HAVEL & PARTNERS, the largest Czech-Slovak law firm, has recruited another lawyer with experience from top judicial institutions and academia. Martin Kopa, a lawyer who previously worked at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the Supreme Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court, reinforces our teams of lawyers specializing in the public sector, justice and legislation. At HAVEL & PARTNERS, he will continue to work in his fields of expertise, i.e. public law, constitutional law, administrative law, law of administrative transgressions, administrative and constitutional justice and legislation.

“Our law firm works for numerous private and public entities, which come into contact with judicial and regulatory institutions for various reasons. Martin has excellent legal expertise and experience perfectly suited for these types of tasks. In addition, he is a legal theoretician giving lectures and publishing in quite a few fields of law. He will thus support our legislation team, who comment on and draft bills and legislative instruments, amendments, intended subject-matters of laws, explanatory reports, legal opinions, constitutional complaints, etc. Last but not least, we look forward to Martin’s cooperation with the HAVEL & PARTNERS ACADEMY, which will benefit from his lecturing experience,” says František Korbel, one of the law firm’s partners, head of its legislative team, and director of its academy.

JUDr. Martin Kopa, Ph.D. (32) graduated from the Faculty of Law at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, receiving a JUDr. (advanced Master’s) degree in 2011 and a PhD degree in 2014. Before he joined HAVEL & PARTNERS, he worked as an assistant to judge Ludvík David of the Constitutional Court (2016-2018), as an assistant to judge Filip Dienstbier of the Supreme Administrative Court (2014-2016), and as a trainee and later as a case lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (2011, and 2012-2013, respectively).

During his work at the Constitutional Court, he participated on preparing documents for the Court’s decisions, e.g. in the plenary matter of reviewing the constitutionality of inspections of stationary sources regulated by the Air Protection Act. At the Supreme Administrative Court, he worked on asylum and immigration matters, and participated on the preparation of documents for the Court’s decisions in many cases of administrative sanctions or in the matter of access to technical standards in construction. At the European Court of Human Rights, he addressed the matters of rights of persons accused in criminal proceedings and regulated rents.

From 2010 to 2018, he taught constitutional law, fundamental rights and some skill-oriented classes at the Faculty of Law at Palacký University in Olomouc. He has authored many expert articles on public law and legal education. In addition, he has authored or co-authored several monographs in these fields. His most significant publications include the monograph Doktrína prostoru pro uvážení v judikatuře Evropského soudu pro lidská práva (The Margin of Appreciation, Leges, 2014), the co-authored practical commentary on the Special Court Proceedings Act (Wolters Kluwer, 2015), the co-authored textbook Základní práva (Fundamental Rights, Leges, 2016), and his position as the exclusive translator and co-author of the Czech parts of the US bestseller Global Issues in Legal Ethics published in Czech under the title Globální problémy profesní etiky právníků (Wolters Kluwer, 2017), which was sponsored by HAVEL & PARTNERS. He is one of the editors of the commentary on the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (C. H. Beck, 2019).