E-mail: karel.elias@prkpartners.com
Karel Elias is one of the primary authors of the new Czech Civil Code, an attorney at law, a legal scholar and an eminent Czech civil and commercial law expert. His expertise has been acknowledged by some of the country’s most significant and prestigious awards, including being inducted into the Czech Law Hall of Fame for his life’s work and exceptional contribution to Czech law. He has acted as Of Counsel to PRK Partners since 2011.
Karel graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague in 1979; he obtained his degree in law (JUDr.) from the same faculty in 1981. From 1988 to 1990 he pursued postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno, which he completed upon the submission of a post-graduate thesis on unfair competition. He continued his doctoral studies in commercial law at the same university between 1995 and 1996, and upon their completion received his Doctorate degree (Dr.).
The rector of Masaryk University in Brno appointed Karel associate professor of commercial law in 1998. He was appointed professor of commercial law by the president of the Czech Republic in 2002.
Karel was the in-house counsel to a major mining company between 1979 and 1990, having been named head of its legal department in 1988.
Since 1991 he has been a leading researcher at the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Between 1993 and 2011 Karel was an assistant professor and later the head of the Department of Commercial Law, head of the Department of Private Law and Civil Process and, in the last two years, vice-dean for science and research at the Law Faculty of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. From 2011 to 2016 he served as vice-rector at VŠMIEP (the College of Information Management, Business Administration and Law, now known as the College of Entrepreneurship and Law – VŠPP). Since 2017 Karel has been a professor at the Faculty of Law of Trnava University in Trnava.
He is fluent in Czech, German and Russian, as well as having a good command of French, Spanish, Polish and Bulgarian.