Germany 2019 – GC Powerlist
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Germany 2019

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Alexander Dähnert

General corporate counsel Germany | Johnson Matthey

Having joined Johnson Matthey in April 2019 after over three years at Spectris, as an M&A counsel, and a previous career in top tier law firms, Dr Alexander Dähnert brings...

Alexander Steinbrecher

Head of corporate, M&A and legal affairs | Bombardier Transportation

Headquartered in Berlin, Bombardier Transportation is one of the world’s largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its head of group corporate, M&A and legal...

Amely Haußer

General counsel | TUI Cruises

Her previous career shaped by her activity as a corporate, M&A and commercial law specialist, Amely Haußer joined TUI Cruises in October 2016, and draws on this prior expertise in...

André Körtgen

Vice president legal and contracts, general counsel and chief compliance officer | Thales Deutschland

General counsel, vice president legal and contracts and chief compliance officer for defence major, Thales, Dr André Körtgen reflects on the growth he has achieved over his professional career and...

Andreas Liepe

Assistant general counsel | BMW

In place at BMW since 2005, originally as an in-house lawyer focused on capital markets, Dr Andreas Liepe’s career with the car manufacturing superpower took an interesting route early on....

Andreas Schillack

Head legal Europe | Sandoz

‘Andreas Schillack, head of legal for Sandoz Europe’, a nominating source writes, ‘covers all aspects of pharma in-house legal counselling, leveraging upon his more than 20 years of experience in...

Antonios Kotsis

Head of legal and compliance Germany | JLL Germany

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specialises in real estate and investment management. It is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of US$16.3bn, operations...

Arnd Haller

Legal director Northern and Central Europe | Google

Dr Arnd Haller joined Google in 2005 as its first legal counsel in Germany for the DACH region. He currently leads a team of 30 lawyers and is part of...

Barbara Radon

Head of legal | Zeotap

After five years in private practice with Noerr in Poland and Germany, Barbara Radon moved in-house with fintech startup Spotcap before joining zeotap in 2018. She possesses academic knowledge through...

Benno Quade

Chief operating officer – go-to-market | Software AG

Dr Benno Quade started his employment with Software AG in 2012, as corporate counsel, before he assumed the role of senior vice president global legal and general counsel heading the...

Christian Rau

Chief compliance officer EMEA | Olympus

Dr Christian Rau has been the chief compliance officer at Olympus since October 2018, having previously served as general counsel EMEA and Latin America at DaVita, where he built, shaped...

Christian Ronge

Head of legal digital | Ströer

Ströer is a leading German provider of out-of-home media and offers advertising customers individualised and fully integrated, end-to-end solutions along the entire marketing and sales value chain. Its head of...

Christian Seidel

General counsel | HORNBACH Baumarkt

For over six years, Christian Seidel has served as the general counsel for German DIY-store chain, HORNBACH Baumarkt, a publicly traded home improvement retailer with a turnover of over €4bn,...

Christian Sommer

Legal director | Vodafone Group

Christian Sommer has been heavily involved in updating the way in which projects are supported within the Vodafone Group in recent months, with this endeavour ranking among his most strategically...

Christian Unsinn

General counsel and managing director (COO) | Lemon Group Services

General counsel for DDB Group since 2010 and managing director (COO) for Lemon Group Services, the shared services centre for the DDB Group, since 2015, Christian Unsinn’s dual role provides ample...

Christof Koester

Senior vice president and general counsel EMEA | Fresenius Medical Care

Christof Koester is the senior vice president and general counsel EMEA at Fresenius Medical Care, a world leading healthcare company with focused expertise on dialysis machinery, treatment and research. With...

Claus Kaufmann

General counsel | Avira

Tech-savvy lawyer, Claus Kaufmann, possesses a strong track record of building and managing global teams in the area of computer and network security. With over 15 years of experience in...

Daniel Schulz

Head of legal department serviceplan - group | Serviceplan

Daniel Schulz has served as the head of the legal department at Serviceplan, a global market leading integrated communications company, for over six years, and possesses great skill and knowledge...

Dennis Grabherr

Vice president and associate general counsel – DACH, France and Northern Europe | Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Based in Stuttgart, Dennis Grabherr currently serves as vice president and associate general counsel at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, covering DACH, France and Northern Europe with support from his international...

Dirk Weber

German general counsel | eBay Marketplaces

Dr Dirk Weber joined eBay Marketplaces in 2001 and has since assumed a range of senior roles within the company. Amongst these roles is that of managing director for eBay...

Eberhard von Klinggraeff

Head of coporate legal affairs and compliance management, general counsel and chief compliance officer | Beiersdorf

Beiersdorf is a German multinational company that manufactures personal-care products and pressure-sensitive adhesives. Its head of corporate legal affairs and compliance management is Eberhard von Klinggraeff who joined the company...

Elise Martello

General counsel | Beckers Group

Elise Martello has served as the general counsel at worldwide supplier of industrial coatings and global market leader of coil coatings, Beckers, since August 2018. She boasts an impressive portfolio,...

Elizabeth Hincapié

Senior legal counsel | Leica Camera

Already an extremely highly regarded in-house counsel, Elizabeth Hincapié is clearly regarded as a rising star of the in-house legal world based on the strength of the nominations she received...

Florian Agthe

Head of legal | Free Now

Starting his professional career as an expert lawyer in banking, corporate and competition law with Buse Heberer Fromm in 2011, Florian Agthe moved in-house with app-based ride-hailing services startup company...

Florian Engel

General counsel and chief compliance officer | Reverse Logistics Group

In place as general counsel and authorised representative of Telefónica Global Services from 2014, during which time he enjoyed an enviable record of success at the telecoms giant, Florian Engel...

Florian Schaefer

General counsel and director of legal and compliance | Leica Camera

Florian Schaefer joined Leica Camera in 2008 acting as general counsel of the company’s headquarters and its subsidiaries across the globe in over 20 jurisdictions. He has a broad array...

Frank Bayer

Head of legal | Lufthansa Technik

Dr Frank Bayer has served as the head of legal, general counsel at Lufthansa Technik, a leading manufacturer and provider of maintenance, repair, overhaul and modification services for civil aircraft,...

Frank Fischer

General counsel | Brenntag

Brenntag is the global market leader in chemical distribution. It operates a global network with more than 580 locations in 76 countries. With its global workforce of more than 16,600...

Frank Forster

General counsel | Aurelius Equity Opportunities

Beginning his career in a major law firm, Dr Frank Forster made the move to in-house legal work with Aurelius (now Aurelius Equity Opportunities) eleven years ago as an M&A...

Frederick Schönig

Head of transaction legal | Aareal Bank

With 17 years of legal experience in the banking industry, Frederick Schönig joined Aareal Bank in 2007 and has been serving as head of transactional legal since 2013. He is...

Gabriel Harnier

General counsel | Bayer

Dr Gabriel Harnier, general counsel at Bayer, has been with the company since 2016 and has significant experience operating in-house legal departments at the highest level in the healthcare industry....

Guenther Sailer

General counsel and executive vice president of legal and compliance | HSE24

Standing for Home Shopping Europe, HSE24 is a teleshopping broadcaster currently offering a 24-hour programme on three channels. Guenther Sailer serves as its general counsel and executive vice president legal...

Hartmut T. Renz

Head of compliance | Citigroup Global Markets Europe

Hartmut T. Renz is the head of compliance at Citigroup Global Markets Europe, Frankfurt, responsible for monitoring the compliance programme for all Citi activities within Germany, including legal entities and...

Holger Kirsten Rosenbauer

Legal operations manager, senior legal counsel | Hochtief Infrastructure

As one of the world’s most international construction service providers, HOCHTIEF has been in business for over 140 years. Dr Holger Kirsten Rosenbauer joined the company in 2009 and is...

Hyun-Soo Kim

General legal counsel Europe, chief compliance officer | Hyundai Motor Europe

Hyun-Soo Kim has a number of highlights to look back on over the course of an over decade-long career with Hyundai Motor Europe. ‘When I joined Hyundai Motor Europe in...

Ingo Köhler-Bartels

General counsel Central Europe | Sodexo

Beginning with Sodexo in 2014, prior to which he had an approximately nine-year spell with the NTT Group, Ingo Köhler-Bartels – as part of the Sodexo global legal department –...

Jan Bredehöft

Associate legal director Western Europe | Huawei Technologies

Jan Bredehöft has been central to Huawei’s operations in Germany for some time, not only for his work on GDPR compliance and the implementation of a set of competition law...

Jan Eckert

General counsel and chief compliance officer | ZF Friedrichshafen

In place at ZF Friedrichshafen since 2012, Dr Jan Eckert has overseen a number of exciting projects with the company. In addition to two public takeovers by ZF – TRW...

Jan Liersch

Chief executive officer | Broermann Holding

Jan Liersch started his legal career at Hengeler Mueller in 2003. In 2007 he made the move in-house by joining Klöckner & Co as legal counsel, where he was later...

Jan Thöle

General counsel | Mutares

Beginning his career in an external law firm, Jan Thöle made his move to in-house legal work in 2009 and has been engaged in M&A transactions in the renewables energy...

Jan-Peter Ewert

General counsel | Valve

Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the Half-Life, Counter-Strike...

Joachim Kämpf

Associate general counsel | ECE Projektmanagement

For decades, Hamburg-based ECE has been developing, building, leasing out and managing large commercial properties in the business areas of shopping centres, office, traffic and industries. As general counsel, Joachim...

Jochen Fuchs

Head of legal affairs and chief compliance officer | Arvato Systems (Bertelsmann)

Wholly-owned by Bertelsmann, Arvato Systems develops and implements innovative solutions for business customers around the world. These include SCM solutions, financial services and IT services, which are continuously developed with...

Jochen Scholten

General counsel | SAP

Starting in 1998 with SAP as a legal counsel, Jochen Scholten headed the company’s commercial legal team as associate general counsel for several years after a number of expert roles....

Johannes Schulte

General counsel | Douglas Holding

Douglas is the leading premium beauty retailer in the European beauty industry with about 2,400 stores and fast-growing online platforms in 26 European countries. Having joined the company in 2014,...

Jörg Kammerer

General legal counsel | Gazprom Germania

Gazprom Germania is a subsidiary of the world’s largest natural gas producer, Moscow-based Gazprom. Since its establishment in 1990, Gazprom Germania has developed into an internationally operating group of 44...

Josh M. McMorrow

Vice president and group general counsel | Atotech Group

Moving to Atotech and the German market in June 2019 following an extremely successful career in the United States and Switzerland with notable roles at Weatherford, PSC and Air Liquide,...

Kai Mielke

Manager legal affairs | Konica Minolta

Kai Mielke takes on an expansive and mission-critical set of responsibilities for Konica Minolta, being head of both the legal shared services unit – which takes care of the legal...

Kai Recke

General counsel | Eyeo

Having been serving as general counsel at eyeo since 2014, Kai Recke’s in-house legal career started at Sedo, a start-up in Cologne where he built up the legal department from...

Karsten Hardraht

General counsel | KfW

After having worked for different international law firms, Dr Karsten Hardraht joined KfW’s legal division in 2006. Before being appointed as general counsel in 2016, he held different executive positions...

Katrin Kerschbaumer

Head of corporate legal affairs | GEA Group

Katrin Kerschbaumer started her legal career in 2005 as a corporate lawyer focusing on M&A transactions in international law firms (Norton Rose and Taylor Wessing) before moving in-house five years...

Klaus Cannivé

Head of legal | HARIBO Group

Klaus Cannivé started his career as an associate in the New York Office of Clearly Gottlieb and worked more than six years for Cleary in New York and Cologne, focussing...

Konstantin Sassen

General counsel | Sybac Solar Group

The growth of solar power’s importance in meeting global energy demands seems destined to increase rapidly in coming years, and Sybac Solar’s general counsel Konstantin Sassen has been a legal...

Ksenia Gräfin von Bassewitz

Head of legal | Acatus

Formerly an attorney with Allen & Overy and a legal counsel for UBS, Ksenia Gräfin von Bassewitz moved to a digital capital markets start-up Acatus in late 2017. She hit...

Maike Weber

Head of legal | Native Instruments

‘When studying law’, Maike Weber recalls, ‘I was not aware in-house positions like the role I have at Native Instruments even existed’. These days are far behind her, and she...

Malte Bannenberg

Head of legal Germany | NIBC Bank Deutschland

Malte Bannenberg started his career as an associate in a small boutique law firm, before becoming part of the in-house team of a securitisation company eventually taking over from the...

Manfred Schick

General counsel | ING Germany

Manfred Schick joined ING Germany in September 2004 as the general counsel and head of the legal department and board office. Before that he worked at an independent and international...

Manuel Sternisa

Vice president and general counsel | MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group

Manuel Sternisa has been a fixture of the MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group legal team since 2001 and took his first leadership role in 2007. The past year has been a momentous...

Markus Buchner

Senior Legal Counsel and Member of the Procurement Leadership Team | Covestro AG

Dr Markus Buchner joined the renowned legal department of Bayer group in 2013 with a clear focus on procurement and basic chemicals, both in the chemical sector. Following the spectacular...

Markus Ratz

Head of legal transactions EMEA & CH | UBS Asset Management

Markus Ratz proved his organisational and leadership skills with his construction of UBS’s multi-national legal transactions EMEA and CH legal team which is based across Germany, Switzerland and – temporarily...

Martin Fröhlich

General counsel and head of M&A | KRÜGER Group

Dr Martin Fröhlich has worked on some of the most exciting M&A developments in the food sector in the past few years in his position of general counsel and head...

Martin Mildner

Group general counsel and global head of M&A | Otto Group

‘The in-house lawyer needs to understand the business and – especially in the tech industry – the technology of the business much deeper than ten years before or even than...

Martin Regnath

General counsel and authorised signatory | DEGES

Having joined DEGES in 2009 as the head of legal department, Martin Regnath was later promoted to general counsel and authorised signatory in 2011. Since then, he has successfully built...

Matthias J. Meckert

Head of legal, Continental Europe | PGIM Real Estate Germany

Matthias J. Meckert is described as ‘an excellent lawyer’ and ‘at the forefront of cooperating with outside counsel and legal tech, gender equality and inclusion’, says a nominator. Serving as...

Matthias Möhle

General counsel | VDM Metals Holding

Matthias Möhle’s highly impressive in-house legal career included leadership roles with Deutsche Bahn, Solar Millennium and OSRAM before joining VDM Metals as group general counsel in 2016. Looking back on...

Michael H. Ghaffar

General counsel | Molecular Health

Molecular Health analyses the molecular and clinical data of individual patients against the world’s medical, biological, and pharmacological knowledge, to drive more precise diagnostic, therapeutic, and drug safety decisions. Taking...

Michael Zeck

General counsel and data protection officer | HD+

HD+ is a wholly owned subsidiary of SES, a leading global satellite operator with a fleet of over 50 satellites. As general counsel and data protection officer at HD+, Michael...

Miyu Lee

Legal director, product legal lead | Klarna

Swedish bank, Klarna provides an array of online financial services to its clients, such as online storefronts, post purchase payments and direct payments. Miyu Lee is an integral part of...

Nikolai Vokuhl

General counsel and director legal | Hugo Boss

Praised as ‘innovative, professional and forward thinking’ as well as having ‘strong analytical skills and good sense of judgement’ by a nominator, Dr Nikolai Vokuhl is an excellent lawyer with...

Oboama Addy

General counsel Europe and head of legal EMEA | FUJIFILM

Located in Duesseldorf, Germany, FUJIFILM Europe is a subsidiary of FUJIFILM Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. Oboama Addy has been with the company for eight years and is now serving as...

Olaf Johannsen

Head of legal Americas | Lufthansa Technik

Starting his professional career with German IT law boutique firm Bartsch und Partner, in Karlsruhe, Dr Olaf Johannsen took his first in-house role with Otto Group before joining Lufthansa Technik...

Olaf Schneider

General counsel and chief compliance officer | Bilfinger

Olaf Schneider is the general counsel, chief compliance officer and corporate secretary of leading European engineering and services group Bilfinger, which is a stock listed company with nearly 40,000 employees...

Oliver Hengeler

Director legal, EMEA | Calypso Technology

Oliver Hengeler, director legal, EMEA at Calypso TechnologyI started his career in 2001 as legal counsel at T-Systems, the enterprise customers division of Deutsche Telekom in Frankfurt. From 2006 to...

Patrick Wolff

General counsel and chief compliance officer | Uniper

Over the past two decades Dr Patrick Wolff undertook roles with Bayernwerk and, more notably, E.ON before moving to Uniper when it split off from E.ON’s fossil fuel entities in...

Peter Bähr

General counsel Europe | Puma

Peter Bähr studied in Bonn, Sydney and Shanghai, and represented private practice firms in Germany and China before joining Puma in 2011. He has been general counsel Europe and EMEA...

Peter Macheiner

Head legal, procurement and analytics and services | SYNLAB Group

A highly capable legal professional, head of legal, procurement and analytics and services Dr Peter Macheiner established the legal department for SYNLAB group from scratch. Talking about one of his...

Prof Dr Andreas Felder

Vice President Legal & Corporate Compliance/General Counsel | Vetter Pharma

Prof Dr Andreas Felder’s in-house role with the legal team of Boehringer Ingelheim saw him move from his initial role as a legal counsel to head of corporate legal biopharma...

Ramon Sieveking

General counsel and chief compliance officer | Pfeifer & Langen

One of Europe’s leading sugar producers, Pfeifer & Langen has always afforded its business units and the individuals within these a high degree of autonomy based on a strong company...

Rolf Giebeler

General counsel | Rheinmetall

Formerly an equity partner at Clifford Chance and head of legal affairs at Metro, Dr Rolf Giebeler joined defence and automotive powerhouse Rheinmetall as general counsel in March 2015. An...

Sebastian Biedenkopf

General counsel | Bosch

Dr Sebastian Biedenkopf joined Bosch in 2013 and has been serving as its general counsel since. Leading a highly capable legal team, he deals with a high volume of day-to-day...

Sören Erdmann

Director legal | Blacklane

Assuming his position in December 2014, Sören Erdmann serves as director legal at Blacklane, a fast growing start-up which is now present in more than 60 countries in Asia, Middle...

Stefan Brügmann

General counsel | Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen

Dr Stefan Brügmann has fused his legal expertise with a number of business positions during his career, which has allowed him to be particularly effective at taking other considerations into...

Stefan Fandel

Head of group legal services | Merck

Merck is a German multinational pharmaceutical, chemical and life sciences company headquartered in Darmstadt, with around 50,000 employees in around 70 countries. Merck was founded in 1668 and is the...

Stephan Zilles

Head of legal and compliance | Lufthansa Group

Deutsche Lufthansa, commonly known as Lufthansa, is the largest German airline which, when combined with its subsidiaries, is also the largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Dr...

Sven Hähnel

Regional general counsel (Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein), country general counsel (Germany) | EY

Having been a member of the general counsel’s office of EY in Germany since 2005, Sven Hähnel began his career with the firm in 1999 as an intern, working his...

Sven Wehser

General counsel and business integrity officer DACH | Unilever Deutschland

After a number of years in private practice with Jenner & Block in Chicago and WilmerHale in Berlin, Sven Wehser joined Siemens where he enjoyed progressively broader roles in Munich,...

Thomas Götz

General counsel and head of the legal department | Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. The company has 117,000 employees and generated revenues of €17.7bn in the 2018...

Thomas Hopp

General counsel | AREAM

With a transaction volume of approximately €1bn and a managed investment volume of over €600m in renewable energy facilities, AREAM has over 10 years of experience in managing renewable energy...

Tijen Sensebat

General counsel Europe Africa | Vallourec

Vallourec is the world leader in premium tubular solutions primarily serving energy markets (oil and gas, powergen). With over 19,000 employees, integrated manufacturing facilities, advanced R&D and a presence in...

Till Friedrich

Head of legal, director | Hamburg Commercial Bank

Hamburg Commercial Bank (formerly HSH Nordbank) is a commercial bank in northern Europe with headquarters in Hamburg as well as Kiel, Germany. It is active in corporate and private banking...

Tim Montag

Head of legal Germany | GoDaddy

Tim Montag began his in-house legal career in 2013 by joining European HEG (Host Europe Group) and later became the head of legal department in 2017. Shortly after, Host Europe...

Timo Matthias Spitzer

Head of legal, corporate and investment banking - Germany, Austria and Switzerland | Banco Santander

Timo Spitzer achieved many significant accolades in 2019, in particular the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Award for Global General Commercial Individual of the Year in New York City and the...

Tobias Reiter

Director legal and authorised officer | Sivantos Group

Since March 2019, Sivantos Group has been part of WS Audiology, a company formed through the combination of Singapore headquartered Sivantos and Denmark based Widex. Tobias Reiter joined Sivantos Group...

Torsten Hildebrand

General counsel | WERTGARANTIE Group

Torsten Hildebrand joined the WERTGARANTIE Group as general counsel in 2017. At WERTGARANTIE he is responsible for all legal, regulatory, governance and compliance matters of the organisation and part of...

Ulrich Freitag

General counsel | IKB Deutsche Industriebank

Having joined the bank in 1997, Ulrich Freitag has gone through a number of exciting periods with IKB Deutsche Industriebank, including founding the company’s legal capital markets team and shepherding...

Ulrich Rust

General counsel | RWE

A part of RWE since 2001 when he joined as corporate counsel, Dr Ulrich Rust has risen steadily through the ranks of the company since then, and brings unparalleled knowledge...

Uta Klawitter

Head of general counsel legal services | Audi

Formerly an associate at Shearman & Sterling, from 1998 to 2001, Uta Klawitter headed the corporate law department at DaimlerChrysler. After taking over as director of corporate and capital market...

Uwe Foertsch

General counsel, head of legal | Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems

Dr Uwe Foertsch assumed his current position as general counsel at Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems in May 2018. Previously, he served as general counsel at Ernst Russ (formerly HCI Capital) from...

Volker Daum

General counsel | B. Braun Group

Dr Volker Daum has proved his value to B. Braun Melsungen time and again in the decade he has been with the company. Now general counsel of B. Braun Group,...

Yasemin Derviscemallioglu

General counsel | WhiteWall Media

WhiteWall Media is one of the first established online photo laboratory focused on gallery quality production, international and multichannel sales of prints, photo print, framings and mountings. Head of the...

The GC Powerlist continues to grow in scope and reach around the world, but the German edition undoubtedly for the high calibre of its in-house lawyers, the sophistication of its legal business scene and the advanced nature of its economy, which leads to some extremely interesting insights from the lawyers we speak to over the course of the project.

This is now my third year leading the research of the GC Powerlist: Germany 2019, and I have had the pleasure of watching the project grow and it linking up with other events and projects from The Legal 500 focused on German in-house counsel. This is our most diverse and expansive German edition to date, and features the cream of the crop in terms of in-house lawyers in the country and, through them, representation from the major companies of the German business world.

As always, conducting research for the GC Powerlist: Germany has been an absolute pleasure and an extremely enlightening experience, so thank you to everyone that I spoke to during the course of this project. Finally, congratulations to everyone featured within the 2019 edition. You are the best and brightest in the country and thriving in a highly competitive and well-established in-house legal community that is among the most demanding worldwide, and we are delighted to be able to highlight your achievements to a wide audience through this publication.

Beiten Burkhardt

Beiten Burkhardt logo

The German economy is looking back on more than ten years of growth. BEITEN BURKHARDT has also grown continuously over the past few years and has developed very well in the economic environment. Much suggests that 2019 will be another record year for us.

On the other hand, more and more cyclical concerns and political insecurities dominate the public debate. An end to the long upturn is in sight, and many industries, especially those who rely on exports already notice a clear cooling down of the global economy. Brexit, possible trade disputes and political trouble spots are factors which cause insecurities and evoke an increasingly pessimistic view of the economic prospects of the coming years. Many businesses are adjusting their planning and investment projects in line with a more difficult environment. Growth forecasts are being revised, expansions plans are being cut down, and transactions are being postponed or even cancelled. Instead, cost reduction plans and consolidations, in some cases also reorganisation and staff reduction play a more important role in preparing companies for a downturn, and maybe even a real crisis. Of course nobody knows how great this downturn will be, and how long it will last. However, a responsible and professional management must prepare for such scenarios.

In this context, legal departments and external legal advisors play an important role. Many of those adjustment measures involve legal questions, both in planning and implementation. This includes for example adjusting contracts, restructuring or selling business units, reducing staff, responding to crisis of business partners, and finally, handling legal disputes.

Especially in economically challenging times, a close and trusted relationship between companies and their legal advisors is crucial. As a diversified full-service law firm, BEITEN BURKHARDT is also on your side in unexpected situations which demand quick and effective actions and customised solutions. With experts in all areas of business law and profound industry expertise we are always exactly where you need us. Our strength lies in long-term, comprehensive client relationships based on a deep knowledge of our client’s business and mutual trust. It enables us to help you immediately and create genuine added value with our advice – not only with large volume transactions or litigation but also with legal questions which arise in daily business but still need to be solved immediately and competently.

Demands on legal departments are growing continuously. Companies become more complex and more international, legal systems become more complicated, while at the same time financial and human resources are increasingly scarce. Cost pressure defines staffing of legal departments and the budgets for external legal advisors. New legal tech applications appear, affecting established routines. General counsels have the challenging task of responding adequately to all these developments and, at the same time, maintaining the service quality for the company and the management at the highest level.
Three things are important for general counsels in this context: a well organised and efficient legal department, competent and trusted legal advisors, and the opportunity to share ideas with like-minded lawyers, in-house or in other companies. Here, the GC Powerlist offers an excellent platform to share experiences and discuss current questions and problems. No one can understand the challenges of a general counsel better than other general counsels in similar positions. The advice of an experienced colleague is a valuable resource which may save time and money and help to avoid mistakes. This applies to prevailing legal issues as much as to organisation and management questions. That is why it is so important to use the GC Powerlist for creating a network and maintaining contacts.

We are very pleased to be able to accompany this exchange as the GC Powerlist partner in Germany for the third time in a row. The GC Powerlist recognises general counsels who are driving forward and promoting legal developments in their companies or industries, developing brilliant solutions to complex issues, as well as creating innovative structures and establishing them on the market. It is a matter of great importance to us to support this valuable recognition as exclusive partner.

We congratulate the recognised counsels of so many well-known companies and are looking forward to an ongoing exchange within the circle of the GC Powerlist.

Jones Day Hong Kong Roundtable 2024

The Legal 500 was thrilled to join a selection of top Jones Day partners and a hand-picked group of 15 the most prominent GCs in Hong Kong for a freewheeling and no-holds-barred discussion on geopolitical risk management at a time of global transition. Steve Brogan, managing partner of Jones Day from 2002-2022 flew over to lend his considerable expertise to the discussion, as did Partner-in-Charge Hong Kong Joelle Lau. Joining them to give expert briefings on the topics of the day were partners Peter Wang, Dr Qiang Xue, James Fidler, Samuel Ngo and Charles Chau. The conversation moved from sanctions and counter sanctions, to the increasing pre-eminence of the Asian economy, to the philosophy of the rule of law in times of crisis.