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Overview
Since joining the European Union in 2004 the Slovakian economy has been in growth mode, attracting a steady flow of investment from multinationals setting up operations serving the whole of Central and Eastern Europe from the country. Low labour costs, low taxes and political stability have combined to make Slovakia one of the most attractive destinations for foreign direct investment in Europe, and the government’s decision to join the Euro on 1 January 2009 has only furthered the country’s growth trajectory in spite of the global economic downturn that took hold elsewhere in 2008.
The biggest investments in Slovakia have been in car plants, however, which have sprung up on the outskirts of Bratislava thanks to the region’s central location at the heart of the European market. With these plants have come suppliers, all of which has combined to position Slovakia as a country producing more cars per head than any other in the world. Alas, with the automobile industry amongst the most badly affected by the international credit crunch, Slovakia’s reliance on it means the country looks unlikely to remain immune from the global downturn longer term.
The continuing flow of inward investment has kept law firms employed not only with corporate and commercial work, but also with real estate projects. Unlike neighbouring Prague, the Bratislava economy never attracted a huge wave of international law firms in the 1980s, with US firms Squire Sanders s.r.o. and White & Case the first two to open offices in the early 1990s.
Of the English law firms, Allen & Overy Bratislava, s.r.o. is the only Magic Circle law firm with considerable operations in the country, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer maintains a small office despite pulling out of Prague some years back. Linklaters was a major firm until exiting Central and Eastern Europe in 2008, and its local operations are now independently operated by former employees under the brand Kinstellar.
With the rest of the legal market roughly split between those advisers specialising in French, German, Austrian or English law advice, providers continue to enter the market from overseas. Austria’s Wolf Theiss is an example, as are Germany’s Nörr Stiefenhofer Lutz s.r.o., Czech firms Balcar Polanský Eversheds s.r.o. and Peterka & Partners and pan-European providers DLA Piper Weiss-Tessbach and Salans. A new entrant at the end of 2008 was the Austrian firm Schönherr, which established operations across the region when it extended its existing nine-office European network into the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland simultaneously.
Bratislava’s proximity to Vienna means a number of lawyers in all international firms divide their time between the two centres, with further teams split between the Slovak and Czech capital cities.
Meantime, the local Slovak legal market players go from strength to strength, with Cechová & Partners, Cernejová & Hrbek and CVD s.r.o. counsellors at law (former Csekes, Világi, Drgonec & Partners spol. s.r.o.) performing well, while younger entrants B&S Legal s.r.o. and Valko & Partners have quickly made names for themselves.
A new Slovak law firm launched in October 2008 by the name of Hillbridges, comprising a team of senior lawyers who were previously employed at Linklaters in Bratislava and focused on international finance and transactional work. The principal partners are Zuzana Bartošovicová, Zora Mistriková and Miroslav Trencan, and the team looks to be the one to watch.