In 2025 alone, we achieved four landmark victories at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia.
CUKROV.
Strategic judgment for critical decisions.
We know the law from every angle: as co-authors of legislation, regulators, supervisory board members, court-appointed experts and attorneys. This breadth is the basis of the method followed across Odvetniška družba Cukrov, regardless of who leads a particular case.
The method was developed by Vesna and Veronika Cukrov. Because it is transferable, no decision ever rests on one person’s judgment.
A DOCTRINE OF JUDGMENT
CUKROV is not one law firm among many.
Having worked as legislative drafters, regulators, board members, court-appointed experts and counsel, we understand the law from every perspective.
This breadth is the backbone of our method, developed by Vesna and Veronika Cukrov. Because the method is transferable, quality is consistent across every matter we handle, and no decision ever depends on a single person’s judgment.
Our work begins before the event.
While risks are still emerging. Before positions harden. While the question can still be framed correctly, so that a decision taken today never becomes evidence against the person who took it years later. We are not interested merely in what is permissible today.
We understand the practice of law as a doctrine of judgment.
True judgment goes beyond drafting arguments, reacting quickly, or displaying confidence. It is the discipline of knowing which question actually decides a matter, which dispute is pointless, which move comes too soon, and when restraint serves better than any answer.
Our role is never simply to endorse an initial impression of a situation.
We are interested in what the decision will set in motion tomorrow.
In the proceedings, on the market, before the regulator, before the opposing party, in public, and within the institutions that will rule on it once the original context is gone.
Our task is to doubt long enough for the true structure of the problem to emerge.
From this follow the six principles by which we work.
Acting before the event
We address risk while it is still taking shape, not only once it has become a dispute.
We assess every decision through the consequences it may trigger ten years from now, not only through its immediate effect. A contract, a letter, a statement, an omission or a procedural move is never an isolated event. It leaves a record that may one day become evidence.
Where others see today’s problem, we see the decade that follows.
Judgment beyond the law
The most important decisions are never purely legal.
They are also commercial, regulatory, financial, institutional and reputational. We therefore do not treat a legal question as a closed system. The law is one layer of reality, not the whole.
Good advice answers the question of what is legally possible.
Exceptional judgment answers the question of what is wise to do.
Discipline, not reaction
In an unstable environment, the opponent is not the greatest danger.
The greatest danger is the urge to respond at once.
We do not react to every pressure. We do not answer every attack. We do not enter every battle simply because it is on offer. We follow a strategy that looks several moves ahead.
Sometimes the strongest move is the one you do not make.
Defining the question that frames the dispute
A dispute is rarely won with more arguments.
More often, it is won by deciding which question becomes the central one.
The greatest mistake is to defend against the most visible point rather than the decisive one. The opposing party often attacks where it can make the most noise, not where it is legally strongest.
Our task is to recognise what really needs to be decided and to put that question at the centre of the dispute.
Depth before surface
Our value shows where a surface-level solution falls short.
We act in situations that require understanding the whole system: the law, the balance of power, institutions, capital, time, documents, procedures and human interests.
Often the real question is not the one the client raises first. The first question is often merely a symptom of a deeper structure that has to be uncovered.
An answer has value only once the right question has been asked.
Healthy doubt
An excellent attorney doubts everything.
The opposing party’s assertions. The obvious reading of the case. Documents that appear clear. The expected course through the courts. And, above all, their own first conclusions. Our task is not to confirm what the client wants to hear.
Our task is to recognise what is true, early enough to act on it.
Sound judgment begins when you stop accepting the first answer.
FROM OUR PRACTICE
The strongest move
Our client was facing a multi-million-euro damages claim. At first glance, the case appeared to be lost.
Hearing after hearing, the opposing side repeated the same assertion: our client’s conduct was unlawful. And it was.
Yet unlawfulness alone does not establish liability in damages. All the conditions for liability must be met. Opposing counsel focused entirely on proving that single point and lost sight of the bigger picture.
We did not help them identify the decisive question. We did not widen the dispute to the point where they might have noticed the gap in their own case. We let them stay focused on the wrong issue.
The court dismissed the claim, finding that the conditions for tortious liability had not all been met; throughout the proceedings, the claimant had focused mainly on proving unlawfulness. The Higher Court upheld the judgment on appeal.
CUKROV.
is a doctrine of judgment.
We act where the decision is not easy, the consequences are not short-lived, and the law is not the only thing that decides.
Our task is not to answer the question of what can be done.
Our task is to judge what will still be right once the consequences of that decision begin to unfold.
Constitutional law
Here, more is decided than the individual case. The ruling sets the standard by which all later cases will be judged.
We represent clients in precedent-setting constitutional matters that influence the development of the standards of legal judgment.
This is a field of rare cases with the widest reach, where a decision extends beyond the client and shapes the law going forward.
In 2025, the Constitutional Court published four landmark decisions in our clients' favour, finding municipal spatial plans unconstitutional and significantly strengthening the protection of private property against arbitrary interference by municipalities and the state, in the cases of SDH (U-I-265/22), Mercator (U-I-218/22), Roltek (U-I-268/22) and Rovanova (U-I-269/22).
Four decisions in a single year are no coincidence. They show that we know how to take a case to the highest level of judicial review and win it there.
EU law
More and more of the rules that matter to Slovenian companies are made not in Ljubljana, but in Brussels and Luxembourg. And we know how to act there.
We advise and represent clients in matters with an EU-law dimension, from the interpretation of directives and regulations to proceedings before the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
For us, European law is not a distant framework but the working environment in which we actually operate.
The field is led by Veronika Cukrov, who pursued further studies in European law at the Academy of European Law (ERA) and, as part of a wider team, took part in an action before the Court of Justice of the EU.
An understanding of EU law connects all our practice areas, from public procurement and competition to artificial intelligence.
Regulation and the Competition Protection Agency (AVK)
The market has its own rules and its own guardian. Those who understand both are never caught off guard when it matters most.
We conduct regulatory proceedings across various fields and advise on competition law and on matters with an impact on the market, including allegations of cartel conduct and questions of exposure to competition.
Our track record speaks for itself.
In the matter of alleged cartel conduct in the construction of UKC Maribor, we secured the annulment of the AVK's decision before the Administrative Court, after which the Agency discontinued the proceedings.
For Slovenske železnice – Tovorni promet we successfully conducted a procedure in which the AVK found that rail freight transport in Slovenia is directly exposed to competition.
We pursued the matter all the way to the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU.
Healthcare
Healthcare is one of the most heavily regulated systems in the country, and one in which legal decisions have a direct impact on people.
We address systemic questions of healthcare, regulation and the organisation of health services, including relations with the sector's regulators and agencies.
We work on matters involving the sector's key regulators, including JAZMP, the Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices.
We understand healthcare as a system, not as a series of separate cases.
Energy
Energy is not merely an industry. It is critical infrastructure on which the functioning of the state depends.
We advise on regulation, energy systems and critical infrastructure, where legal questions intertwine with the public interest, security of supply and long-term investment cycles.
We know the sector from the inside: Vesna Cukrov served on the supervisory board of Holding Slovenske elektrarne, one of the largest companies in the country, including as its chair.
Veronika Cukrov is also a PhD candidate in energy law.
We do not advise the energy sector from the outside, but with an understanding of how such a system actually works and makes decisions.
Infrastructure and investment
Projects of national importance leave no room for improvisation. Every mistake costs years and millions.
We specialise in infrastructure, investment delivery and construction, acting for both contracting authorities and bidders.
We advise contracting authorities at every stage of investment preparation: from land acquisition, building permits and project documentation to contract drafting, with one aim: to prevent disputes before they arise.
We help bidders win contracts, prepare and review contracts, and protect their interests.
Where a dispute cannot be prevented, we represent clients in court proceedings and in claims for damages.
We have been involved in all major investment projects in Slovenia, including work for 2TDK, the company responsible for the country's largest infrastructure project.
These are environments where law, economics and the public interest are interwoven.
Advising supervisory and management boards
Decisions at the top cannot be undone.
We provide management and supervisory boards with dedicated strategic legal advice on decisions involving significant responsibility and long-term consequences for the company.
We understand board members' responsibility, risk assessment and the weight of a resolution from first-hand experience, not only from the law that governs them.
This field is led by Vesna Cukrov, who served a full term on the supervisory board of Holding Slovenske elektrarne, including as its chair, and who holds a certificate of qualification for members of management and supervisory boards.
The advice you receive comes from someone who has sat in that chair, not from theory.
AI and European regulation
Artificial intelligence does not wait for the law to catch up. We anticipate where the law is heading.
We lay the legal foundations for the responsible and compliant adoption of artificial intelligence within the framework of European regulation, from risk assessment and AI governance to the implementation of the AI Act in everyday business practice.
The field is led by Veronika Cukrov, recognised by Leaders in Law in 2026 as AI Expert of the Year in Slovenia & the EU, for her work at exactly this intersection of artificial intelligence, its governance and European regulation.
She speaks regularly on these questions at home and across Europe, in the forums where European law is still being shaped.
We do not just help clients comply with yesterday’s rules. We show them where regulation is heading.
National Review Commission (DKOM), public procurement and concessions
Public procurement is a discipline in which every detail can be decisive, and successful representation in minor-offence proceedings calls for highly specialised expertise. We have it.
Vesna Cukrov chaired the National Review Commission, is the co-author of the commentary on the Public Procurement Act (ZJN-3), published in 2016 by Tax-Fin-Lex, and is a court-appointed expert in law and public procurement.
For this field, Odvetniška družba Cukrov received recognition from the international organisation Leaders in Law in 2021 and 2025: "Global Awards winner" and "Public Procurement Expert of the Year in Slovenia".
We represent both bidders and contracting authorities at every stage of public procurement and concession-award procedures: in preparing tender documentation and bids, in negotiations and the conclusion of contracts, in requests for review and legal opinions in complex cases, and in proceedings before the National Review Commission.
We are particularly successful in minor-offence proceedings in this field and in defending against allegations of criminal fraud affecting the EU's financial interests.
We do not just read the commentaries on public procurement law. We helped write them.