Otakar graduated from the Law Faculty of Charles University in Prague in 2006 and obtained an LL.M. degree focused on international arbitration and financial law at King’s College London in 2008. He became qualified as Czech solicitor in 2011.

He commenced his career at a top-notch Czech law firm where he focused primarily on real estate law, litigation, and arbitration, including an ICC arbitration related to the receivership and subsequent forced sale of Saluka/Nomura-owned subsidiary, IPB bank. After that he worked as an in-house lawyer at an international investment firm in London. The next step was the almost twelve years long career at the global law firm of Allen & Overy in Prague and in Hong Kong, where he represented clients in international arbitrations and disputes before courts and administrative bodies and gave them advice in financial law and regulation and in complex domestic and international transactions with regulatory aspects. At the same time, he oversaw diverse legal agenda involving various real estate projects in most of which he acted and continues to act as equity partner. In 2020 he founded the law firm Hájek Legal.

Otakar has represented states and private investors in ICSID investment arbitrations in the sectors of infrastructure, financial services, and mining. In this area he acted, among others, for the Belgian group DEME in the first ever successful ICSID investment treaty claim against the Republic of the Philippines. He has also advised investors on structuring of their investments and asserting their rights against host states. Otakar has also conducted negotiations with various states on amicable settlement of investment disputes which in one instance led to a successful settlement of an investor with the Czech Republic. He has further represented clients in various commercial arbitrations under the ICC, HKIAC, VIAC and other rules.

In addition to his international practice, Otakar regularly acts as counsel in domestic litigation and arbitration matters, as well as in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Otakar has further provided legal advice to leading domestic and foreign financial institutions and corporate clients in financial and capital markets law with particular focus on financial derivatives. Apart from regular transactional work in this area, he has drafted updates to standard banking documentation reflecting the adoption of the new Czech Civil Code, updates to the master agreement for financial transactions published by the Czech Banking Association, and legal opinions for ISDA and other clients on the functioning of close-out netting and financial collateral under Czech law.

Otakar regularly publishes in law journals, speaks at conferences and gives lectures at the Law Faculty of Charles University in Prague and the British Law Centre, University of Cambridge. He is the member of the Czech Institute for Popularization and Revitalization of Arbitration and acts as arbitrator at the Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.