Menke Legal

Intellectual Property, Media Law and Information and Communication Technology Law are among the core specializations of the MENKE Law firm. Legal specialists, under the leadership of JUDr. Lucia Menke, LLM, are among the leading and most recognized professionals providing legal advice regarding implementation of information systems, outsourcing and the public procurement of information systems for the public sector. The professional qualities of the team at MENKE are clearly demonstrated by several publications, participation in conferences, as well as many successfully completed projects in the IT sector.

The main focus of MENKE in the area of Intellectual Property Law is on providing legal advice in the matters of trademarks, licenses and copyrights. We provide complex legal advice to broadcasters, publishers, producers of recordings as well as for authors and performance artists with regards to creation and usage of author’s work or artistic performance, production and usage of audio recording, audiovisual recording or broadcasting. Our lawyers are also experienced in assisting clients with assessment of the content of works or broadcasting according to the legal regulation and if required, they represent clients in proceedings related to regulation of broadcasting before the court as well as before the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission.

Our law firm also provides legal services focusing on the area of protection of personhood and protection of good reputation, using relevant means of legal protection pursuant to the Act on Broadcasting and the Act on Press.

One of significant focus areas of our law firm is public procurement, in which MENKE provides full legal support from the preparatory stage of public contracts, through closing the contract to execution of the public investment. Within the specialization of public procurement our law firm focuses also on public-private partnership (PPP) projects and EPC projects as a specific model for modernization of the public authorities’ property financed from savings generated from guaranteed energy services provided by private organizations – the energy service companies (ESCO).

In the area of public investment the law firm MENKE provides legal services to the public sector assisting with analysis, procurement and conclusion of concession agreements in significant PPP projects. Our top references in EPC projects include provision of complex legal advisory services with preparation of contractual documentation and representation in negotiations and in various stages of projects during performance of individual measures for securing energy efficiency, assisting major public sector bodies as well as dominant and expanding ESCO companies on the Slovak market.

In the area of Data Protection, which belongs to one of our key specializations, the law firm MENKE LEGAL focuses mainly on the new legal regulation on data protection, namely the GDPR and its implementation in practice. Our lawyers have the expertise to carry out a client’s GDPR assessment, identify areas that need to be brought in full compliance with the new legislation on data protection and subsequently prepare customized documentation as well as advise on actions that need to be taken to bring the organization’s internal processes in line with GDPR.

Our team of lawyers is also ready to assist clients in their specific situations requiring evaluation of various legitimate interests of different actors in the area of data protection as well as train client’s employees to prepare them for new situations that can arise as a result of the new legislation. Our active involvement in this filed is also demonstrated by publication of articles on the topic of GDPR in several professional journals.

The law firm MENKE provides complex legal advisory services also in the field of competition law. Our extensive knowledge and experience acquired over the course of years in this field help us primarily in preparation of compliance programs for small undertakings as well as for large businesses. These compliance programs are designed based on a thorough mapping of possible risks in various industries and development of effective procedures that prevent clients from concluding illegal anti-competitive agreements. As part of these programs, we also advise our clients regarding measures that should be followed in the event of dreaded inspections, the so-called dawn raids, undertaken by the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic. In this field, we also advise our clients when assessing the exchange of sensitive information in business transactions and when communicating with their competitors. 

Apart from preventive protection, we also assist with notifications of concentrations to the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (in cases of economic merging of undertakings, for example in the form of acquisitions or transfers of business shares) and represent clients in proceedings regarding imposition of fines before the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic. 

The law firm MENKE assists clients also in one of the most popular areas in recent years, which is the environment law and waste management. 

In this field, we specialize mainly on the Waste Act and obligations arising out of this legislation for entrepreneurs who are producers or distributors of specific products. Our law firm also assists producers with their (mandatory) registration into the register of producers of specific products and foreign producers of specific products with appointment of their authorized representative. The law firm MENKE also helps clients with communication with the Ministry of the Environment, the Slovak Environmental Inspectorate or other entities regarding obtaining licenses and required permits in the waste management sector. 

The MENKE Law firm provides full legal support in all those matters that are subject to EU regulation in the areas of competition, state aid, public procurement and data protection. In the area of International law, we specialize in the international protection of investments as well as in the recognition and enforcement of foreign awards in the Slovak Republic.

Besides, we provide legal services to both, domestic as well as foreign clients, concerning the railway accidents with an international impact. Considering the professional experience, excellent knowledge of legal regulations, as well as successfully managed foreign projects, the important domestic and foreign railway entities, such as the transport providers, manufacturers and/or maintenance workshops, repeatedly contact us with regards to the provision of legal advices in international disputes. For these reasons we are also cooperating with the prestigious foreign law firms.

Tax Law is another important and dynamic area, in which the MENKE Law firm provides the comprehensive legal advisory and services.  Considering the immediate effect of tax issues on the financial interest of our clients, we approach each individual needs of our clients with the maximum sensitivity and responsibility.

In the area of Tax Law, we provide our clients with the legal opinions, analysis and explanations concerning the various issues of both direct and indirect taxes, as well as with the assistance in the processing of complex documentation for various tax registrations. At the same time, we provide assessment of various contracts from the point of Tax Law, with a strong emphasis on the purpose of intended transaction or contract.

Naturally, we provide also active representation of our clients in ongoing tax audits, as well as other tax proceedings, before the tax authorities, as well as the respective courts, in the proceeding regarding the revision of legality of decisions of tax authorities. The dozens of completed tax audits with positive findings for our clients are the signs of successful work of MENKE Law firm in this area.

Providing legal advices in the area of Commercial transactions and M&A belongs to the core specializations of MENKE. Our team provides legal advisory to foreign investors as well as to leading domestic companies. This includes due diligence, the acquisition of equity stakes, the merging of companies as well as the negotiation of external funding.

The legal team at MENKE has rich experience in the area of dispute resolutions in the domestic and also at the international level, as our professionals have represented clients both in court and at arbitration proceedings under the rules of ICC, VIAC, UNCITRAL and ICSID. Within this specialization, the members of the team have represented the Slovak Republic in several multi-million euro disputes regarding breach of domestic and international law.

In the area of dispute resolution, lawyers of the law firm focus considerably also on disputes in the field of construction. Among other things, they have experience with representation of major contracting authorities in court disputes that arose out of contracts concluded for large-scale construction projects according to the FIDIC contractual conditions. 

The law firm MENKE provides legal services to clients mainly in the field of acquisition, sale and lease of real estate, audit of ownership rights to real estate and when cooperating with developers and investors in the real estate sector, in particular regarding administrative buildings, shopping malls and accommodation facilities in the Slovak Republic. We provide our clients with full legal support during the acquisition of the real estate, at auctions, insolvency and restructuring proceedings, tenders as well as represent clients in both cadastral and administrative proceedings. We perform legal analyses for projects of our clients, including drafting necessary contractual documentation for the planned disposition of real estate.

In the area of Labor Law, the law firm MENKE provides legal services to various entities including employers, HR advisors and also major recruitment agencies. The law firm MENKE provides legal assistance not only with employment contracts, managerial contracts and other labor law documentation, but also with drafting internal binding guidelines, advisory services relating to collective agreement and negotiation with unions, representation in labor disputes before courts and representation and professional advisory services in relation to performance of labor inspection. The legal team of the law firm MENKE has excellent knowledge in cases of collision of Labor Law and Commercial Law, as well as in employment relationships with an international element, advisory services regarding employment of foreigners, sending employees for work to other states and temporary assignment of employees. 

Due to the international nature of our firm’s experience, our multi-lingual staff is proficient in the delivery of high-quality legal translation services, including translating documents from English to Slovak and Slovak to English. The firm has experience translating a range of legal, corporate and business documents with strict guidelines governing precision in translation to ensure accuracy. We are pleased to be able to offer our clients translation services by a Certified Translator registered in the Official Register of Translators maintained by the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic, so our clients can be confident in the quality of the end product they receive. 

Our staff has extensive experience providing interpretation services at a range of cross-border negotiations, seminars and workshops, conducting high-level in legal and business matters. We bring experience from advanced international legal and business education, drawing from experience working with a number of international organizations including the United Nations, and numerous international conferences. Cognizant of the changing nature of the languages we provide services in, our staff constantly update their translation skills and qualifications for an ever-changing legal and business world.

The law firm MENKE provides legal services also in the area of Criminal Law. We provide legal services to our clients mainly with regards to economic criminal activity, since in this area we can utilize valuable knowledge acquired in fields of law that our law firm specializes on. Given our expertise we also focus on the criminal liability of legal entities and prepare compliance programs from the criminal law perspective, including measures against legalization of proceeds from criminal activity and terrorism financing.

In the criminal proceedings we provide legal support to our clients from the moment of initiation of criminal proceedings, during investigation in the pre-trial proceedings as well as before the court in trial proceedings. We represent the accused, including in detention matters, and also the injured party in the criminal proceedings claiming damages in the partie civile proceedings.