About

Responsible for founding the legal capital markets department for IKB Deutsche Industriebank in 2001, Ulrich Freitag’s extensive career with the bank started when he joined in 1997 and he has since become a staple component of the bank’s operations. Freitag specialises in equity capital market (ECM) and debt capital market (DCM) transactions, derivatives and securitisations as well as corporate and regulatory law. As a core part of the bank and due to the financial crisis, Freitag became a member of the bank’s core rescue team in July 2007 which involved the legal structuring, negotiations and documentation of the rescue measures for the bank, including approval from German and EU regulators. Freitag assumed his current position in 2008, taking over the legal and compliance department as head of legal and general counsel, focusing on areas of corporate law, regulatory law, capital markets law and litigation. In addition to his in-house legal role, Freitag was a lecturer for banking law at Dusseldorf University of Applied Science as well as CCO of the bank between 2009 and 2011. Freitag takes pride in the influence he has had on the overall attitude and work ethic of the team, promoting an environment of intense co-operation within accounting, tax and market competence. Also greatly influencing their ability to negotiate and tactfully navigate various jurisdictions, Freitag has led the bank through a number of successful litigations. Most notably, the defence of crisis-related multi-billion German, US and UK litigation, enforcing IKB’s significant legal claims through active law suits, settlement negotiations and mediation in the UK and US; thereby reducing the legal and structural complexity of IKB.