A new addition to the team of leading experts on the new Civil Code and the public sector
František Korbel (37), until now a Deputy Justice Minister, a Vice-Chairman of the Government’s Legislative Council, and a co-author of the new Civil Code, is returning to the private sector after six years in the public sector. Starting this October, he will lead a special team focusing on the new Civil Code implementation at the largest Czech-Slovak law firm, Havel, Holásek & Partners.
In the past, František Korbel worked at the Constitutional Court. From 2002, he started to practice law as an attorney, and from 2007 he worked as a Deputy of the Justice Minister and then as a Deputy of Environment Minister. He became widely known when working as a Deputy of Justice Ministers Jiří Pospíšil and Pavel Blažek, and was responsible for legislation and information technology matters. For more than six years at the Justice Ministry he managed projects involving e-Justice, the new Civil Code, and the new Penal Code, as well as dozens of other significant changes in Czech law. From 2006, he served as a Vice-Chairman of the Government’s Legislative Council. He also served as a member of the municipal government and the town council in his home town of Tábor.
“With his expertise and experience as a manager, František Korbel will be a valuable addition to our team. He has contributed extensively to promoting the recodification of private law, a project that has seen his substantial involvement. Thus, his joining will strengthen the firm’s management and specialised team in charge of implementing the new Civil Code at our clients,” said Jaroslav Havel, the firm’s co-founding partner.
Along with Ján Topinka, he will be responsible for the management and overall coordination of activities relating to the new Civil Code, as well as communication, public administration, and risk management. He will be involved in our strategic and business development activities, in creating a team, both from among the current staff or external sources, and in the development and training of team members. He will be a significant addition to legal practice groups specialising primarily in consumer protection, public sector and regulatory matters, and judicial, administrative and arbitration proceedings.
Other sponsors of the new Civil Code project include Dušan Sedláček, a firm’s partner and a co-author of the prepared commentary on the new regulations, and Jana Buršíková, a counsel responsible for the coordination of internal training and know-how on recodification. On an external cooperation basis, the recodification team also includes Milan Hulmák, a member of the recodification committee of the Justice Ministry and of the private law committee of the Government’s Legislative Council. He has been directly involved in drafting the new regulations.
The recodification team is focused purely on the practical implications of the new legislation while applying an industry approach, which means that the firm’s attorneys offer practical solutions across all areas of legal practice, while acting as one team.
František Korbel teaches at the Faculty of the Law of the Charles University in Prague. He has been seconded to at German and Austrian universities a number of times. František Korbel graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno, and his Ph.D. degree concerned the right to information. Previously, he studied sociology and mass communication at the Humanities Faculty of Masaryk University Brno and at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Charles University in Prague. He publishes and lectures in the areas of legislation, the judicial system and private law reform. In leisure time he likes mountain biking and enjoys the company of his students, six children and family.
