JUDr. Petr Michal, PhD.

Petr Michal is an equity partner at Císař, Češka, Smutný, one of the Czech Republic's best-established independent law firms, based in Prague. He and the firm were recognised as Public Procurement Law Firm of the Year in the Czech Republic at the 2024 Corporate INTL Global Awards, an accolade reflecting the practice's long-standing strength in public contracts and procurement disputes and its prominent position in the domestic legal market.

Founded more than two decades ago, Císař, Češka, Smutný has grown into a full-service commercial firm serving domestic and international corporations, public authorities and investors. The firm has built a particular reputation in public procurement, advising both contracting authorities and bidders across the full life cycle of a tender, from the design of award procedures and the drafting of tender documentation to the defence of decisions before the Office for the Protection of Competition and the courts. It has reported a near-complete success rate in its litigation and review work, and has been closely associated with major infrastructure and sustainable-development projects in the Czech market, an area where procurement rules, competition law and administrative procedure intersect.

Public procurement is among the most technically demanding fields of Czech commercial practice, governed by detailed national legislation implementing European Union directives and subject to close regulatory and judicial scrutiny. Errors in the conduct of a tender can lead to challenges, financial corrections and delay, so authorities and bidders alike rely on experienced counsel to structure and defend award procedures. It is against this background that the firm has developed its specialist standing, and that the 2024 award should be understood.

Petr Michal has been associated with the firm for the greater part of his career and sits among its leading partners. His practice spans commercial and corporate law, public procurement, civil law and administrative law, and he also acts as an insolvency administrator. He is regularly engaged on complex mandates that combine transactional structuring with the regulatory and procedural demands of the Czech public-contracts regime, guiding clients through award procedures, review proceedings and the resolution of contract disputes, and drawing on a broad commercial practice to place procurement questions in their wider business context.

Beyond his fee-earning role, Petr Michal has taken on a prominent position in the wider business community, leading the Prague Chamber of Commerce and serving on the board of the national chamber. This engagement gives him a broad perspective on the regulatory environment facing Czech enterprises and on the practical challenges of doing business with the public sector, and it complements a client-facing style that emphasises commercial pragmatism alongside technical rigour. The firm, which has more recently continued its work under a refreshed identity, positions itself as a trusted adviser to organisations operating at the intersection of the private and public spheres. For clients navigating high-value public tenders and the scrutiny that surrounds them, Petr Michal offers the combination of deep procedural knowledge, courtroom experience and standing in the Czech legal and business establishment that the 2024 award recognises.