Prof Dr Thomas Dünchheim > Hogan Lovells International LLP > Dusseldorf, Germany > Lawyer Profile

The Global Regulatory practice of Hogan Lovells International LLP around public commercial lawyer Thomas Dünchheim focuses on municipal law and transaction-related compliance advice and counts large German and international companies as well as various municipalities among its client base. As a former local politician, Dünchheim has extensive expertise in budget law and is regularly instructed by large cities and municipal utilities to examine local economic and corporate law aspects of transactions and public projects as well as to assist with privatisation and re-municipalisation projects; he further possesses in-depth expertise in gambling law, which comes particularly to the fore in his regulatory advice to international clients on marketing strategies. The team is also active in dispute resolution and represents companies from the transport and TMT sectors in administrative complaint proceedings, among other matters.

In close cooperation with its antitrust and public procurement practices, Hogan Lovells International LLP‘s state aid team advises clients from the transport, industrial and financial services sectors on a wide range of financing and funding issues as well as on state aid aspects of state stabilisation measures. While compliance expert Thomas Dünchheim assists with state aid issues pertaining to various M&A transactions and privatisation initiatives and further advises clients on state aid review proceedings, competition lawyer and practice head Marc Schweda focuses on funding projects in the transport sector and further increasingly assists with state aid effects of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

The environmental and planning law team at Hogan Lovells International LLP particularly focuses on compliance issues and advises both large DAX companies and international clients. The practice regularly assists with environmental compliance related to M&A transactions and public funding applications, but also comprehensively advises clients on land-use planning and soil protection due diligence in the context of real estate transactions; the key contact for these matters is practice head Thomas Dünchheim. Alongside supply chain due diligence expert Christian Ritz, he also increasingly advises companies on their ESG initiatives. The team further handles product-related issues; here, clients predominantly rely on the skills of Florian Unseld and Patrick Ayad, who has particular industry expertise in the automotive sector.

Hogan Lovells International LLP‘s procurement team primarily acts on the bidding side and represents large companies in bidding and review procedures that serve politically relevant projects such as EU-wide vaccine procurement or the expansion of the German energy and fast-charging infrastructure. Here, the group regularly advises across practice groups, including on regulatory procurement issues in connection with public-sector transactions or third-country subsidies. Thomas Dünchheim is a key contact for procurement advice at the interface to corporate law, while practice head Marc Schweda is an expert in procurement and competition law issues; the latter advises companies from the energy and healthcare sectors as well as the defense industry.