Rostislav Pekař’s practice focuses on international dispute resolution including investment arbitration, commercial arbitration and litigation in the Czech Republic courts. He also advises on investment protection under bilateral investment treaties and investment structuring. Mr. Pekař was listed as a leading individual for dispute resolution in the Czech Republic in Chambers Global 2010 and Chambers Europe 2010.

Mr. Pekař has represented both sovereign governments and foreign investors in six bilateral investment treaty arbitrations and two major international commercial arbitrations under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Rules. Three of those arbitrations involved claims of more than US$1 billion.

Mr. Pekař has also handled a number of state aid, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate law matters. He has extensive experience in Czech Republic and European competition law and is the co-author of a chapter on the Czech Republic’s competition law published by LexisNexis.

Mr. Pekař has lectured on investment arbitration at Charles University in Prague and Masaryk University in Brno. He has published several articles on investment protection and arbitration in international law reviews.

As part of his pro bono activities, Mr. Pekař is the local partner of TRACE International, Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing antibribery compliance in international corporations.

Representative Experience

• Acting as lead counsel for the Czech Republic in a pending € 80 million UNCITRAL investment arbitration against a Germany-based real estate development company.
• Representing a group of Russia-based companies in a pending US$500 million UNCITRAL investment arbitration against Mongolia regarding the imposition and enforcement of a windfall profit tax on gold production.
• Representing Ecuador in a pending US$3 billion ICSID investment arbitration against Occidental Petroleum Corporation regarding the termination of an oil concession (ICSID Case No. ARB/06/11).
• Representing the Czech Republic in a pending US$65 million ICSID investment arbitration against Phoenix Actions Ltd. regarding an investment into a ferroalloys trading company (ICSID Case No. ARB/06/5). In April 2009 the tribunal dismissed all of the investor’s claims and granted the Czech Republic the totality of legal fees and costs.
• Representing Czech Export Bank in a pending US$22 million international arbitration against a major US insurance company before the Vienna International Arbitration Centre.
• Acting as lead counsel for Czech Export Bank in a US$2 million arbitration in Prague against a Mongolian company. In November 2009 the tribunal granted all of our client’s claims plus the totality of legal costs.
• Representing a real estate developer in a number of disputes before the Czech Republic’s courts and arbitral tribunals.
• Representing a US-based investor regarding enforcement of an arbitral award and setting aside proceedings in the Czech Republic.
• Representing a US-based real estate investor in a number of court proceedings regarding a dispute with its local partner.

  Publications
  

• Co-author, “Arbitration: CEE Report,” The Lawyer, May 2008.
• Co-author, “Investment Protection in Central and Eastern Europe,” The Commercial Litigation Journal, March/April 2008.
• Co-author, “China’s Bilateral Investment Treaties with EU Member States: Gaining a Competitive Advantage Through Investment Protection,” China Law & Practice, September 2007.
• Co-author, “Getting under the Right Umbrella,” Global Investor, September 2007.