National and international arbitration is one of our prominent areas of expertise. Arbitration proceedings have become an important alternative to state courts for resolving disputes that deal with complex factual issues or in areas that are sensitive and confidential, especially in an international context. When acting as counsel for one of the parties, we represent the interests of our clients and accompany them during all the phases of the arbitral proceedings. Since all the partners in our arbitration team are regularly also appointed as arbitrators by parties and arbitration institutions, they are familiar with the relevant issues from the perspective of the arbitral decision-maker as well. Our team, comprising both acknowledged, aspiring experts of the younger generation and partners with many years of experience in international arbitration, has acquired an outstanding reputation which is acclaimed far beyond the borders of Germany.
We advise our clients on all the legal aspects involved in the sale and purchase of enterprises and shareholdings, including international transactions. In these international transactions we cooperate with law firms abroad, all of which are among the leading law firms in their respective jurisdiction, and we do so in a manner that has been tried and tested on numerous projects. We provide support on questions of structuring prior to the transaction, when processing and conducting due diligence investigations and during the contract negotiations to follow. We assist the management team on all the issues arising during the transaction phase and thereafter. Our skilled and experienced teams guarantee speedy and efficient implementation; one of the special strengths of our advice is the particularly strong cohesion between colleagues from different specialist areas who contribute their own special expertise (incl. labour law, industrial property rights, IT law, antitrust law, public law and on financing).
We counsel and represent national and international companies in all areas of labour law, including the adjacent fields of corporate, social and tax law. In addition, we advise executive board members, managing directors and employees on collective and individual labour law. An additional area of activity of our law firm in this connection is sports law and providing legal advice to sports clubs and to sportsmen and women. We optimize and structure contracts and articles of incorporation to suit our clients’ needs and also advise and represent them in negotiations and litigation.
One of the core areas of our legal practice is to provide advice on all forms and facets of corporate law and to represent our clients with respect to all the issues relating to the organization of enterprises. Our clients therefore include both listed stock corporations as well as medium-sized enterprises and family-run partnerships. We analyse our clients’ entrepreneurial targets and support them in this context and we are applauded for the way we conduct litigation.
The topic of “bequests and inheritance” is a particularly complex one since inheritance law also involves issues from the adjacent fields of corporate, tax and family law. Whenever we are engaged by clients for private property and corporate succession, our steps are planned with a view to anticipating their effects and are implemented in a practical manner. In particular, complex financial circumstances and the full or partial transfer of family businesses to the younger generation present a special challenge, given that business management, corporate strategy and often psychological aspects also have to be addressed. This is where we have the very expertise required to provide our clients with competent advice.
We advise domestic and foreign financial institutions and institutional investors on all questions relating to banking law, banking supervisory law and the law of the capital markets. In the past few years alone, we have conducted 1,500 law suits, notably defending against consumers bringing claims for damages. The industry confirms that our specialist banking law team has particular expertise in advising and acting as counsel for financial institutions and issuing houses and in strategic advice when acting in bulk proceedings.
Advice on antitrust law has always been one of the main focal points of our legal activity. In this context we represent the interests of German and international enterprises of all sizes and in all branches of industry, for example in connection with M&A transactions, when drafting contracts or evolving and implementing compliance programs in accordance with antitrust or public procurement law. Furthermore, we provide our clients with support on public procurement and state aid law. We have significant experience in representing our clients’ legal interests before European and national cartel authorities and courts in all types of proceedings and at all court levels.
We assist our clients in the – worldwide – distribution and purchase of products and services. This includes the conception, (judicial) enforcement, and processing of sales systems, especially with regard to issues of compensation for termination and restraints on competition. Our clients benefit from our expertise in insurance law as well as in dealing with product liability and recalls. We provide advice in particular in the fields of automotive, food, pharmaceuticals, leisure and luxury goods, medical devices, security and industrial products, furniture, disposal and facility management, advertising, and financial products. Our particular focus is on cross-border legal transactions, where we offer multinational solutions from a single source through our international network of law firms.
We apply our extensive knowledge in all areas of commercial law to identify economic crises for our clients as early as possible and then to take the appropriate measures. In this context, we support our clients both in pre-insolvency restructuring, e.g. under the StaRUG, but also in the process of preparing and conducting insolvency proceedings. At each step of the restructuring process, we consult our internal experts as well as renowned partners in the field of insolvency administration to ensure the best possible advice in difficult situations like these.
Entrepreneurship and innovative talent need freedom. This applies not only to people working in the film, broadcasting, press and publishing sectors, but also to the sales and marketing experts in craft trades and industry. However, when procuring and marketing products and services via modern IT and telecommunications channels, creativity is often constrained by copyright law and the rules of law of media policy. This demands the intrinsic expertise and in-depth experience we have pooled in a specialist competence team comprising specialists and specialist attorneys.
We have decades of experience in advising and representing our clients on major construction projects and industrial plant. This includes legal advice to corporations on consortium and joint venture projects abroad and counselling architects and engineers on national and international projects. Real estate law and commercial lease and rental law form additional significant components of the legal services we offer.
