“Think Ahead in Business,” Says BBH Partner Kateřina Winterling Vorlíčková for Forbes

She advises the wealthiest Czechs quite literally from cradle to grave. To break the ice with clients, she may rely on champagne or modern art—subjects she knows exceptionally well. Kateřina Winterling Vorlíčková must be not only a lawyer but also, in a sense, a source of emotional support for her clients. The matters she deals with are often emotionally demanding, sensitive, and sometimes unpleasant.

“When we are creating the rules for a trust fund and structuring family wealth, we have to talk about death, the possible breakdown of a marriage, or the birth of additional children,” says the experienced attorney. “In business and in life, absolutely anything can happen. It is wise to think about all these possibilities in advance. That is the only way to prevent even bigger problems later,” she notes. In these cases, money is often only the beginning of the story. Great wealth frequently brings great concerns.

The Czech-Slovak law firm BBH was founded in 2000 under the name Brzobohatý Brož & Honsa. It initially established itself primarily in commercial, banking, and financial law. Today, as a premium law firm, it focuses on legal services in areas such as dispute resolution, mergers and acquisitions, banking and financial regulation, competition law, and insolvency law.

“Through our work for large companies, we also became advisers to their owners. We help them primarily with family wealth management, but also with divorces, wills, and sometimes even criminal law matters,” says Kateřina Winterling Vorlíčková.

She herself joined the firm nearly twenty years ago as a trainee lawyer with no managerial ambitions. At the time, she had just returned from postgraduate studies in business law in the Netherlands. There were many applicants for positions in legal practice, and nobody was waiting for young lawyers to enter the profession.

However, the then all-male leadership of the law firm gave her an opportunity, and she quickly worked her way to the top. “I never particularly pursued it. I simply tried to do my job as well as possible. Everything developed naturally. That is just how BBH is,” says the modest woman who, in a way, rewrote the company’s history by becoming BBH’s first female partner.

Absolute Trust

Within her focus on civil, commercial, and competition law, she also specializes in mergers and acquisitions, contracts, corporate structures, private equity, and creating investment frameworks both domestically and abroad.

Among other projects, she was involved in the sale of the London-based fintech company RTGS.global from the PPF Group. She assisted with transactions involving the traditional industrial companies Škoda Transportation and Škoda Power, helped restructure the ownership of BigBoard Praha, and contributed to establishing Toshiba Europe’s organizational branch. She also represents numerous family-owned businesses.

A major turning point in her career came with the adoption of the new Civil Code in 2012. Thanks to it, the Czech Republic began discussing foreign models of wealth structuring: trust-like arrangements, trust funds, and private foundations. It became possible to separate wealth—companies, money, real estate, but also art collections or jewelry—into legal structures that function independently. Such arrangements can protect assets, prevent inappropriate fragmentation, and facilitate the transfer of wealth to future generations.

At first, lawyers and business owners were cautious. Everyone needed time to understand the new mechanisms, and the rules had to settle into practice.

“That happened relatively quickly, and trust funds now work in the Czech Republic just as effectively as they do abroad,” recalls Kateřina Winterling Vorlíčková.

According to her, however, general advice does not work in these situations. Trust and the ability to respond to individual needs are essential.

“First, I need to understand what the client wants and needs. Do they want to pass wealth on to their children? Separate family assets from business assets? Leave the company, make an exit, and focus on something else? None of these topics can be discussed without a very high level of trust.”

Although a trust fund can be established very quickly today, rushing the process is not advisable. The rules governing future management of the assets are set out in the trust fund statute, whose wording must be flawless—not least because it cannot later be amended.

“A trust fund should serve as a unifying element for family wealth. It should be a tool that encourages the family to manage its assets together. As a result, we often find ourselves dealing with complex legal, family, and conceptual structures,” notes Kateřina Winterling Vorlíčková.

“Imagine a client with highly fragmented assets who is married for the second time. He and his current wife have two children together, but he also has two children from a previous marriage. He does not want the assets to be diluted, but who will manage them after his death? One ideal solution may be the creation of a family council that makes key decisions. In that case, the wife and all the children will need to reach agreements together,” she explains.

In such cases, lawyers also draft so-called family constitutions. These documents establish rights and obligations for individual family members and define what happens if conflicts arise.

“In such a situation, a trust protector—the person overseeing the trust fund—may be authorized to make decisions on behalf of the family. But again, all of these rules need to be documented in advance.”

Champagne Never Disappoints

It is also necessary to prepare for the possibility that the next generation simply never arrives.

“One major art collector, for example, has stipulated that if he has neither children nor grandchildren, his paintings will be distributed among major international galleries,” reveals Kateřina Winterling Vorlíčková.

She herself is a passionate collector of modern art, somewhat surprisingly thanks to her work.

“One of my clients did not want to attend auctions personally, so he began sending me instead. And I truly fell in love with contemporary artists,” she says.

Among the artworks decorating her office, her favorite is Wrinkling (Vrásnění) by Zbyšek Sion.

“I first noticed it in the now-closed Atelier Kalina restaurant. I always chose a seat from which I could see it. One day I asked whether I could buy it, and they told me that was exactly why it was hanging there,” she laughs.

She says she approaches art more with her heart than as an investment. A similar story lies behind her passion for champagne.

“After we completed a transaction, clients would occasionally give me a fine bottle to open on a special occasion. Eventually, I built a cellar and assembled a collection of very high-quality bottles.”

Together with her sister Klára, she even wrote a book about the sparkling wine, BUM! 75× Champagne, and they are currently preparing a new edition.

“We want to bring the world of champagne closer to Czech readers. Because it has a remarkable ability to bring people together.”

This article was published on June 4, 2026, in Forbes magazine (Issue 6/2026) in its full version in Czech.