur who were very excited about the organisation. So far, we have only participated to the annual congress in Prague but our experience was very positive. From the communication stand point, it is an active organisation and members seem to be actively involved. I was also happy to find out that Eurojuris is recommended by the Chambers.
What kind of cases do you usually handle ?
We are a Czech law firm that provides legal service to corporate clients, international families and successful individuals with their legal issues in the Czech Republic. Our firm is particularly known for our expertise in travel business law, corporate, companies’ start-ups, real estate transactions and professional liability cases.
Have you already handled case referrals from other member firms ?
So far, we have not received any referrals but I am looking forward to referring work to other members as well.
Can you give us the specifics of practising law in Czech Republic? How does it differ from other European legal systems?
Czech legal system is still relatively 'young jurisdiction'. After 1989, there have been more turbulent changes in the legal system than in other jurisdictions in the Western Europe. Lawyers have gotten used to constant changes. In 2014, Czech Republic adopted entirely new civil code which has been inspired also by other jurisdictions, mostly from Western Europe.
Since then, only one change to the civil code occurred back in December 2016. This means, that even the civil code got finally stabilised and, even the differences in legal culture are less and less visible now. When speaking about lawyers, I think we still have relatively large group of sole practitioners who are not engaged internationally.
Could you describe an interesting case you've recently handled ?
At the moment, we are representing 19 senators of the Parliament of the Czech Republic at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. Their objective is to abolish part of law regulating public health care insurance funds in order to have equal representation of insured people in the public funds and to benefit from better public control. The senators decided to use services of our law firm because of its extensive experience in representing at the highest level of judiciary and our ability to provide them with arguments from other jurisdictions.
Can you tell us a little more about yourself ?
I like to be in contact with active people and support them in their development or with their start-ups. There are several young people having their own projects around me. I like to be in touch with them on regular basis, coach them and support in their efforts, or help them to get connected with other people who can help them. For example, I support lady who started an NGO for planting trees. I have been helping her pro bono with the legal and business issues, but I also encouraged our law firm team to get involved in the actual planting. As to my hobbies, I ride my bicycle every day and wouldn’t miss it for the world, it a great way to put your mind at rest for a while.
Why did you become a lawyer ?
My mother, who has established our law firm in 1991, always wanted me to become a lawyer. I hesitated a little at the beginning as I did not want to follow my mother out of principle. But then, I decided to follow her footstep and to help her change the sole-practitioner-practice into a law firm. I am happy about the decision I took.
Will you be joining us at our International Congress inLisbon next spring ?
Yes, I am definitely looking forward to it :-)
