Miroslav Hlivák Rejoins Our Team

Miroslav Hlivák Rejoins Our Team

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Miroslav Hlivák wishes to put his rich experience and knowledge gained as a chairman of a state office with national competence in managing the law firm and serving its clients.

On the 20^th anniversary of the largest Slovak law firm, SOUKENÍK-ŠTRPKA, JUDr. Miroslav Hlivák, PhD., LL.M., becomes its partner again. Having served as the chairman of the Public Procurement Office for five years, he resolved to work as a solicitor again.

After graduation from the Comenius University in Bratislava Law School, Miroslav Hlivák started as a paralegal at the law firm of JUDr. Jozef Vaculík where he provided Slovak and foreign clients with legal services in the areas of civil, business and administrative law between 2001 and 2004. While practicing law as a paralegal, he covered the settlement of properties concerned by the construction of the fifth bridge over the Danube river – the Apollo Bridge. In particular, he focused on issues of contractual relations and partial issues concerning public procurement.

In 2003, he received a JUDr. degree from the Law School of the Comenius University in Bratislava. He furthered his education as a post-graduate student of Slovak Business Law in the European Union at the Nottingham Trent University, BIBS – a college in Brno. He completed his Ph.D. program in 2013 at Private Law Institute of the Law School of the Pan-European University in Bratislava.

„You can’t step into the same river twice“ is a saying attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus.
It means the river is still the same place, but the water is already different.

He joined the SOUKENÍK – ŠTRPKA, s. r. o. law firm on January 1, 2005. Working as a solicitor, signing clerk and partner, he spent almost 13 years at the firm. Furthermore, he provided legal services of a wider legal spectrum, ranging from business, administrative and civil law focusing, in particular, on the legal regime of properties and procedural law, and in the long term applied himself to public procurement and sports law issues. He provided legal consulting to Slovak and foreign clients of the law firm and represented several of them in trials.

In July 2017, the Comenius University in Bratislava Law School nominated JUDr. Miroslav Hlivák, PhD., LL.M., as a candidate for chairman of the Public Procurement Office. Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic elected him chairman in a secret ballot on September 13, 2017. He assumed the office on the very next day, thus leaving the SOUKENÍK – ŠTRPKA law firm.

After his five-year tenure as the Public Procurement Office chairman had expired, Miroslav Hlivák resolved to practice law once again.

How does he perceive the years spent at the central state administration authority?

„During my term as the Chairman of the Office, I have worked to ensure that the Office has a clear, understandable and, in particular, credible position both at home and abroad. All the steps I have taken have been aimed at defending the Office position as an independent and impartial state audit institution. I think, and I dare say, I have succeeded in doing so with my team. I am glad that the plan with which I was running for the office was carried out to the very last point, and that the activities went even beyond that plan. Moreover, I am most pleased that we have brought solutions that create a coherent system,“ says Miroslav Hlivák. According to him, these were years of honest and professional work in the public interest. He left his post at the end of his term of office with a clean slate and a good feeling about the work he had done. He does not regret the work done at the office. It has been a valuable experience throughout the five years.

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Miroslav Hlivák spent thirteen years building, developing and achieving success with the team of the SOUKENÍK – ŠTRPKA law firm, of which he was also one of the partners. What are the feelings accompanying him upon his return to his former place of work?

‘Following the end of my tenure as the Chairman of the Office, I have freely decided to return to the profession of a solicitor. I’ll help myself citing a familiar phrase: “No man ever steps in the same river twice,” attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus. Its significance lies in the fact that the river is still the same place, but the water in it is different. We all change. The same place, but at different times, under different circumstances and mature personalities. I appreciate and value the fact that I have been able to resume our cooperation with David, Peter and other partners and that I can return to my home law firm of SOUKENÍK-ŠTRPKA as a partner. I’m glad to be a part of the team again and to have my place in the firm.”

Miroslav Hlivák returned to the areas of law closest to him during his professional life. These are, for example, civil law focusing on property law, construction law, commercial law, contractual relations, administrative law, but also sports law. He shall also revert to public procurement after the expiry of a one-year ban following the end of the Chairman of the Office tenure laid down in the Constitutional Law.

“I believe that the wealth of experience and knowledge I have amassed as the Chairman of the Office with a national remit will be instrumental in managing the work of the largest Slovak law firm but will also constitute valuable advice for our clients. I am pleased that I will continue to be able to carry out activities in favor of my alma mater, as I also hold the office of Chairman of the Comenius University Board of Trustees. My wish is to live in good health, happily and contentedly, with my family and with people whom I can call friends and whom I respect and love,“ added Miroslav Hlivák.

view the article in the electronic version of MAKSS (in Slovak only)

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