The SOUKENÍK – ŠTRPKA law firm is at its peak today and celebrates the round anniversary.

Becoming the largest law firm in Slovakia required a substantial amount of work, relationship building and luck. The SOUKENÍK– ŠTRPKA law firm is at its peak today and celebrates the round anniversary.

In the Slovak Spectator’s ranking of the largest law firms in Slovakia, the company was ranked first six times in a row and appeared in five of the six categories evaluated in the international rankings of the most important law firms compiled by The LEGAL 500.

On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the law firm’s SOUKENÍK – ŠTRPKA partners, David Soukeník and Peter Štrpka, gave an extensive interview about their beginnings, dreams or plans, as well as their position on the market.

We’re meeting on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of your law firm. You are successful, and your company is the largest law firm in Slovakia. What was the beginning of your story together?

David Soukeník: Our story was, in a way, simple, but perhaps in many regards, a result of luck and a number of coincidences. I studied at the Law School of the Comenius University in Bratislava two years ahead of Peter, and I was a classmate and roommate of Peter’s brother Marek. Peter used to come to our room, and that’s how we met. Peter’s brother Marek was also studying economics, and he was graduating from it. As we were finishing the law school, while deciding what to do next, I was talking to Marek about an option of practicing law together. He, however, decided to pursue the managerial and economic role. Later he suggested that Peter and I try it together. Our beginnings up until then ran a bit as if in parallel. I was working in one law firm, Peter in another, and when we later discussed possible cooperation, that seemed like the most logical solution.

Peter Štrpka: The secret to a successful and happy life are good relationships. As David has already said, our relationship began to develop during our university studies at Druzhba (Russian for “friendship”) dormitory in Bratislava. In addition to studying law, from the age of 18 I was working in Bratislava in a business group around Ján Sabol, whose holding of companies included a commercial law firm, Lehnert & co. After I graduated from college, I got a job there as a commercial paralegal. At that time, commercial lawyers and solicitors were still operating independently on the market. David was employed by a solicitor as a solicitor paralegal. We would see each other, we knew each other, we would meet, but I had my job and he had his. Paradoxically, the story of our closer working relationship began only after I had left Bratislava to join the civil service in substitute for the military one. I was looking for a way to break it up as soon as possible. That chance presented itself in the form of my postgraduate program I got admitted to in Bratislava. However, on returning to Bratislava, my steps no longer traced back to a commercial law firm, as I came to understand in the meantime that my future in the legal services market was in my own law firm. When David learned that I interrupted my civil service and was returning to Bratislava, we met, having agreed on our meeting with my brother Marek, on the terrace of a restaurant on the banks of the Danube that summer, and we talked for a long time about possible mutual cooperation and sealed our agreement in the wee hours at the disco (laughter). At the time, we said we were going to try to create something jointly. And so our relationship, which began in college, took on a new dimension.

David Soukeník: Peter was working in a large law firm at the time, and I was working in a small one. I’ve always had a problem with authority and order. I’m a solo player who has a hard time accepting someone above himself, and I wanted to do my own thing. Back then, the small law firm was enabling me as a paralegal to have my own clientele, the turnover of which gradually matched that of the law firm where I worked. Since me and my solicitor failed to agree on further cooperation, it was entirely logical that the work, as it started pouring in, could not be pursued by me alone. The decision to contact Peter was entirely natural. As part of our cooperation, Peter brought in the order of the larger law firm where he used to work.

Peter Štrpka: I will add that the agreement to have our own law firm was made at the time when neither of us was a solicitor yet. And so upon our anniversary, we’re not actually talking about 20 years. But it wasn’t until January 1, 2003, that David was listed with the Slovak Bar Association, and that I became his paralegal. We called ourselves SOUKENIK – ŠTRPKA because I was expected to pass the bar exam sooner or later, too. This happened in 2004, and, since January 1, 2005, I have also been a solicitor.