(source: Courtesy of BEATOW PARTNERS )
How would you briefly characterise your law office?
Professionals with a down-to-earth approach. Anyway, we strive to provide services in a way that our clients can feel confident that we fully know their business goals and help to reach them and, at the same time, that they properly understand potential legal risks their business may face.
Which are the biggest challenges in the legislative environment that international investors in Slovakia are having to face?
First of all, the instability and poor quality of the legislative environment, which results in a great administrative burden on businesses. In Slovakia, the so-called “gold-plating” is also frequent when authorities – while implementing EU directives – go beyond their minimum requirements; thus, the business environment is often pointlessly regulated.
How do you perceive the law enforceability in Slovakia, from your own experience?
Law enforceability is one of the most persistent problems that burden businesses in Slovakia. Businesspeople feel the main reasons are the disproportionate duration of court proceedings as well as unpredictability of court rulings. They usually perceive the arbitration proceedings more positively than the court proceedings, and thus they rather seek to solve the disputes within arbitration proceedings, even though some are still discouraged by higher costs when compared to court proceedings. Moreover, due to the persistent trend towards tightening consumer protection legislation, the possibility to solve disputes stemming from consumer contracts within the arbitration proceedings is limited.
In which practice areas do you have the richest experience?
We have a great deal of experience with significant transactions in the areas of commercial and corporate law, M&A, banking and finance and real estate, which has also been reflected in our rankings in prominent legal guides, such as Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500 and IFLR 1000. In recent years, we have also profiled ourselves as an office offering high-quality advisory in public procurement and tax disputes.
In which international networks is your office a member, and what advantages stem from this for your clients?
Our law office is a member of two international networks of independent law firms, namely Meritas and IsFin. Meritas is recognized (among others, by Chamber & Partners) as one of the world’s largest and most respected alliances of independent law firms. Since it approves as members only law firms that meet strict quality requirements, Meritas provides our clients with worldwide access to first-class legal advice in most of the regions of economic interest.
All questions have been answered by Peter Mikletič, Partner with
BEATOW PARTNERS. For more information go to:www.beatow.com or contact our office at info@beatow.com, or at +421 2 5273 1235.
