Czech Student Exchange

Since 1994, a total of 17 students from the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University have been given the opportunity to have their expenses paid so that they could study law for one semester at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Each one of these students has then returned to the Czech Republic and embarked upon a distinguished career.

During the fall 2008 semester, two exchange students studied at John Marshall.  Slavomir Halla is from Slovakia and is in his fifth year of studies at the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University.  He is also taking a course in public health at University of Illinois, Chicago and doing an internship at the City of Chicago, Department of Public Health.  Lenka Kolarikova is a fourth year student at Masaryk and is also from Slovakia.  She is taking a variety of courses at John Marshall, including Intellectural property law.

Mrs. Doris Drost and Jiri Zapletal, exchange student, discuss Czech history and current events, Arlington Heights, December 2005.

Petra Novotna and Lenka Cervenkova, exchange students, Masaryk University Faculty of Law with Professor Michael Seng, at John Marshall Law School, November 2006.

Jan Lasak, 2007 exchange student from Masaryk University with Professor Michael Seng

Pavel Strnad (1994) has his own law office in Prague where he concentrates in real estate and pharmaceutical law. He has hired Eva Kaderova (2004) to work in his office. Both Jan Samanek (2000) and Olga Solcova (2003) are working in Prague with the Ministry of Justice. Jan earned his LL.M. at the University of Michigan on a Fulbright Scholarship. Jiri Zapletal (2005) is practicing intellectual property law with a private law firm in Prague.

Robert (Machovec) Erhart(1994) is an assistant to Justice Ludvik David on the Czech Supreme Court in Brno, and is teaching at Placky University Faculty of Law in Olomouc and Michaela Bejckova (2000) is an assistant at the Czech Supreme Administrative Law Court in Brno.

Daniel Hrbac (1994) and Henry Skacel (1996) have opened their own private law offices in Brno. Martina Pikolova (2003) is working as a legal assistant in a Brno law firm. After he spent a semester at JMLS as one of our exchange students, Radim Charvat (2002) returned to John Marshall Law School to earn LL.M.s in both Intellectual Property Law and in Information Technology and Privacy Law under a scholarship granted by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Radim returned to Brno and earned his Ph.D. and works for a private law firm.

Our students from fall 2006, Lenka Cervenkova and Petra Novotna, both graduated from the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in June 2007 and is working on their Ph.D.s.  This year Lenka is studying in Australia and Petra is studying in Belgium. Jan Lasak was the exchange student for fall 2007.  He is working on his Ph.D. at Masaryk University and is clerking for Chief Justice Iva Brozova on the Czech Supreme Court.

In addition to the students who have come to John Marshall under the Exchange Program, a number of other young attorneys have come here as Fulbright scholars or under other programs to study for lesser periods of time. Patrick Matyasek, who attended John Marshall Law School when he was an instructor of labor law at Masaryk, now has his own law firm in Brno, and teaches law at Placky Universtiy in Olomouc and Petr Hlista is teaching at the Economics University in Prague. During the fall 2008 semester, Vaclav Stehlik an instructor at Placky University in Olomouc received a Fulbright award to do legal research at John Marshall Law School.

Nada Matejkova, a director of the Department of Lifelong Learning at Masaryk University Faculty of Law received a fellowship administered by the Fulbright program to study the LL.M. program at John Marshall Law School. Similarly, Radka Chlebcova, a graduate student and instructor at the Masaryk University Faculty of Law, was sent to John Marshall Law School by her university to study the lawyering skills and clinical programs.

You can help bring another student from Masaryk University to study in Chicago by making a contribution payable to The John Marshall Law School and earmarking the contribution to the Czech Student Exchange Program and sending it in care of Professor Michael Seng at the law school.

The Exchange students from the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University are: 1994 - 2008