Reed Smith has picked up a team of seven partners from rival international firms to launch in Frankfurt, its second office in Germany. The Frankfurt office will launch on 1 June and will be led by current Munich managing partner Stefan Kugler. The group of hires include Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe’s former Frankfurt head Martin […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has hired its first female partner in Germany, K&L Gates banking and finance partner Julia Müller. Müller, who was based in K&L Gates’ Frankfurt office, had been at the firm for almost three years, having joined from White & Case in 2012 where she was a partner for 10 years. When […]
CMS Hasche Sigle has become the fourth firm to hire a partner from Clifford Chance in Germany, picking up capital markets partner Wolfgang Richter. Richter will start work at CMS Hasche Sigle in Frankfurt on 1 May. He practises corporate law, focusing on issues such as corporate governance, capital markets, M&A transactions and takeovers as […]
Germany has been a large part of Clifford Chance’s European operations for years, ever since 2000 when it merged with Pünder Volhard Weber & Axster. Some 15 years on from that merger, change is afoot. Last year new German managing partner Peter Dieners began a review of the firm’s German operations with a view to slimming down its 83-strong […]
German firm Flick Gocke Schaumburg (FGS) has announced it is launching in Hamburg later this year, its fifth domestic office. The firm is not hiring anyone to open the office, but is relocating several partners to the northern German city. Tax specialists Arne von Freeden and Johannes Baßler are heading up the new venture. Associate partners […]
Two more Clifford Chance partners, Peter Rosin and Thomas Burmeister, have left the firm’s German practice. The pair, who specialise in energy law, are set to join White & Case in Düsseldorf. The exits follow that of Clifford Chance’s former German corporate head Arndt Stengel, who left to join Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy’s Frankfurt […]
German firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek has reported record revenues for 2014, with turnover hitting €121m (£89.3m) – up 12 per cent from 2013 and a rise of 66 per cent in six years. The revenue rise came on the back of continued recruitment for Heuking, which increased its headcount from 260 lawyers in 2013 […]
German firms are hanging on to their independence despite continued international competition One would hardly expect the leading firms in a sophisticated legal market such as Germany to do much without thinking about it very carefully indeed. This was the case when many of the top firms gave in to the pressure to merge with […]
What a week for Bird & Bird. First came the news that the firm was facing a £2m professional negligence case over advice given to an investor. Then it emerged that the firm was under fire for its alleged involvement in an €147m embezzlement charge. A current Hamburg lawyer and a former Bird & Bird […]
German firms Görg and Noerr have taken the lead roles on the financing and development of Europe’s largest shopping centre in the heart of Berlin. The €600m (£479m) Mall of Berlin is set to open later this month. The site straddles former East and West Berlin and is close to the iconic Brandenberg Gate. Noerr […]
As international work grows the DAX30 are expanding in-house legal teams, but Germany’s biggest companies remain critical to the country’s law firms.
After a couple of years of exits from its Frankfurt office, US firm Sidley Austin has decided to call it a day in Germany. The firm confirmed this week that it was shutting down in Frankfurt, a few months after launching a review of the office. The exit is not really a surprise, as Sidley […]