In our office, far from just success, friendship also binds! David Neveselý and Robert Neruda are a great example of this; since the age of 14, when they started to sit together in the same desk at the Elgartova High School in Brno, they have been inseparable, passionate sportsmen and previously also completely unsuccessful amateur artists. Today, however, they are top lawyers and partners in HAVEL & PARTNERS.
Davča and Bobo, as their classmates called them and as they still address each other privately, met at high school in Brno. They were in the same class and sat together in a desk. “From the age of 14 we spent a lot of time together. I was the nerd who had trouble finding a girlfriend, and David was the class playboy. That’s how we were divided,” Robert Neruda recalls of that time.
They wanted to put their extroverted nature and eloquence to good use together in the theatre. And after regularly soaking up the atmosphere of Brno’s experimental cultural scene through subscriptions to Studio Marta, they embarked on their own more daring ventures. “We tried to rehearse The Little Prince as a theatre play together with other unfortunates. The whole thing ended on my inability to sing and David’s inability to utter any sentence with normal intonation,” laughs Robert. “Our attempt to break into the pop music with our own new wave band also ended in failure. I used to sing in a choir, but I didn’t have any instrument. And Robert used to go to folklore ensemble, but he has no musical ear at all.”
They found solace in another shared passion, sport. They went out together week after week to play football, and every second Sunday they cheered as Zbrojovka Brno rowdies, where they also experienced a memorable match with Slávia Praha, attended by an incredible 44,000 spectators. They cycled or skated for countless kilometres and to this day they regularly wear running shoes together and they are sure of their backs for shorter but also marathon distances. Together, Robert and David have run enough kilometres to travel from Brno to Cape Town and back.
But after years of intense experiences together in high school, the time came to decide where to go next. Although each headed to a different university, they both chose law. David in Prague and Robert remained loyal to Brno. But that didn’t stop them from meeting whenever they could, playing tarot and, in a pinch, studying together. “The highlight was preparing for the state exams together at Robert’s parents’ cottage. I was in charge of the daily preparation of the semolina porridge, Robert destroyed the weeds, and together we took care of poodle Peggy,” David describes a memory strikingly reminiscent of scenes from the Czech movie Summer with the Cowboy.
And as inseparable as Edmund Hillary and Tenzing, David and Robert were also on the road. Together, they’ve traversed mountains, plains and distant lands. “It’s hard to pick just one of our travel experiences together. But I must mention our trip to China. We were 24 years old, and it’s a story that stands out, especially the time we injured each other with pipes in a sleeping bus within two seconds, and how we ended up in a police station somewhere in Sichuan,” says Robert.
And although their professional paths went in different directions after their studies, they have been in the same boat again for 11 years – as colleagues at HAVEL & PARTNERS. David joined the firm in 2007 as an experienced member of the team specialising in private client services. At the time, Robert was Vice Chairman of the Czech Competition Authority. “I wanted to have Robert by my side again like I did at school. Therefore, I visited the authority more and more often under various pretexts and I also cunningly sent the founders of our firm, Robert Nešpůrek and Jaroslav Havel, to see Robert as our new potential hire. The intention was clear, to bring Robert back into my solar system,” says David with some exaggeration.
And the rope thrown from Prague worked. Robert joined the firm in 2010 as a key member of the competition law team. “Since Robert has been at HAVEL & PARTNERS, I am much calmer and also more motivated. He is my best friend and I am proud of all he has achieved,” David adds.
But both are successful. Today, both David and Robert lead top legal teams in their respective fields and are partners and associates in the largest and most successful Czech-Slovak law firm. Since the days when they shared the same bench, they have also been inseparable friends. “We are lucky to have each other and we have always been there for each other for 30 years. I’m looking forward to all the other experiences we’ll have together, like regular gentlemen’s rides with our kids. And we are planning a bike ride from Vienna to Prague in September,” Robert adds of his lifelong friend.
