Experience

To start with, we should ask ourselves the question: what is experience? Is it only the number of years worked in the profession? I do not think so. I have colleagues who for many years have been doing the same activities, e.g. writing only lawsuits on the basis of VAT invoices, but when it is necessary to write an application for a stuff drop they resign. From the client's perspective an attorney with experience is one who in his work has encountered many different problems and the one who has lost and won the same number of cases. Thus understood the load of experience - as the sum of all sorts of cases, allows the most far reaching look at the problem faced by a client and enables to predict the most likely scenario of events.

At the beginning of my career of a lawyer I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the judiciary work of the and the circulation of documents in court. During the application I happened to prepare the minutes of a court session and discuss with the reporting judge the legal issues related to the case and to observe the same fact from the parties' and court's perspective. It taught me that in each case there are at least two states of fact and the winning party is the one which is able more reliably to convince the court to their version (as a judge once said: "it is not enough to be right, you have to prove it").

The first work in a large joint-stock company allowed me to realize how many problems can arise from the operating range. For a few years each month, employees argued about the jubilee bonus, to establish work in special conditions for reinstatement or damages in case of redundancies. While working for this company for the first time I came across "Incoterms" and international trade and export insurance. When participating in trade negotiations I learnt the technique of writing contracts and realized the importance of contractual provisions. Working in turn for a client from an petrol industry I faced the problem of securing monetary claims and recovery. I can still remember how my hand trembled when I had to fill out a bill for several hundred thousand dollars and then to claim this amount before the court.

A completely new experience is to work for local government units. Totally different approach to problems, working at specific times, repeatedly discussing the topic in a broader group, applying a policy approach to a particular problem, the need to reconcile conflicting positions, the supremacy of the principle of public benefit on the principle of profit. As a result, I better understand why some things in the office last for several weeks. Of course, numerous situations taught me humility and a great number of court rulings surprised both in positive and negative way. A very different experience from the courtroom effectively undermined my trust in judicial decisions and efficiency of justice, which means that I try to avoid litigation as long as possible. Most often I recommend clients to put insightful emphasis on the construction of contracts and documents, based on which they have to perform any activities, and often to abandon unsecured commercial transactions.

Many years of experience in the work of a legal counsel convinced me that most of the disputes is the result of a contract not being well-prepared, or the lack of risk analysis and simply stupidity and naivety. I try to promote a model of cooperation with a client based on continued cooperation, understanding the specifics of their activity, suggesting solutions that combine many aspects (taxes, environmental protection, return on investment etc.), as well as safeguarding the interests of the client in the future (e.g. a suitable last will, provisions in the company contract, division of marital property etc.). Beauty of the profession lies in the fact that there is always something new to surprise us and it brings new challenges, and a won case enjoys the same as a gift from Santa Clause.