Josef Donát

Practice Areas

Josef Donát, holder of the prestigious ICT Lawyer of the Year award, is the head of the ICT Law specialization at ROWAN LEGAL, an arbitrator and a registered mediator.

Career

Josef Donát, holder of the prestigious ICT Lawyer of the Year award, is the head of the ICT Law specialization at ROWAN LEGAL, an arbitrator and a registered mediator.

In his practice, he has long been involved in large-scale projects in the field of the legal aspects of digitalization, electronic identification, cloud computing, cybersecurity and delivery of information systems. The team under his leadership is responsible for the creation of the BankID project, which is the most important electronic identification system in the Czech Republic. His other major projects include the preparation of the implementation of the so-called gigafactory for Škoda Auto or the transformation of the state enterprise Česká Pošta.

Josef Donát represents major multinational ICT companies, especially in relations with programmers in software development, he also collaborates on drafting license terms for computer programs and provides support to clients in negotiating contracts worth hundreds of millions of crowns. He provides expert advice to private and public sector clients in tenders and procurement procedures for supplies and services in the field of ICT and is also significantly involved in legal support for dynamic technology start-ups, where modern technology and innovation place significant demands on the right legal qualifications. Recently, he has been working on projects in the field of artificial intelligence, both by consulting for clients and by internal deployment for other innovative services offered by the law firm.

Josef has co-authored several commentaries on data protection laws, eGovernment and cybersecurity and regularly lectures at universities and international conferences.

Professional Memberships

Czech Bar Association (CBA), lawyer

Slovak Bar Association (SBA), lawyer

Member of the Legislative Council of the Government - Commission for Administrative Law No. 2 (from 1/2017 to present)

Registered mediator within the meaning of the Mediation Act No. 202/2012 Coll. (08/2015-present)

Publications

• Radim Polčák, Jakub Harašta, Pavel Koukal, Tereza Kyselovská, Pavel Loutocký & Matěj Myška, Michal Petr, Tomáš Gřivna, Josef Donát, Tomáš Ščerba, Miroslav Uřičař. Privacy and Technology Law Czech Republic, edited by Jos Dumortier, Michele Colucci, Roger Blanpain, Frank Hendrickx. NL: Kluwer Law International, 2023

• The Digital Service Rights Act (C.H. Beck, 2021)

• Cyber Law in the Czech Republic, third edition (Wolters Kluwer, 2020)

• Radim Polčák & Michal Petr, Jiří Čermák, Josef Donát, Zbyněk Loebl, Tomáš Gřivna, Ján Matejka. 'Czech Republic'. In International

Encyclopaedia of Laws: Cyber Law, edited by Jos Dumortier, Michele Colucci, Roger Blanpain, Frank Hendrickx. Alphen aan den Rijn,

NL: Kluwer Law International, 2020

• Practical Commentary: Personal Data Processing Act (Wolters Kluwer, 2019)

• Commentary on eIDAS (C. H. Beck, 2017)

• Law on the Net (C. H. Beck, 2016)

• Fundamentals of Information Technology Law (Wolters Kluwer, 2013)

Work Highlights

• Josef Donát led a team of experts from ROWAN LEGAL who, under the CBA, participated in the creation of the unique BankID electronic identification project. As part of it, he negotiated a comprehensive amendment to several legal regulations enabling the extension of the banking license, assisted in setting up the complete contractual parameters of the entire project and supported banks in engaging in eGovernment services.

• Josef was also a member of the team negotiating the most important project of the coming decades for the Czech Republic, namely the completion of the Dukovany nuclear power plant, with the responsibility of the ROWAN LEGAL team being the most appropriate setting of contractual relations between the state and the investor.

• Josef is a member of the team involved in the preparation of a large-scale project for the construction of a production plant for a major automotive company in the Czech Republic.

• For T-Mobile Czech Republic, he provided legal support in a large-scale multinational project of outsourcing the telecommunications infrastructure of a major entity operating in the energy sector.

• For SAP ČR, CGI IT Czech Republic, NESS Czech and Česká Spořitelna, he participated in the drafting of dozens of model contractual documents under the new Civil Code in various areas of ICT law.

• He assisted a number of entities from the public and private sphere in the implementation of the law on cyber security, including negotiations with representatives of the National Security Authority.

• Representing the client RBP, a health insurance company, in administrative proceedings conducted by the central administrative authority in the field of industrial property rights.

• For the Ministry of the Interior, he prepared a comprehensive assessment of the legal aspects of the deployment of open source software in public administration, including a comparison with the practice in selected EU countries.

• He provides legal advice to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, including the resolution of administrative issues related to the implementation of processes under the Law on the Right to Digital Services in the Execution of Public Administration.

Languages Spoken

Czech

English

Education

Awards