Largest Law Firms 2024: Repeat Victory in the Regulation & Compliance Category

The results of the 2024 Largest Law Firms in Slovakia ranking are out. Once again,  we took first place in the Regulatory Law & Compliance category.

Winning again

The Largest Law Firms ranking is published annually by The Slovak Spectator and SME newspaper in cooperation with Finstat. It is part of the Právo magazine, a supplement of SME that offers a comprehensive review of the legal practice. This year's results were announced on November 25, and, much like last year, they brought great news for Poláček & Partners: first place in the Regulation & Compliance category.

We consider this victory to be the most important for us, as energy and construction regulation have been our core areas of expertise since the firm's establishment. This was also pointed out by managing partner Pavol Poláček:

"I am truly delighted that we have been recognized as the largest law firm in Slovakia in this category, and I’m grateful for the trust our clients have shown us over the years. It is the most valuable thing they can offer. I’m pleased that our clients feel that we provide them with real value and that they see us as a stable and reliable partner. We mitigate the risks associated with the complex and ever-changing regulatory environment that they clients encounter in their business; and we save them time and money, which allows them to focus on their work without having to deal with complex legal issues."

Assistance to energy suppliers

As Právo noted, over the past year, we represented energy suppliers in proceedings initiated by the Regulatory Office for Network Industries (RONI). At the end of 2023, when ÚRSO declared that market conditions in the energy sector were exceptional, and found that electricity and gas prices were at elevated levels for consumers, it launched extraordinary regulatory proceedings against the most significant electricity and gas suppliers. The primary goal was to reduce commodity prices for the unregulated customer segment, a regulation that could have had a profound impact on the market.

In an interview for SME, Pavol Poláček stated, "We were approached by the Association of Energy Suppliers, to whom we provided legal counsel. As a result of the negotiations with RONI, our clients were able to significantly reduce the proposed scope of extraordinary adjustments."

Senior attorneys Tomáš Siskovič and Jozef Hudák, also a partner at the firm, were among those who worked on the case.

As Jozef Hudák noted, "we strive to bring clarity to legislative challenges, and we enjoy it. There have been plenty of them in recent years. Energy, along with sustainability, will increasingly attract market interest. We are ready for this trend and so are the office’s coffee machines."

We are well-versed in energy and construction regulation, despite the ever-changing rules. This is emphasized by Šimon Hudák, our newest partner and expert in construction and environmental law, who stated, "Our legal system is regularly inundated with new obligations and regulations that reshape business and industry conditions. On top of that, new challenges from the EU concerning the construction sector, climate protection, and environmental sustainability continue to arise. I value the steadfast trust of our clients, whom we guide safely through these regulatory complexities, ensuring they can focus on their business without worry."

Relevant criteria

As the name Largest Law Firms suggests, the ranking takes into account criteria that speak about the size of the law firms, in particular the number of lawyers and their experience, as well as the firm’s revenues, economic results and remuneration for cases. It is not just about the size of the firm itself, but the "size of the case," meaning the remuneration. This ultimately reflects the clients' trust in the law firm, the feeling of safety and security that the firm gives them, their satisfaction with the work, as well as the perception that the firm is their reliable and stable partner.

Individual criteria can differ in each of the sub-categories, which include: Mergers and Acquisitions, Intellectual Property, Real Estate and Development, Dispute agenda, Labor law, Insolvency law and Regulation & Compliance. In the category of Regulation & Compliance, in which we placed first, the following criteria were taken into account:

• number of deals with regard to remuneration of more than 20,000 EUR (this criterion had a weight of 70%),
• revenues (10%),
• number of lawyers (20%).

The ranking also reflects the proportion of each firm’s hours spent on this category.

Last but not least, we would also like to congratulate the other law firms included in the ranking. We wish them much success, interesting cases, and the motivation to continue doing great work.

More information as well as the results in the main and other sub-categories were published in the supplement of the SME daily newspaper dated November 26, 2024 and on the SME website.

And since, as you learned from this article, we have excellent experts in energy and construction, we also bring you a monthly summary of legislative news in the fields of energy monitoring and construction and environmental legislation monitoring.