Nobody worked like the Czechs in the 1990s, say Rob Irving and Petr Zákoucký of Dentons

Instead of taking their initial profits to tax havens, Czech entrepreneurs have consistently reinvested them and created strong international companies and Financial groups headquartered in Prague, says Rob Irving, co-head of Dentons' Corporate and M&A practice in Europe „A big reason for me to be here today is to continue to facilitate that creation of value by Czech entrepreneurs with global businesses,“ he says in the Global Minds podcast, which features prominent foreign managers speaking about business in the Czech Republic. He was accompanied to the studio by Petr Zákoucký, the senior M&A partner in Dentons' Prague office.

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You can also listen to the full interview at THIS link.

Rob Irving is an American, but he has found a second home in the CEE region. He first came to Prague for work in 1991. Before the turn of the millennium, he moved to Budapest, where he spent 27 years. And after moving from White & Case to Dentons in 2015, he is in the process of moving to Prague again. „I take a very European view of what's going on in the world, including the U.S.,“ he says after 35 years on the Old Continent. 

Although Irving is formally a newcomer to Dentons Prague office, this is not entirely the case in practice. „We've been working with Rob on projects for our Czech clients for five or six years now, so we and many of our clients locally have considered him to be part of our team for a long time already. So the mission is obviously to make certain that all of our clients know that, in hiring us, they’ll have on-the-ground access to Rob's capabilities in cross-border deals. I admire what he has done in the past, the way he works, the knowledge he has. And I'm sure most of our clients can benefit from his experience,“ explains Petr Zákoucký.

Prague hub

As was the case with another recent joiner in Dentons Prague, Logan Wright, Irving´s joining Dentons Prague is of a grand strategy to make Prague a major regional hub for Dentons‘ English and US law transactional expertise. Wright is modest about this. „To me the most important thing is to pass on the knowledge to the team. I´ve had a fair amount of experience and the mission to me is to help Petr to create great lawyers,“ he says. 

According to Zákoucký, Prague has the best conditions in post-communist Central Europe to create such a hub. „Compared to all the others around, Czechs are creating much more global business, including many of the financial groups investing around the globe. That is why we chose Prague as the place for Rob Irving and Logan Wright and the rest of the team. We know that they will help us serve our clients,“ explains Zákoucký. 

Irving also saw the Czech potential for growth in the early 1990s. „I certainly saw in the early 90s that Czech people were working harder than anybody else I knew of worldwide to get the country back to where it was before World War II, when it was the sixth largest economy in the world. It is nice to see how it's been done. So many entrepreneurs have been successful and then they instead of taking money to Switzerland or Monte Carlo, they've kept it in the country, they've reinvested it and created businesses that have a strong basis here but expand throughout the world. The leadership is from Prague and that is incredibly impressive. I don't think anybody could have predicted this phenomenon 30 years ago, but it's a big reason for me to be here today, to continue to facilitate that creation of value by Czech entrepreneurs with global businesses,“ he confesses.

Stay relevant

According to Zákoucký, Dentons' M&A team is already the largest on the Czech market and the volume of legal services rendered corresponds to its leading position. However, Zákoucký calls for more competition, even though it could mean copying the Dentons model with the involvement of foreign reinforcements. „I would hope that the others will do the same or similar thing. I would love to have more competition in the market. At the same time I'm proud of what we are creating. We cover four areas under English and US law, namely, M&A, banking, capital markets and real estate,“ says Zákoucký.

However, such a position is also challenging. As we know from sport, defending a title is always harder than achieving the first title. And so even a market leader must work hard to remain relevant to the next generation of clients. „It's a constant work to stay relevant. To innovate, to respond to the needs of the market. Seven, eight years ago, I had only done a handful of Information technology transactions in my career. The last seven or eight years, it's probably been about 15 technology transactions across Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey, and more and more working directly with founders in achieving their dreams on the technology transactions. I've learned a whole new area, how deals are done in that area, how they're done by private equity investors, how they're done by the big Silicon Valley technology firms. Now it is my turn to pass on that know-how on to my colleagues,“ concludes Irving.

Why is it necessary for experts to be physically present even in the digital age? How strong is the dominance of English law in international transactions? And in what ways is the legal profession similar to the career of Jaromir Jagr? This too was discussed in the Global Minds podcast.

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Rob Irving

Rob Irving is an experienced M&A and private equity partner and co-head of Dentons’ Corporate/M&A group in Europe. He has worked on landmark transactions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Europe as well as Turkey since 1991, and has worked with numerous Central European and Turkish investors on their outbound investments over the last 15 years. 

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