Interview with: Martin Bohuslav, Managing Partner

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Deloitte Legal from your competitors?

Well, without doubt a great differentiator is the ability to provide bundled solutions together with our Deloitte colleagues in other service lines. This includes solutions involving colleagues such as IT Consultants, Financial Advisors, Risk Advisers, and Tax Experts, among others. Further differentiation comes through our being focused on the most important and relevant topics at the current time. Presently, two such topics are Digitalization and ESG (Environmental Social and Governance). Both topics require major transformational processes to be taken by our clients, which can prove quite daunting for them. However, we offer added support to these clients, making the transformational processes manageable and trouble-free, through our integrated project management capabilities.

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

Beyond Digitalization and ESG transformational projects, I think that we can expect to see growth across the whole spectrum of traditional legal practice areas. Depending on the economic outlook over the next 12 months, this should include M&A transactions, restructuring, or even insolvencies. One further area of growth is likely to be in Tax Litigation, which is headed by my talented colleague Jirina Prochazkova. Since we have the largest Tax & Legal team on the market, I believe we are unmatched in our ability to cover this area and bring true synergies in our service offerings.

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

We are doing a great job of supporting our clients in the Digital Legal area. Digital team have a refreshingly entrepreneurial and proactive approach to dealing with the tasks, which are often accompanied with tight deadlines. This allows us to deliver a significant volume of work for our Technology-related clients, including those in Software Development. I would add, too, that client benefits are coming from the increasing efficiencies brought forward in our Tax Litigation team. The ongoing closer collaboration between the Tax & Legal colleagues is certainly something that is bringing added value to our clients. Lastly, in ESG, we really aspire to bring holistic projects to our clients where we cover Project Management, with full scope consultancy, and not just Legal Advisory alone.

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Again, the high level of efficiency from the Digital Law team comes to mind. Through their using the latest advancements in Legal Technologies via Planning, Communication, and Collaborative applications, we can see major time and resource savings being gained. This directly benefits our clients allowing us to cover high volume-work over shorter times, and with better accuracy. A further note that I should mention is that taken by one of our colleagues Jan Prochazka, who heads our Banking & Finance team. He is integrating legal services with all the technologies offered by Deloitte. So, for example, if Deloitte is providing a software-related solution to a bank, an integral part of this will be the option of purchasing legal advisory through that solution at any time in future.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

An example that I should mention would be one where, thanks to the elaboration of an ESG Strategy for a client, we were directly involved in increasing their value through implementing that strategy. Almost nobody, nowadays, can ignore the increasing requirements for ESG application as this will be demanded more and more from their clients and customers. Thus, we are helping this client from transforming something which, on first impression, could have been taken to be a burden by their company executives, into something which is a benefit, and brings tangible and measurable savings.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

We are in the perfect position to be a strategic partner for our clients simply due to our wide practical experience across all industries, and with the major international players. With this unique business insight, we can offer proactive solutions, and the best practices taken around the world. Our lawyers, through daily collaboration with other experts, in Tax, Finance, Technology, etc., have a broader business perspective, than those at traditional law firms, which means that they can keep company objectives and goals in mind without only taking a solely narrow legal approach.

In three years’ time, I see the firm as being the undisputed second-largest law firm on the Czech market. Additionally, I hope that we will bring a new normal to clients in providing integrated bundled solutions, which traditional law firms will not be able to do without bringing in 3rd party providers.