Sylvie Sobolová and Christian Blatchford Join the Ranks of Kocián Šolc Balaštík Partners16/01/17 / News

Sylvie Sobolová and Christian Blatchford were newly appointed partners at Kocián Šolc Balaštík (KŠB) effective 1 January 2017. Sylvie and Christian have been with KŠB many years and their appointment expresses KŠB’s appreciation of the many contributions they have made to the firm. In addition, associates Jan Lasák, Vlastimil Pihera and Tomáš Sequens were appointed counsels.

Sylvie Sobolová has been an advocate since 2002. She is a member of the Czech Bar Association and specializes in public contracts and state aid, competition law, intellectual property law, and generally on litigation and arbitration. She graduated from the Masaryk University School of Law in Brno and received her Ph.D. from the University of Economics in 2004. She has also had a fellowship at the University of Oxford and an educational stay at the Court of First Instance of European Communities in Luxembourg. Sylvie speaks English and German.

Christian Blatchford has been an advocate since 2003. He is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales and the Czech Bar Association. Christian specializes in mergers & acquisitions, project financing and infrastructure projects (including PPP). He graduated from the Faculty of Arts, University of Manchester, and College of Law, Guildford. Christian speaks English and Czech.

“Sylvie and Christian are both excellent attorneys and thanks to their long and outstanding careers and their proactive approach to building on KŠB’s good reputation, they have great potential to be good KŠB partners. I wish them great success in their new roles,” said KŠB managing partner Dagmar Dubecká.

Jan Lasák has been an advocate since 2012, when he graduated from the Masaryk University School of Law in Brno (where he also obtained a Ph.D. degree) and Columbia Law School (LL.M.). He specializes in corporate law, including corporate groups, and mergers & acquisitions. Jan is a research lecturer at the Department of Civil Law and Civil Procedure at the Palacký University Law School in Olomouc. Jan is an active writer and speaker, especially on corporate law issues (he is lead author on the Commentary on the Corporations Act published by Wolters Kluwer).

Vlastimil Pihera has been an advocate since 2008. He graduated from the University of West Bohemia's School of Law in Pilsen (where he obtained a Ph.D. degree). Vlastimil specializes in securities and capital markets, corporate law, and estate planning. He is an academic researcher at the State and Law Department of the Czech Academy of Sciences, a member of the Appellate Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and also a frequent lecturer and contributor to legal publications. Vlastimil speaks English and German.

The third new counsel to be appointed is Tomáš Sequens, who has been an advocate since 2003. Tomáš graduated from the Charles University Law School in Prague and, in addition to the Czech Bar Association, he is also a member of the Czech Environmental Society and the European Association of Environmental Law. Tomáš specializes in environmental law, energy and mining law, and administrative law and administrative court proceedings. He has written or co-written a number of legal publications. Tomáš speaks English and Russian.