Jiří Tomola concentrates on financing, insolvency and financial restructuring, and legal services for financial institutions, including private equity funds. Prior to joining White & Case in January 2003, he worked as a lawyer for Česká spořitelna, one of the largest Czech banks.

Mr. Tomola regularly advises major Czech and international financial institutions and corporations in connection with international and domestic financing arrangements, including acquisition finance, structured finance and project and export finance transactions.

Mr. Tomola has been advising banks, strategic and financial investors and corporations in various industry sectors on the practical and legal aspects of financial restructuring projects, including out-of-court financial restructurings, or formal reorganizations under court protection and insolvency proceedings.

He has played an important role in several successful out-of-court restructurings, several restructurings in the project and export finance area with significant cross-border aspects, and major ongoing financial restructuring projects resulting from the current economic environment.

Mr. Tomola has been involved and in a number of major insolvency cases in Central and Eastern European. In some such insolvency proceedings, complex financing arrangements were tested before the Czech courts for the first time, and the concepts of syndicated lending and security agents’ rights (including parallel debt arrangements) were successfully defended for the first time in the Czech Republic.

In addition, Mr. Tomola has represented financial institutions in connection with the establishment or reorganization of their Czech operations, with the structuring of their investment in private equity funds and the formation of real estate funds.

Mr. Tomola worked in the Banking Section of the London office of White & Case in 2007 and 2008, where he was mainly involved in cross-border acquisition finance transactions and international project finance deals.

Financial Restructuring and Insolvency
Mr. Tomola has recently been advising several clients on financial restructuring and insolvency cases, and his experience in this area includes the following: 

• Representation of the secured creditors in connection with insolvency proceedings against BOHEMIA CRYSTALEX TRADING a.s., CRYSTALEX a.s., Sklo Bohemia, a.s., SKLÁRNY KAVALIER, a.s., and Sklárny BOHEMIA a.s., a major Czech group of glass producers. This matter is the first insolvency in the Czech Republic in which secured syndicated financing is being formally registered in the insolvency proceedings, and this deal represents the first large insolvency case under the new Czech Insolvency Act; 
• Representation of the Security Agent and the secured creditors in connection with insolvency proceedings against Porcela Plus a.s., Karlovarsky porcelan a.s. and Concordia, a group of Czech porcelain producers; 
• Ongoing representation of a syndicate of senior creditors, six CEE-based commercial banks, in connection with the complex court reorganization of KORD Group, an industrial group consisting of several companies with operations in three CEE countries. We are representing the banks, represented by Česká spořitelna, as security agent, in connection with insolvency proceedings concerning five KORD Group companies in the Czech Republic, and the implementation of the court reorganization. It is the first insolvency case in the Czech Republic involving the successful shifting of the center of main interest ("COMI") of three foreign group companies to the Czech Republic. The reorganization resulted in the successful sale of the major businesses of the KORD Group to a private investor; 
• Representation of Unicredit Bank Czech Republic a.s. as the security agent and a syndicate of banks in connection with the restructuring of the loan facilities provided to Cadence Innovation Group; 
• Representation of major banking creditors of ORCO Property Group in connection with the ongoing saveguarde proceeding in France involving ORCO Property Group, and the restructuring of financing arrangements with its portfolio property companies; 
• Representation of UniCredit Bank Czech Republic, a.s. and UniCredit Infrastructure in connection with insolvency proceedings and litigation related to the banks' exposure to a Czech real estate project company (PALCOR CZECH s.r.o.) established in connection with the development of the Galleria Moda shopping centre, an outlet centre in Prague; and 
• Representation of Česká spořitelna, a.s., as agent for syndicated financing provided to a large textile company, in connection with the insolvency of that company and related litigation, including litigation before the Constitutional Court.

Banking and Finance
In the area of financing, Mr. Tomola's recent experience includes: 

• Representation of Czech Export Bank with respect to export financing provided to Transport 21 Veka, guaranteed by the Russian state enterprise Uralvagonzavod, one of the largest manufacturers of railway cars in the world, which amounted to €364 million, making it one of the largest-ever export financings in the Czech Republic; 
• Representation of a syndicate f banks and financial institutions in connection with the €409.975.911, CHF 157.808.415 and CHF 30.300.718 financing of the Ilisu Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant Project; the Credit Facilities were insured by Austrian, Swiss and German export credit agencies; 
• Representation of Česká spořitelna in connection with €19 million in export financing to DTEK Holdings to be used for financing the supply of mining equipment by a Ukrainian company; 
• Representation of Czech Export Bank in connection with export financing provided for the construction and reconstruction of the production facilities of MMK; the deal combined several commercial and export financing facilities exceeding US$155 million in aggregate; 
• Representation of Czech Export Bank in connection with €180 million in project and export financing provided to OOO Kurganskaja TEC in connection with the construction of a gas-fired power plant in Russia; 
• Representation of a syndicate of banks, including Československá obchodní banka, a. s., UniCredit Bank Czech Republic, a.s., and COMMERZBANK Aktiengesellschaft, Prague Branch, in connection with a term loan facility to Honor Invest in connection with the financing of the initial purchase of shares of a major Czech energy company and the subsequent exchange of such shares for shares of another energy distribution company; 
• Representation of UniCredit Bank Czech Republic, a.s. in the CZK 2,580,500,000 acquisition financing provided in connection with the acquisition of Elektrárny Opatovice and the subsequent CZK 7 billion refinancing of Elektrárny Opatovice’s and white-wash proceedings; 
• Advising ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Česká spořitelna, a.s. in connection with the financing of VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a.s.; the financing was provided for the purposes of refinancing its tolling arrangement; 
• Representation of Citibank, a.s., ABN AMRO Bank N.V., and Česká spořitelna, a.s. in connection with the CZK 3.6 billion financing of a Czech industrial group operating in the rubber industry; 
• Representation of the Czech Deposit Insurance Fund (Fond pojištění vkladů), a Czech deposit insurance entity, in connection with its debut CZK 3 billion syndicated facility; the financing was related to the insolvency of Union Banka, a.s., the largest Czech bank insolvency case; and 
• Advising Zentiva B.V. with respect to the financing of its acquisition of a majority stake in Sicomed S.A., the Romanian generics drug maker; the financing consisted of five bilateral loans provided by five large banks operating in the CEE region.

Bars and Courts
Czech Bar Association

Education
LLM, Charles University, Faculty of Law, 2000

Languages
Czech
English

Citizenship
Czech Republic