LEGATE, s.r.o

The firm: LEGATE has been operating in Slovakia since 2004. The firm was formed by Peter Vrábel, an experienced attorney registered within the Slovak Bar Association in 2000, who gained experience as an attorney and benefits from experience at a premium US law firm.

Since its formation, LEGATE has extended into a wide team of lawyers with complex and detailed knowledge of local distinctions applicable to the Slovak market. At the present time, LEGATE comprises seven attorneys, three junior lawyers, one paralegal and two assistants which ranks LEGATE as a medium-sized law firm within Slovak market.

The firm aims to keep clients satisfied and focuses on cost-effective services and tailor-made solutions with a flexible approach. The firm considers the client’s requirements and projects on an individual basis, first to understand the client’s model of operation (modus operandi) and afterwards to prepare alternative solutions in close co-operation with the client’s representatives. No single project is the same; the draft solutions are supervised by the managing partner or created in brainstorming meetings within the team of dedicated lawyers. This individual attitude attracts clients to form long-term professional relationships.

The firm provides its clients with a wide scope of legal support depending on specified requirements and demands of its clients. The legal practice areas of LEGATE comprise corporate, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution, industry and energy, antitrust and competition, banking and finance, construction, employment, public procurement, real estate, restructuring and insolvency, taxes and transport regulation, data protection and intellectual property law.

Areas of practice: LEGATE’s main legal practice areas are: mergers and acquisitions, energy, employment, litigation and arbitration, insolvency and restructuring , public procurement, projects and taxes.

LEGATE primarily renders its legal activities in the following industrial sectors: engineering and energy projects; transport, civil aviation and logistics; construction projects.

Practice head and managing partner Peter Vrabel is the counsel in charge. His previous experience in Slovakia’s anti-monopoly offices means that he has extensive contacts with regulatory bodies, which prove especially helpful in merger filings. Peter offers extensive experience in securities law and mergers and acquisitions. He is a licensed trustee, securities broker, mediator and listed arbitrator of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Energy work is a key area of focus for the firm. The firm advises four of the 20 largest non-financial enterprises in Slovakia, all of which are major energy players. The firm’s practice extends to assisting multinational, pan-European oil and gas companies and public entities. The firm handles ‘pure’ energy work, meaning the practice covers EPC contracts, construction contracts, and related arbitration. The practice does not rely on transactional work that happens to take place in the energy sector. The firm’s familiarity with EU energy regulations is crucial to its practice: the firm advises new plants on compliance, and ensures that new projects match EU specifications.

Within the employment practice area, the firm handles a wide range of matters including designing comprehensive and appropriate employment models for the largest companies in Slovakia, as well as for organisational units and subsidiaries of multinational companies established in Slovakia, general employment counselling and pre-litigation employment strategies.

The firm’s litigation track record includes achieving successes in some of the largest cases in recent Slovakian history, such as successfully defending its client, the second largest company in Slovakia, against a €66m claim raised by a private equity house. The claim concerned the price of gas supplied to a million households, and therefore attracted significant media attention. The firm has acted as counsel in arbitral proceedings at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and the Arbitration Court in Prague, the International Court of Arbitration in Paris and the Vienna International Arbitral Centre. It possesses a thorough acquaintance with the local legal and judicial environments, resulting in a swiftness of the decision-making process incomparable to that offered by international law firms.

As a member of GLOBALAW, international law group and network of independent law firms, LEGATE is in permanent connection with legal professionals from more than 108 different jurisdictions, making the law firm more accessible to eminent international clients.