7. 7. 2026

Taylor Wessing – New Competition Partner

This year, the artistic platform Do You Have an Artistic Gut? is represented by the global law firm Taylor Wessing. We are delighted with this new collaboration and thank them for their financial support! To help you better understand the purpose of our collaboration, we would like to introduce Taylor Wessing to you in more detail. We therefore interviewed one of the firm’s founders – Radovan Pala.

Why did the law firm decide to support the Do You Have an Artistic Gut? project?

I am convinced that there is a barely visible but important relationship between beauty and law. There is a certain, though probably indefinable, correlation between the ability to perceive beauty and to be just. Both are based on a certain sense of harmony and are linked by the experience of a similar feeling of inner satisfaction when one sees, or even creates, something that is either beautiful or just. I am convinced that someone who learns to perceive and internalize beauty is deeply shaken when they see something grossly unjust and at the same time feels an essential need to object to it and do something about it. And that is, in fact, also the answer to the question of why we are very happy to be able to support a competition that encourages young people to create and to become familiar with art.

And is art part of your life?

Both of my parents are glass artists – sculptors, which is why I have an intimate relationship with visual art. Art is also very important to me in other forms, however, especially in the form of literature – books are one of the greatest joys to which I have devoted myself for a long time, and together with my wife we have, I think, quite an extensive and diverse library. My relationship with art has at least two dimensions – first of all, because my parents, Štěpán Pala and Zora Palová, are artists whose creative vocation fulfils them and who devote themselves to it fully every day, I always took it as a matter of course and as something natural that in life I would do something I enjoy and truly love. The creative work of artists is very demanding and has various pitfalls, but unlike, for example, office work, it is only rarely associated with a feeling of monotony, with the sense that I am doing something meaningless, something I do only out of duty, or only in order to make a living.

As a lawyer, how do you perceive this year’s theme, Freedom of Choice?

Freedom of choice is an extremely interesting topic, because from a legal point of view it contains two interesting concepts at once, which are very closely interconnected – freedom and choice. Between freedom and choice flows the river of social order and consensus, which determines the degree of personal freedom and the real possibilities of choice (in the case of dictatorships, a discussion about freedom of choice has no place). Freedom of choice is also followed by the cornerstone of law, and that is responsibility. In other words, if I have the freedom to decide, I also bear responsibility for what I have chosen.

Writing about the content of these concepts and their relationship, even from a narrowly legal point of view, would take many books that would never agree. I will therefore try only very briefly to name what makes them interesting to me. Freedom from external interference and restrictions (for example by the state) is a necessary prerequisite for choice, but it is often not enough for genuine choice. Freedom can also exist passively, without manifesting itself outwardly. Choice is always an outward manifestation of the existence of freedom and usually also elicits a response from the environment. Freedom is not only about no one directly – for example through state power – actively preventing you from deciding in a certain way; it is also an internal category connected with the consequences of your choice – for you and for society. You can freely decide (choose) to commit a crime, but if you are aware of what the harmfulness of the crime consists in and of the possible consequences in the form of a subsequent restriction of freedom, you will rather not choose this option. If, however, you know that state power is weak and the risk of being caught committing a crime is low, the degree of your freedom is higher, but at the expense of others.

Another factor is social pressure – if the expectation of a negative reaction from the surroundings as a consequence of the choice is high, freedom may formally exist, but it will not be practically realized in the form of specific decisions. In order for a choice to be truly free, you must also have – from the perspective of the life you live – real options among which to choose. Freedom of choice therefore is not always connected only with evaluating consequences and the reaction of the surroundings, but with the objective situation of the person making the decision. You can freely decide that you want to study at Oxford, but if you come from a settlement in eastern Slovakia, this choice is unavailable. Freedom of choice is therefore always connected with the external environment, the availability of the choice, and the formal existence of freedom does not always mean something positive.

Who is Taylor Wessing?

Taylor Wessing provides legal advice to innovative and creative people and businesses, offering guidance in the areas of law that entrepreneurs encounter in their activities, and works to ensure that in each of these areas there are colleagues who are experts. Law is a space they uncompromisingly love, and moving within it fulfils them. They enjoy learning about the problems and challenges their clients face in their business and seek the best possible solutions for them. At the same time, law is an area in which they look for opportunities to be creative and to help clients fulfil their ideas and visions. At the same time, however, they care very much about the environment in which we live and work. That is why they are also actively involved in many activities that they consider beneficial for society and for the environment in which they operate.

Taylor Wessing is one of the largest law firms in Slovakia. It was founded in 2004 – together with international partners – by two classmates from secondary school and university, Andrej Leontiev and Radovan Pala. They founded the firm with the vision that legal services can be provided at the highest level without having to compromise on the values of integrity and mutual respect. Also without “succumbing” to their own importance and feeling a kind of “legal superiority,” which is a common phenomenon in the legal profession. At the beginning, they were a very small firm made up of a few colleagues. Today, it is a living organism of almost 40 people who meet, talk and persuade one another every day. They deal with legal issues in teams that concentrate specialisation in legal sectors, for example in the area of intellectual property law, labour law or commercial law.

The Taylor Wessing team is diverse and full of unique, sometimes stubborn personalities. What unites them is the belief that truly good legal advice (like any other service) must be connected with dedication to the service and integrity. It is precisely working in a team that gives them the courage, appetite and strength to move forward. Without the people who make it up, the Taylor Wessing “brand” would be just an empty shell.

More about Taylor Wessing here

You can also follow law in its everyday life on Instagram: @taylorwessing_bratislava

And if you like listening to podcasts, listen on Spotify to the podcast (s)Právne naladení – about legal topics in a clear and interesting way!

Visual: Adrián Dvorský