KŠB Awarded by Prestigious Magazine ‘The Lawyer’

KŠB’s competition team led by Pavel Dejl received further international acclaim yesterday by winning an award from renowned British legal magazine “The Lawyer”.

From among many respected nominees, including large global players, the jury of leading European corporate lawyers and senior partners with first-hand experience working with independent firms in a variety of European jurisdictions honoured KŠB for successfully representing DELTA PEKÁRNY a.s. against the Czech Republic before the European Courts for Human Rights (“ECHR”).

The case concerned an unlawful dawn raid which the Czech Competition Authority conducted on Delta Pekárny’s premises. The ECHR’s ruling challenges the legality of all dawn raids carried out (or to be carried out) by the Czech Competition Authority in the offices and other premises of businesses without prior consent from, or a subsequent review by, an independent court. The ruling is also significant for other EU countries whose legal systems do not explicitly impose a duty on competition authorities to obtain prior judicial consent before conducting a dawn raid since the ruling automatically applies to all Member States. KŠB received the award for the ruling’s Europe-wide impact on competition practices and for the creativity and innovation of the team’s legal arguments during the proceedings.

“I am honoured and greatly appreciate the fact that the jury was drawn to the Europe-wide impact of a case which at first concerned only the Czech Republic. Winning this award is truly something special, especially considering the esteem of the other nominees, which were global law firms that employ thousands of lawyers across the globe. I would like to thank all of my colleagues who contributed to the case, without whom success would not have been possible,” says KŠB partner Pavel Dejl.

In addition to winning the European Competition Case of the Year award, KŠB was also shortlisted for Law Firm of the Year: Central Europe. The Lawyer European Awards 2015 ceremony was held yesterday evening at the Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel in London.