Lawyer Tom by the hour

It's no coincidence that efforts to strike "tunneling" from the penal code were culminating just as the arbitration decision regarding IPB was being handed down. Respekt magazine noted that lawyer Tomáš Sokol has been lobbying for years to drop the passage, but the matter became urgent when an out-of-court arbitration settlement with Nomura became impossible. The settlement would have reportedly included amnesty for some of the people who got their hands dirty at IPB. One of Sokol's clients, Eduard Onderka of Nomura, could have benefited, and other sources say that at least one person close to Václav Klaus would have too. It's laughable to hear Sokol tell Czech TV that dropping the "tunneling" clause would cost him money, because lawyers are pieceworkers who profit from complicated laws. If he had succeeded, his payoff would have presumably been huge. [Czech Republic ČSOB Television]