Germany 2014 – GC Powerlist
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Germany 2014

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Achim Deisenroth

General counsel | Warsteiner-Unternehmensgruppe

Achim Deisenroth understands that one of the major challenges for any legal department is to continuously adjust its work to a changing environment, especially in compliance and risk management. He...

Agnieszka Mögelin-Zinger

Legal counsel | E.ON

Agnieszka Mögelin-Zinger is a legal counsel in E.ON’s M&A team in Düsseldorf but regularly draws on resources worldwide when working on projects. This international outlook is not surprising for an...

Alexander Bordolo

General corporate counsel | Johnson Matthey

Since 2011, Alexander Bordolo has been successfully building and growing the German legal department of British conglomerate Johnson Matthey with one of his most recent initiatives being the implementation of...

Alexandra Genten

Head of legal | STAWAG Stadtwerke Aachen

Alexandra Genten heads STAWAG Stadtwerke Aachen’s legal department. The company provides services in the gas, district heating, water and electricity sectors. Genten is highly regarded for her ‘connected way of...

Andreas Neumann

Head of legal | Boehringer Ingelheim

Andreas Neumann has been receiving praise from all sides for his ‘successful set-up of a worldwide, integrated team of lawyers’, which, according to observers, has mastered ‘incredibly complex and commercially...

Andreas Schillack

Country head legal and compliance | Novartis Pharma

Healthcare

Novartis, since 2012 the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, is subject to all issues arising out of the tender procedures for patented medicine rebate contracts, both in the area of generic...

Anke Frankenberger

General counsel and chief compliance officer | STYROLUTION

Styrolution is a global supplier of styrene plastics and a BASF and INEOS joint venture with a turnover of €5.8bn and over 3,000 employees worldwide. Not surprising, Anke Frankenberger’s team...

Annette Benner

Deputy general counsel Europe | Hatfield Philips

Hatfield Philips International is a servicer of primarily European CMBS transactions with hundreds of securitised, mortgage-backed bonds amounting to a high two figure billion euro sum. Deputy General Counsel Europe,...

Bernd Wieberneit

Managing director (HR and legal affairs) | CORPUS SIREO

Real estate company Corpus Sireo employs 560 staff in Germany and Luxembourg and administers retail and residential properties with a total value of €16.5bn. As Managing Director (HR and Legal...

Björn Ley

Head of legal power generation compression | Siemens, Energy Sector

Björn Ley heads an international team of lawyers and has successfully achieved a ‘deeper understanding and implementation of our business partner concept’, which in concrete terms means that legal is...

Bradley Chait

Legal counsel | OSRAM

Bradley Chait is the sole legal financial advisor for all of OSRAM’s subsidiaries, a position the company has created when preparing its de-merger from Siemens in 2012. Chait advises the...

Carsten Hennicke

Head of legal | Heidelberger Lebensversicherung

Carsten Hennicke’s employer is among Germany’s largest providers of equity-linked insurance policies with an administered capital of €5.1bn. Hennicke ‘has steered the company in times of difficult markets and scarce...

Christian Vetter

Head of employment law | Dow Deutschland

As head of employment law, Christian Vetter is situated at the intersection of employment, social and corporate law on the one side, and the various global and German Dow entities...

Christina Sontheim

Head of legal | PVH Holdings (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein)

Christina Sontheim boasts ‘particular legal, communicative and organisational skills’ and observers agree that she has been instrumental in her pro-active guidance of Tommy Hilfiger Group’s expansion not only in Germany,...

Christof Wolpert

Director Global Patents | adidas Group

Adidas is the world’s second biggest sports equipment manufacturer, a market position that brings a variety of challenges for Christof Wolpert. He leads a team of attorneys, US patent lawyers,...

Clemens Heusch

Head of European litigation | Nokia

One of the first and most crucial changes Clemens Heusch implemented when taking over as head of european litigation was the ‘team’s decentralisation so that team members are located right...

Corinne Bourrat

Corporate compliance officer | juwi

Up until 2010, Corinne Bourrat had been head of legal at renewable energy project developer juwi, when she moved into her current role as Corporate Compliance Officer. Her work focuses...

Daniel de Bruycker

Department head legal | McDonald’s Deutschland

Daniel de Bruycker’s role at McDonald’s Deutschland is multifaceted: he heads two areas within the German legal department, franchise law including contract and environment law, as well as IP/IT matters...

Dennis Heidschmidt

Head of legal project and acquisition finance | ING Bank

Financials

Dennis Heidschmidt has developed all processes, standards and recruitment in the areas of acquisition and project finance for Dutch ING Bank. Heidschmidt has in particular improved the way how large...

Dirk Gasse

Director legal | Globalfoundries

Dirk Gasse is director of legal at Globalfoundries, a US semi-conductor manufacturer which until 2009 had been part of US chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and is now owned...

Eberhard von Klinggräff

Corporate vice president legal affairs | Beiersdorf

Consumer goods producer Beiersdorf, a German household name, founded in 1882, boasts well-known trade marks such as Nivea and Tesa. Eberhard von Klinggräff looks back on 14 years at this...

Ekkehart Orth

Legal counsel | DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

Financials

For over 20 years Ekkehart Orth has been legal counsel to DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale, Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe’s security division. The bank has 4,000 employees and administers funds amounting to €172bn. Orth is...

Eric Romba

Legal counsel | bsi Bundesverband Sachwerte und Investmentvermögen

Eric Romba is legal counsel at bsi which is an association representing the interests of companies that administer assets and whose business is directly related to the German capital investment...

Erik Staebe

Head of regulatory law | Deutsche Bahn

Erik Staebe is a highly regarded, ‘extremely intelligent lawyer’ who is ‘focused and business-oriented’. Since 2007, Staebe has led the regulatory department at Deutsche Bahn and is also in charge...

Florian Harms

Assistant general counsel Europe | Emerson Corporate

Florian Harms’ move from law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel into Emerson’s European legal department in 2012 was at the same time a move from a very European outlook into a...

Florian Sitta

Legal Counsel | Beate Uhse

Beate Uhse is a listed company in the erotic and adult entertainment sector that operates in 15 European countries in the retail, online retail and online entertainment sectors with a...

Frank Gartmann

Legal counsel | E.ON Risk Consulting

Frank Gartmann is not part of the energy provider’s legal department as such but is in charge of the coverage of E.ON Risk Consulting’s global liability risks. In this role...

Frank Müller

Head of Legal | IVG Institutional Funds

Three years ago, Frank Müller had the task of setting up the legal department of real estate company IVG Institutional Funds from scratch, a challenge he has overcome by focusing...

Frank Senge

Head of legal and compliance Germany | Skandia Lebensversicherung

Skandia Lebensversicherung offers insurance products linked to funds, has over 360,000 customers and administers a total amount of €12.4bn, while the Swedish company operates through its subsidiaries in over 20...

Gabriele Beckmann

General counsel | Weener Plastic Packaging Group

Prior to Gabriele Beckmann joining Weener Plastic Packaging, a legal department had been non-existent and it was her task to build it from scratch and develop it into the well-oiled...

Georg Nolte

Legal counsel – copyright and litigation | Google Germany

Information technology

Georg Nolte works for a company that is regularly in the spotlight and frequently subject to (or indeed active part of) legislative developments which are of significant relevance to the...

Georg von Bronk

Head of legal and risk governance | Hochtief Solutions

At Hochtief Solutions, the European business of the globally operating German construction company founded in 1873, Georg von Bronk has managed to ‘transform the legal department into a modern, service-oriented...

Gerhard Brand

Head of legal and compliance | PERI

Gerhard Brand has been head of legal & compliance at PERI since 2012 and the ‘very good lawyer and great analytical mind’ has within a short time succeeded in setting...

Gerlinde Krieger

Group legal counsel | Scandlines Deutschland

Gerlinde Krieger is group legal counsel at Scandlines, a German-Danish shipping company that carries 20 million passengers and 4 million cars annually. Krieger’s team is based in Germany and Denmark,...

Gordon Weber

General counsel and chief compliance | SCHOTT

Gordon Weber ‘operates extremely successfully and at the same time in a prudent and thoughtful manner’, remark observers. This approach might be one of the reasons why he managed to...

Guido Baumgartner

Head of global brand protection | Coty Germany

Guido Baumgartner is described as ‘uncompromising’ when it comes to defending the model of selective sales and distribution of products, a character trait that benefits him in his role as...

Hans-Michael Stracke

General counsel Europe and Asia | Meritor

Automotive supplier Meritor has 18,000 employees in 103 locations in 24 countries, making for a broad range of tasks for Hans-Michael Stracke. The market is impressed with the ‘remarkable calmness...

Helge Köhlbrandt

General counsel | Nestlé Deutschland

Helge Köhlbrandt is highly regarded for his ‘absolutely outstanding management of the currently largest antitrust proceeding in Germany’, a great achievement and not an easy task given the enormous media...

Holger Hirschberg

Director legal investment banking | UBS Deutschland

At UBS Investmentbank, Holger Hirschberg is in charge of the bank’s corporate finance business, particularly providing legal advice in IPOs, capital increases, mergers and take overs. His role continuously exposes...

Holger Pittroff

Legal counsel | Porsche Automobil Holding

Holger Pittroff is serving as legal counsel to Porsche and sets himself apart thanks to his high degree of ‘flexibility and solution-orientation’, say admirers. These seem crucial character traits in...

Ina Berg-Winters

General counsel | NORMA Group

Ina Berg-Winters had to face one of her biggest challenges upon her arrival at NORMA: setting up a legal department from scratch. ‘Prior to me joining, all legal matters that...

Jan Mahler

Group general counsel | dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur

dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur is the largest German press agency with a presence in 100 countries around the world. Jan Mahler’s department has initially been part of the personnel and HR...

Jan Otto

Senior counsel (Trade marks) | Mondelez Europe

Mondelēz is (after Nestlé and PepsiCo) the world’s third biggest food producer with 110,000 employees all over the world, clients in over 155 countries and a $35bn turnover. A legal...

Jens von Lackum

Senior vice president HR and legal affairs | Aesculap

Aesculap, founded in 1867, is a branch of the B. Braun corporation and manufactures medical devices and medical technology with a focus on surgery. Jens von Lackum’s team comprises attorneys...

Joachim Kaffanke

General counsel | KION Group

Joachim Kaffanke is able to handle ‘extremely complex transactions under immense time pressure’. His employer KION is (after Toyota) the world’s second biggest manufacturer of forklifts and storage technology and...

Joana Johannsen

Director/corporate counsel | Starbucks Coffee

At Starbucks, Joana Johannsen adopts a clear approach: she recognises that there are topics that require outside counsel, but she has clearly identified these matters and has ‘overall drastically reduced...

Joerg Dreyhsig

Vice president patents | Fresenius Medical Care

Joerg Dreyhsig is vice president for patents for medical instruments company Fresenius Medical Care, which has a turnover of $14bn and has 86,000 employees. Dreyhsig focuses on the areas of...

Jörg Englisch

Head of legal | DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund

Jörg Englisch is head of legal at the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), the governing body of football in Germany and a registered association with 6.8m members. Particular career highlights...

Jörg Mucke

Head of legal | Sal. Oppenheim

Jörg Mucke has led Sal. Oppenheim’s legal department since 2010, a particular career highlight and major task at a long established bank, founded in 1789 as private bank (and since...

Jürgen Paepke

Head of legal | DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga

As head of legal of German Soccer League DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) Jürgen Paepke is rated as ‘certainly one of the key figures in German sports law’, but is also...

Jürgen Schneider

Vice president, global IP and IP litigation | QIAGEN

Jürgen Schneider works for a biotech company with over 30 subsidiaries in more than 20 countries and in a market environment that is clearly marked by its competitiveness. Peers are...

Jutta Buchholzer

Group compliance officer and corporate legal counsel | Semperit Holding

Semperit operates in the medicine and industrial sectors, and develops and distributes specialist products made of synthetics and rubber. The group employs over 10,000 staff of which over 7,000 are...

Karl-Heinz Kronawitter

Legal counsel | BayernLB

Bayerische Landesbank has had an eventful recent past. The initial plan developed by the Bavarian State Government had been to privatise the bank, however, this plan was abandoned as the...

Katharina Heller

Legal advisor (HR) | Euler Hermes Deutschland

Euler Hermes is a credit insurance company headquartered in Paris and a global industry leader with over 6,000 employees in more than 50 countries; Euler Hermes Deutschland is Germany’s leading...

Kerstin Degenhardt

Executive director legal | Merz Pharma

Healthcare

Merz Pharma is a pharmaceutical company with subsidiaries in England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, the US, Mexico, Russia and Asia and a turnover of €980m. Degenhardt not only heads...

Klaus Brandenburg

Senior legal counsel | Hexal

Klaus Brandenburg receives praise for his performance as head of legal at Sandoz, a position he occupied until the end of 2013. In this role, he systematically strengthened the position...

Klaus Cannivé

General counsel EMEAA | GfK

Klaus Cannivé’s inclusion is ‘highly deserved’ say peers, based not only on achievements in his current role which he only took up in January 2014, but on his three years...

Konrad Wartenberg

General counsel | Axel Springer

Axel Springer publishes, among others, newspapers Bild and Die Welt and has subsidiaries in France, Spain, Switzerland and Russia. The company is increasingly directing its attention to digital business and...

Manfred Döss

Head of legal | Porsche

Manfred Döss is widely regarded as ‘extremely experienced and determined’, maybe not surprising given his in-house career. Before joining Porsche, Döss gained extensive experience in his role as general counsel...

Marcel Ritter

Vice president legal | Telefónica Germany

Marcel Ritter’s role at Telefónica Germany, a telecoms company with over 25 million customers, has been marked by several significant challenges over the past few years which at the same...

Maria Fransson

Senior legal counsel | Sony Mobile Communications

Maria Fransson’s employer is based in Sweden but the main focus of her work over the past ten years has been the German market, particularly the German courts. A particular...

Marion Welp

Senior vice president – head of group legal and compliance | Esprit Group

Market observers rate Marion Welp as ‘outstanding in-house counsel’, who is ‘highly respected for her excellent business acumen, legal advice and organisation skills’ as well as for her way of...

Markus Kaum

Head of Department/Group Legal | Munich RE

Markus Kaum impresses as head of legal at Munich RE, particularly his ‘strength to innovate and his courage to leave the beaten path for the benefit of his company’. Observers...

Markus Ratz

Head of legal – Continental Europe | UBS Real Estate Kapitalanlagegesellschaft

In his legal department, Markus Ratz focuses not only on its legal function but also on every team member’s role as ‘business enabler’ whenever possible. Working in a legal department...

Martin Fischer

General counsel EMEA | Celanese

Martin Fischer has positioned the legal department of chemical industry company Celanese more closely to commercial and strategic matters. This approach resulted from his observation that ‘the task of in-house...

Martin Heynen

General counsel | Deichmann SE

Shoe retailer Deichmann has over 33,000 employees and a turnover of €4.5bn. The long established company, founded in 1913, has converted its legal status into a SE in 2010, an...

Martin Wagener

General Counsel | Audi

Martin Wagener ‘effortlessly combines business acumen and legal skills’ which enables him to successfully master the complex task that is heading the global legal department of car manufacturer AUDI. He...

Matthias Kettschau

Senior legal counsel, employment law specialist | Fujitsu Technology Solutions

In a company with a €3bn turnover and over 5,000 employees, it is Matthias Kettschau’s particular goal, to ‘get a deep understanding of the company’s operations’ and for the legal...

Michael Bütter

Managing director | Ferrostaal

Michael Bütter is regarded as ‘the star among German corporate counsel’, who has ‘successfully driven forward some of the most complex and high-volume projects in the German legal market’, based...

Michael Fritz

Head of employment law | Deutsche Bahn

Michael Fritz has been working for Deutsche Bahn for 14 years and has built a ‘punchy legal department that can easily hold a candle to any employment law boutique’, say...

Michael Kamper

Senior legal counsel | SGL CARBON

At SGL Carbon, a carbon products manufacturer, the day to day legal business is carried out in-house, even though the company has 40 plants in Europe, North America and Asia...

Michael Prüßner

General counsel | Peek & Cloppenburg

Michael Prüßner is rated as a ‘clearly exceptional lawyer’ who has amassed ‘expert knowledge in a wide range of specialist fields but who never loses sight of the big picture’....

Michael Rummer

Head of legal and insurance | EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg

Michael Rummer heads the legal and insurance department at EnBW, a listed energy provider and after E.ON and RWE Germany’s third biggest with 20,000 employees and a turnover of over...

Michael Zeck

General counsel and data protection officer | HD PLUS

Michael Zeck’s team is in charge of all legal matters pertaining to SES’ German subsidiaries. SES is a global satellite operator with a fleet of 56 satellites. Being part of...

Niklas Boslak

Legal counsel | Zurich Gruppe Deutschland

As Legal Counsel to one of Germany’s largest insurance groups, which operates as a part of the global Zurich Insurance Group, Niklas Boslak has met a variety of challenges. Insurance...

Nils Lavista-Wiesch

Counsel law and regulatory | Callax Telecom

Nils Lavista-Wiesch has instigated significant and wide-reaching changes in his role at Callax Telecom, a telecoms company that presents itself as a cheaper alternative to existing providers. From what he...

Nils Wunderlich

Senior Legal Counsel | Deutsche Pfandbriefbank

Financials

The financial institution Deutsche Pfandbriefbank is a Hypo Real Estate Holding subsidiary, which is supposed to privatise the bank by 2015, according to a ruling by the EU Commission. Therefore,...

Oliver Weiß

Senior legal counsel | Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems, founded in 1989, specialises in data storage solutions and operates as part of Japanese electronics and industrial machinery corporation Hitachi, employing over 6,000 staff globally and operating...

Peter Macheiner

Head of Legal | synlab Holding

When describing Peter Macheiner, observers mostly use two adjectives: ‘determined’ and ‘committed’. He heads the legal department at synlab, a company that provides laboratory services in 25 jurisdictions in Europe...

Petra Scheida

Head of legal and compliance | Catlin Europe

Catlin Europe, a provider of commercial and industrial insurance and reinsurance solutions, only set up its legal department with Petra Scheida joining in 2008, while Catlin Europe operates as one...

Philipp Voet van Vormizeele

General counsel | Outokumpu

Philipp Voet van Vormizeele is general counsel at Outokumpu, which is one of the world’s biggest stainless steel manufacturers. The legal department as such came only into existence in January...

Rainer Kuhn

Head of legal | Villeroy & Boch

Rainer Kuhn is highly regarded in the market for setting up from scratch a ‘very efficient and competent team with a clear structure and segregation of duties’. Ceramic goods manufacturer...

Ralf Hermann

General counsel | MAG IAS

Ralf Hermann is general counsel at MAG IAS, a German mechanical engineering company and MAG Europe subsidiary with a turnover of €600m. When Hermann joined in 2011, the company was...

Ralf Widmer

Senior legal counsel | Wacker Chemie

Wacker Chemie is a globally operating chemical company, founded in 1914, that maintains 22 production sites in Europe, the US and Asia, and distributes its products in over 100 countries....

Reinhard Warmke

Head of Legal | Giesecke & Devrient

Giesecke & Devrient is an international technology company which has grown from banknotes, securities and passport printers to a smart cards and security solutions specialist. The company was founded in...

Richard Schönwerth

Head of legal and works council EU | Allianz

Since 2012, Allianz, the world’s largest insurance company, have handled all employment law matters exclusively in-house, ‘unless a dispute is subject to appeal’ explains Schönwerth. The division of duties between...

Robert Pomes

Legal services/compliance | d&b audiotechnik

d&b audiotechnik is a manufacturer of loudspeakers and amplifiers with subsidiaries in Europe, the US, Japan, China, Singapore and Korea. Robert Pomes, who has dual qualifications as lawyer and MBA,...

Sascha Theißen

Senior vice president legal and general counsel | Holtzbrinck Publishing Group

Holtzbrinck Publishing Group is among Germany’s largest media companies and it has been partly Sascha Theißen’s responsibility to transform ‘the legal department from a purely M&A practice into an IP/IT...

Simon Haug

Legal counsel | Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Under Simon Haug’s guidance the legal department’s responsibilities have been extended to the entire publishing group, including well known titles such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau...

Solms Wittig

Chief legal officer and chief compliance officer | Linde Group

Globally operating technology company Linde counts over 56,000 staff and focuses on its core businesses gas and plant construction. The legal department consists of over 100 employees, among them attorneys...

Sonja Hilge

Senior corporate counsel | Merck Group

One of the particular challenges in Sonja Hilge’s role at Merck is the particular ‘mix of globally operating DAX30 company and Darmstadt-based family business’, a combination that ensures ‘exciting legal...

Stefan Schmidt

Legal counsel | DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund

Stefan Schmidt works in the legal department of German Football Association DFB (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), an unusual employer which operates as an association representing its 6.8 million members. Within the legal...

Stefan Schulz

Legal director Austria and legal manager Germany | MSD SHARP & DOHME (Merck & Co.)

Stefan Schulz ensures that the US pharmaceutical company’s legal department ‘is involved in strategic business processes early-on to actively structure them instead of reacting to them’. Not surprising, past career...

Tarec Alio

Legal counsel | Daimler

Tarec Alio is global litigation legal counsel for car manufacturer Daimler, responsible for US lawsuit defence, including international warranties, product liability and class action lawsuits, as well as the coordination...

Thomas Görgemanns

General counsel | Deutsche Annington Immobilien

Thomas Görgemanns is general counsel at Deutsche Annington Immobilien, with 210,000 properties in 600 locations Germany’s largest housing association, entirely owned by private equity investor Terra Firma Capital Partners. Görgemanns’...

Thomas Gottlöber

Head of legal | Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt

Thomas Gottlöber has initiated significant change in the legal department of his employer, a group of media companies specialising in business and finance coverage. He has ‘streamlined the legal department,...

Thomas Jamrath

Senior legal counsel | Siemens

Even though Thomas Jamrath, senior legal counsel at Siemens, is not based in the Munich head office is he able to masterfully stir and direct things from Berlin. Observers note...

Till von Kutzschenbach

Legal counsel | BayernLB

Till von Kutzschenbach is a corporate and insurance specialist, a significant role within a legal department that now comprehensively handles all D&O and E&O insurance matters after these had been...

Udo Müller

Associate general counsel | McKinsey & Company

Since 2010 Udo Müller has been in charge of the entire EMEA region and heads a team of 21 lawyers in nine locations, while the team size has almost tripled...

Volker Daum

General counsel | B. Braun Group

Volker Daum has been general counsel to B. Braun Group for five years and heads a team of 52 employees, most of which are based abroad, as well as an...

The Legal 500 has been analysing the capabilities of law firms across the world for 28 years. The Legal 500 has shifted the attention to the in-house function, shining a spotlight on the role of corporate counsel, and in particular those individuals who are driving both legal and business issues to the forefront. The latest edition is the GC Powerlist: Germany, which identifies an array of the most influential and innovative in-house counsel working in Germany.

We have canvassed opinion from our 2.5 million in-house readers and partners at law firms in Germany (and wider Europe), to bring you the in-house stars that are driving the profession. The selected corporate counsel are those who are changing or forming opinions within their company or industry; have developed brilliant technical solutions to complex issues; created innovative structures to ensure that the in-house function is driving the business forward; provided a diversity or business working model that other corporate counsel should follow.

If you have feedback on the GC Powerlist: Germany, or wish to nominate other in-house individuals (either in Germany or global), please do get in touch at corporatecounsel@legal500.com.

We hope that this listing will stimulate debate around the role of the in-house lawyer and help corporate counsel with possible improvements and efficiencies in running their departments.

David Burgess

Publishing Director

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP logo

Milbank is delighted to have the opportunity to partner with The Legal 500 on the GC Powerlist Germany. We consider it vitally important that in-house counsel have the chance to share the experiences and challenges that German corporations are facing – and especially when conducting international work. The view at Milbank is that a law firm is only as good as the results it achieves for its clients. Demand for support on international projects is growing and the number of mergers and takeovers has recently risen again worldwide. In competitive markets such as Germany, success depends not only on a keen sense of the right opportunity, but also on the successful structuring of complex strategies.

Best solutions for each mandate are only possible if there is close collaboration between clients and law firms. To succeed at the highest levels, precision, flexibility and speed are essential factors. Fast interaction between client and outside counsel, coupled with strong relationships, provides the confidence, creativity and imagination through which the largest deals can come to fruition.

Milbank’s integrated practice is underpinned by a strong tradition of innovation and client service, which means that we always think with objectives of our clients as the primary driver. We constantly monitor our business offering and adapt to the needs of the market. We are proud that our clients are among the most sophisticated consumers of legal advice and services, and our approach to these clients and their matters is to assemble lean, highly focused teams of lawyers, with an emphasis on very hands-on partners. Our lawyers combine the necessary corporate, M&A, finance and tax expertise with other relevant areas of specialisation, to obtain the best results. While we have the ability to quickly compose large and diverse teams of lawyers for due diligence and similar tasks, we recognise that many clients prefer smaller, specialised teams that are deeply involved and knowledgeable about all aspects of the transaction.

Each team is built on the client’s needs. We efficiently implement tried and tested, and in many cases innovative solutions, with a combination of professional know-how, profound client and market knowledge, and dedication.

About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a leading international law firm. Our 600 lawyers worldwide provide integrated services combined with technical excellence and genuine sector expertise throughout the world, as we have been doing for more than 140 years. Milbank is headquartered in New York and has offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington DC.

The first German office opened 2001 in Frankfurt, followed by Munich in 2004. As part of our global network, these offices give us a strong local presence, and our experienced partners there back that up with in-depth knowledge of the German market. More than 45 lawyers in Germany provide high-level legal advice in all areas that are key to the structuring, financing and successful implementation of transactions. Listed groups, SMEs, financial institutes and global investors have placed their trust in our expertise for many years, and continue to do so with great success.

GC Summit Austria 2024

In Vienna’s historic cultural centre within shouting distance of the famed opera house, The Legal 500 gathered 150 of the country’s top in-house lawyers for the second GC Summit Austria. Alongside them was an experienced cohort of private practice experts from our event partners – petsche pollak, Baker McKenzie, CERHA HEMPEL, Taylor Wessing and Wolf Theiss – who were on hand to dispense their wisdom via our six sessions covering a multitude of relevant topic areas.

Expertly kicking the summit off was a speaker who always gives an excellent showing, Stefan Wochinz of Vaillant. In his hugely well-received keynote speech, Wochinz spoke about building a rewarding and successful career as a general counsel, and outlined some key themes to be explored in later sessions.

Our first panel discussion followed. In this expansive discussion, Alina Alavi Kia and Roman Heidinger of CERHA HEMPEL provided the audience with a thorough overview of brand protection requirements in Austria and gave a roadmap for successfully shepherding a brand through new technological developments. Among other issues, best practice benchmarks for trademarks, anti-counterfeiting, and licensing in an increasingly digitalised world were discussed in detail.

Next on stage were Simone Petsche-Demmel and Andreas Pollak of petsche pollak Amanda Neil ofHead Group, Nicole Bäck-Knapp of Ecker & Partner and Alice Fremuth-of Nivalion. Featuring a speaker lineup boasting extremely diverse experience and a topic that opened up multiple avenues of conversation, this panel teased out a number of issues that were at the forefront of those in the audience. As new supply chain due diligence requirements began to take hold in Austria across Europe, strategies for ensuring business-as-usual were outlined.

The next session was a particularly enlightening one organised in partnership with Taylor Wessing. Their partners, Andreas Schütz and Axel von dem Bussche were joined by Alexander Sammer of The National Anti-Doping Agency, Dr. Peter Lohberger of Wiener Wohnen Hausbetreuung and Prof. Dr. Clemens Heitzinger, co-director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (CAIML) at TU Wien. With Schütz and von dem Bussche opening by outlining the legal framework, Sammer and Lohberger then provided the perspectives of government and corporate entities respectively. As one of the foremost experts on large language models and machine learning in the country, Heitzinger’s contributions to the discussion were particularly well-received by the audience. As well as giving a background into how GPT and other models work, he gave practical advice on how to utilise them responsibly and to their best effect in an in-house legal department.

Baker McKenzie then brought their expertise to bear on a topic that is growing in importance worldwide: carve-out transactions. Given that carve-outs tendto be more challenging than an acquisition of stand-alone businesses, the panel discussed the key structuring considerations as well as practical and legal issues that must be overcome. Those on stage (Philipp Stanek and Sophie Schubert of Baker McKenzie, Dr Franz Fazekas, of ams OSRAM of Hoerbiger Group of Companies and Klemens Keferboeck of Magna International) also focused on the planning, due diligence, and documentation of carve-out transactions and touched upon selected issues regarding effective integration.

Andrea Gritsch and Florian Kusznier of Wolf Theiss were joined on stage by Victoria Corley of Enery and Dr. Alexander Schall of Unicredit Bank for our final panel session, which took a broad look at M&A issues, focusing on the key challenges which clients and their advisers faced executing deals in the current climate. Both Corley and Dr. Schall provided insights into transactions they have been a part of in their prior careers, giving the audience an exclusive insight into how deals are handled by the in-house side at the strategic level.

Our final session was a wide-ranging presentation on white-collar crime by two of the best in the business: Simone Petsche-Demmel and Andreas Pollak. Based on their extensive experience, they rounded out the summit by outlining some of the cases they have been a part of, and brought attention to some potential pitfalls that in-house counsel should be mindful of.