Wolf Theiss has poached Allen & Overy's corporate head for the Czech Republic.
Jan Myška has joined the Austrian firm as Prague co-managing partner, with banking partner Tomáš Rychlý fulfilling the other half of the joint role.
The highly experienced Myška has been an equity partner with the magic circle firm for the last 13 years. He focusses on transactional corporate work and energy and insurance regulation.
Wolf Theiss has a relatively large team for the Czech market with around 30 fee-earners based in Prague.
Myška is only the most recent in a number of notable lateral hires in Prague. Until now, White & Case had been the main source for the moves, with five partners leaving the firm in the space of around 18 months. These included the departure of its Prague capital markets head, Květoslav Krejčí, to Kinstellar last month; Jiří Tomola’s defection to Dentons last September; and, the resignations of three other partners - Ivo Barta, Petr Kuhn and Jakub Dostal – who now form the partnership at Badokh, a nascent Czech firm launched by the latter two lawyers last year.
Other recent significant developments for the Czech legal market included the closure of both Hogan Lovells and Norton Roses Fulbright's Prague offices last year, and DLA Piper's merger with domestic firm Haškovcová & Co.