Mr Carsten Opitz > Arendt & Medernach > Luxembourg, Luxembourg > Lawyer Profile

Able to draw upon the expertise of a large pool of lawyers across all levels of experience, and also leveraging the firm’s unique in-house regulatory and consulting service, Arendt & Medernach can provide ‘high-quality tailored solutions’ to domestic and international clients across the full scope of their corporate activity. On the M&A front, Bob Calmes is ‘hardworking, proactive and smart’, traits which endear him to both corporates and funds on high-profile cross-border deals, often involving a US nexus (where he adds insight as a result of his previous role heading the firm’s New York office). Laurent Schummer is also a key member of the team and as well as his work for private equity firms and corporates on large-scale transactions, he also excels in helping startups/entrepreneurs from emerging sectors securing investment throughout their growth cycle. Philippe Harles ‘ ‘work attitude, knowledge, and willingness to strike a deal are standout traits’, ensuring that his popularity continues to grow among start-ups, funds and corporates across a wide variety of private and public M&A. Team head Carsten Opitz is skilled at handling M&A matters, including those with a German nexus, as well as excelling in corporate governance advice. Founding partner Guy Harles has vast experience in the field and remains a trusted adviser to many corporates as is underscored by several board-level appointments by major clients.

Arendt & Medernach approaches much of its work in the real estate sector from a multi-disciplinary perspective as befits a firm that has a core focus on the corporate aspects of work in the space. In this context, the work is driven by a strong and loyal base of real estate-focused funds which the firm, through its investment management team, has helped structure the initial funds, with the subsequent downstream investment work handled by the M&A lawyers – often also involving tax structuring at both stages. Pierre Beissel , who co-ordinates the firm’s real estate industry group, is key to much of the fund structuring work, as is the vastly experienced Claude Niedner. For the downstream investment work, which is often cross-border in nature, corporate/M&A head Carsten Opitz often takes the lead. The firm also handles some more ‘bricks and mortar’ style work across both commercial and residential assets, for developers and end-users/occupiers. Christian Point is the main contact for this work where he is adept at both contentious and non-contentious mandates.