Tomáš Siskovič: Advocacy is alchemy

In university he avoided the energy industry as much as possible. Yet, last year he was ranked by The Legal 500 as one of the key lawyers in that field. He worked on the Čistý deň case, is an energy monitoring supervisor and sometimes, due to his concentration, he forgets to get off the bus. “Advocacy is alchemy”, says TOMAS SISKOVIC, who was promoted to senior associate at Poláček & Partners in early 2024.

You’ve been working at Poláček & Partners since March 2018. You’ve been an attorney since October 2021 and you were recently been promoted to Senior Associate. What does this mean for you?

I take it as a sign of the firm’s confidence in me and appreciation for my previous work.

What do you mean by "previous work"?

I think that for an attorney, the work can only be evaluated after an extended period of time has elapsed. And I guess that over that longer period my performance has proved to be steady and my clients were happy. That's kind of the problem with attorneys, the results of our work don't show up until much later. Some proceedings take 3 or 4 years to resolve. Then, unfortunately, we’re also less happy about our successes. Because by the time the results become apparent, one slowly forgets that he or she has been working on the matter and then doesn’t experience the later success as much.

But there have also been cases where the results came quickly. For example, when we dealt with a major case concerning a storage obligation which involved the largest suppliers in Slovakia. Thanks to our analyses, which pointed out the holes in the legislative proposal, or its lack of a concept, the proposal was defeated. We did a good job there, which was appreciated not only by our clients, but also by others who saw through it. In that case, the results and appreciation came in about a year, which is quite fast by our standards.

What kind of new responsibilities have you got since you became a senior citizen? What's the difference between an attorney and a senior attorney?

The main difference is that a senior is in charge of multiple projects at the same time. While attorneys handle a specific task from A to Z, seniors have several such projects to oversee at once and therefore need to be able to manage their time well. They must also be able to manage people so that they have a passion for the work and enjoy it. And that's quite challenging, because at the same time we have to be strict. Just as someone once put trust in my hands, I now have to trust others.

Are you good at it or do you have to learn these things?

It's a thing that takes years to learn. I'm still learning it, too. I consider it a kind of lawyer's art to set things up so that everyone is happy: both the client and the lawyer.

How do you plan to get better at these things?

I think a lot about every situation I experience. Whether I made the right move, whether something could have been done better. And I try to learn. In addition, especially in communication with clients, it’s always necessary to make it clear how things are, so that the client knows what to expect.

What about communication with the colleagues you manage? What rules do you follow there?

I stick to the rule: praise in public and criticise in private. Whenever I know someone has done something well, I try to praise them in front of others. If it's criticism or just good advice that I'd like to pass on, I do that alone. You have to learn to accept it and then build on it. After all, I too have a lot of things I know I could be better at and I want to keep working on them.

Which ones for example?

I can't pass on work that I'm not happy with myself. That's my strength and weakness at the same time. However, one needs to know when to stop. For example, with searching for the solution.

So, you're saying that sometimes you can't stop looking for a solution for a client?

It happens. I say, oh, I'll give it another hour, and another hour... There's bound to be something in that paragraph or in that case law that I can grab hold of. And it's really happened that I've found something cool at the last minute. It's just that then I didn't get it in other cases, and I searched for the answer, and searched, and searched... But a lawyer has to be able to say stop. There’s a risk in our work that with so much information to review we’ll overlook something; but we need to get to a point where that risk is minimal and I can say with near certainty that the solution sounds like this. In short, finding the right time when I can tell myself that I have enough information and I can conclude the "search".

Well then, how do you know when enough is enough?

I feel that in complex cases it is rare that the answer is clear straight from the legislation. Often, it's more like alchemy because there are so many of those avenues. It also depends on whether it's a dispute or a project, and also the position we're in. For example, whether we’re looking for an argument "for" something and we have to find something at all costs, or whether we’re looking for arguments to put the client in a stronger position.

So your best quality - your conscientiousness - is also your biggest challenge. Is there anything else you would like to improve?

I’d like to be able to things in perspective, because it happens that I get nervous about how a case will turn out. This is good on the one hand, but on the other hand, even if I close the door to the office, I still carry the problem in my head.

Is this common among lawyers? Do you find it difficult to leave your work behind when you leave it?

Well, it's not like selling something, where you make the sale and have a clear head.

That's clear, but there are other jobs that are mentally challenging and yet we don't necessarily take them home with us. Is law any different?

Not always, but when something is important and you can't find a solution to it at work, you think about it on the way home. Besides, when you have a lot of information in your head, it takes time for it to fit properly into the puzzle. I remember once I was travelling on a bus and suddenly it was like I was struck by lightning and I came up with a solution.

Have you ever forgotten to get off at the right stop because you were thinking too hard about work?

Yes, it happened to me on the way to work. I was supposed to change buses, but I ended up somewhere completely different.

And do you think that's typical of lawyers or is it just you or the fact that you're so engrossed in your work?

I think a lawyer has to be conscientious, but I don't think everybody is. I've talked to colleagues about this and some even think about solutions in the shower. We often see clients' problems as our own. Then one naturally puts more effort into it, just to get it right. I'm very happy when we can help a client and, conversely, I'm sad when we have to tell them that, well, unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it.

You said you're sad if you can't come up with a solution. You're known in the office to have a very human approach to clients. How do you perceive that and how do you build good relationships with clients?

We're lucky that not only do clients choose us, but we actually choose our clients, so internally I'm always aligned with what I'm doing. This is very important to me. I can’t even remember a negative client experience. The important thing is to be able to have an open friendly conversation. Even when we’ve had difficult cases and there was something that needed to be said that a client might not like, we always communicated honestly to them about how things were going. So, there's always honesty and then also joy in that working relationship. Recently a client wrote to say that we had helped her a lot. I also work better after such feedback because I can see that what I am doing is meaningful.

You said you don't have negative memories. Do you remember anything very positive or human with a client?

I was excited when we won the Clean Day case. We spent an awful lot of hours on that. Hundreds of hours. And I was happy that it turned out well for Ms. Blaha. I felt like I was helping not only her, but maybe society.

Clients have also thanked us for saving their business. Others say that they’ve never encountered such work before, which is, of course, equally pleasing.

Such work? What did they mean by that?

I mean the quality of the work. I think the bar (no pun intended) is set pretty high in our country. Moreover, when clients see that it’s not only about quality, but also that our approach is a bit different from what is usual for lawyers, it becomes a valuable "package" for them.

Clients usually thank you by email, but I know of one situation where a client was so grateful that she wanted to whistle at you.

Oh, yeah. But she was saying it to colleagues, not directly to me. She said she was so happy she'd give me a hug if she could. That was sweet. 

You were ranked by The Legal 500 as one of the key lawyers in the energy industry last year. Is this area your favourite? And if so, why?

When I had an energy-related course at university, I was sure I would never get involved with it. I didn't understand it at all, I didn't understand why it was different from the same concepts as transportation and distribution. It was only later that I understood that they were not the same thing. So, I started in advocacy in other areas and on different projects. Gradually, cases in the energy sector were added, and the more I dabbled in it, the more I started to enjoy it. I feel that you only really understand energy after a few years and I still wouldn't say I'm a complete energy expert. But the more I learn, the more I enjoy it.

That must have been quite challenging.

Energy is a difficult area of law. When you think you’re a smart lawyer and you start doing energy, you find that your existing knowledge isn’t enough. You really start to sort of relearn these things. But when you get the hang of it, it energizes you.

What is your main focus within the energy industry?

At the moment, I’m mainly responsible for supplier relations, such as contracts, terms and conditions, revisions of basic types of contracts that are concluded in this context by the supplier, the customer, the electricity producer, etc.

Then there are various analyses that go along with that. For example, relating to flexibility or aggregation. Our clients are also industrial parks with local distribution systems, so when they start to build a resource, all those contractual relationships that arise need to be covered. Relationships with the producer, suppliers, distribution companies that have their own operating regulations and grant permission for the construction.

At Poláček & Partners you regularly prepare or supervise our monthly energy newsletter, so you have an excellent overview. What do you think are the biggest challenges of energy policy and legislation at the moment?

There has been quite a lot of talk recently about things that have come out of the winter energy package, such as flexibility and aggregation. Energy communities, storage and electricity sharing are also new issues. After a long time, this has brought a new wind to the market in general, and now our market is gradually becoming familiar with it, and new projects are starting to be tackled that were not even possible before. Because for a long time we had what I would call a dark period. Nothing could be built, nothing could be solved, there were limited construction resources, and now in the last few years things have picked up and moved forward a little bit.

In addition, we have the remnants of the energy crisis. It will also be interesting to see what happens if the price of commodities falls or, conversely, if electricity and gas prices rise again. There has been a paradigm in the market - a constant - that electricity is cheap. But that has changed. It will probably never be as cheap as we’ve been used to, and we will see what the future brings.

What do you subjectively expect in this regard?

I think it will gradually improve and prices will go even lower, unless something unexpected happens in the market.

In your opinion, have we learnt anything from the energy crisis that occurred after the outbreak of war in Ukraine?

Today's electricity price is dependent on the situation around the world. The war was just one of the factors that played a role. Some factors were also natural, which in principle cannot be influenced very much. Lessons need to be learnt for the future so that we’re better prepared for such fluctuations. At the same time, it’s questionable whether everything has been done to ensure that households learn to save electricity consumption now and are prepared for the fact that the price of electricity for this segment will rise sooner or later. We now have capped prices in households, and since homeowners do not see the reality of the market price, in principle, nobody has any reason to save electricity. The subsidies that the state gives for electricity are incredibly large, billions of euros. It cannot be subsidised like this indefinitely, and one day it will have to end. From my point of view, therefore, it is important that households become prepared for the price change, that is to say, that they do not experience a sudden jump that they would then be unable to cope with financially.

Let's move on to non-job-related topics. What do you do to relax, what hobbies do you have?

There are many, but I don't have enough time for everything. I like sports, books, music, movies, I'm happy when I can go somewhere for a walk with my girlfriend, it's relaxing. I know how to enjoy even the little things. And what I really love and what can give me energy for a long time is travelling. I like to discover new countries. When we visited Peru, I drew energy from that for six months.

Seems like you really love travelling. Are you a Sagittarius by any chance?

Yes, I am.

Do you have any travel dreams?

I'd really like to go to Iceland. I'd like to see Africa, too, but I'm quite cautious at the moment, for health and safety reasons.

I see a guitar in the corner behind you...

Yes, I play guitar. I also went to music school when I was a kid, so I play classical music, but I also like old school bands like Guns N' Roses and Metallica.

But the guitar hasn't been with you at teambuilding events yet.

Recently, my colleague Duro, who also plays guitar, and I were talking about bringing our guitars one day. But mostly, I'd like to get back into it, because the way I used to play was on a whole different level. After music school, the next step was the conservatory, but I knew I wasn't that talented.

Everything can be learned. After all, even energy...

That's true. In fact, once during an interview a potential employer was impressed by the fact that I could play the guitar. I remember the manager telling me that it's not just that I play the guitar, but the qualities that go along with it that are important, that one has to be disciplined and patient when learning to play. 

So, I wish you more time for your music and your hobbies.

Thanks. Well, it's also about managing yourself. I have the disadvantage of being a night owl, so I kind of "wake up" at 12 o'clock and then my whole day is pushed back. I'm still getting going in the morning and I'm much more productive in the afternoon.

See, I knew that it was better to schedule this interview at 3.

The problem is that I really do think better in the evenings, and in a couple of hours I often demonstrate extraordinary efficiency or come up with great solutions that I would have a hard time doing in the office during the day. At the same time, it's natural for me to go to bed late at night, around one in the morning. However, I'd like to change that and set myself more of a daytime routine. That's why I'm reading the book Why We Sleep. According to the author, 40 percent of people are daytime types, about 30 percent are neutral types somewhere between daytime and nighttime types, and 30 percent are nighttime types. And those, if they get up early in the morning, they're really tired. So, genetics doesn't let you down, you can't just switch easily.

Who knows, maybe one day it will come to that and employers will start to take notice.

For me it would be ideal, but at the moment the whole world works on the principle that everything has to be dealt with in the morning or in the afternoon, so it's not easy to set up.

There's already talk in the company about a four-day work week, maybe a schedule for night owls will one day be a reality.

Can you imagine an attorney having a four-day work week?

Of course. After all, the bottom line is that there will be fewer working days for the same amount of work, so everything will have to slow down. Logically, it won't get done as quickly as it used to. Now we're used to getting everything done immediately. A confirmation, a reply to an email, a shipment... we want everything immediately. A few years ago, these things took longer, we're speeding things up more and more ourselves.

The trend is really that time is speeding up. I think even the coronavirus pandemic has sped things up a lot. Online meetings didn't exist before. Now it's natural to arrange to "meet" even for half an hour if we need to.

Which is great, but the fast pace can also do us harm, don't you think?

It will be interesting to see how these things develop. Artificial intelligence is a big milestone in this regard. It will certainly bring changes. Big law firms are already putting millions of euros into AI and it's a question of whether it will replace the advice of 'smaller' solicitors who are more likely to advise on the simpler cases where the answer can be found in the law. You type a question into a computer and in a few seconds you get an answer. I'm not so worried about us, because we work on specific cases of a slightly different complexity, but in less demanding cases there can be a change. For example, Chat GPT can already prepare simpler contracts. And this is only the beginning. Who knows what it will be like in a few years' time, not just in law, but in, say, medicine as well. So, I think the motto is: the future is now.

Born in 1991 in Prešov. He graduated from Comenius University Law School in Bratislava. During his studies he worked as a legal assistant and after graduating he worked as a law clerk  where he was actively engaged in complex litigation. Since joining Poláček & Partners in 2018, he has been working mainly in the area of the regulation and support of renewable energy sources and legal relations related to the production, distribution and supply of energy. Tomas publishes professional articles and regularly speaks at energy conferences. He is also the co-creator and supervisor of our regular monthly energy newsletters, which are published on well-known energy portals.