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We advise companies, shareholders, investors, managing directors, board members and supervisory board members comprehensively on all questions of national and international corporate law. This applies both to structuring advice (structuring, transformations, liability avoidance) and to disputes (shareholder disputes, court disputes, arbitration proceedings).
We are experienced in corporate transactions (including M&A, private equity, venture capital), tax structuring and succession planning.
Together with our specialists in the fields of capital market law, intellectual property law, tax law and antitrust law, we represent your interests in a goal-oriented, assertive and long-term manner.
Good tax advice is the basis for the success of entrepreneurial activity as well as private wealth creation and protection. We advise corporations and partnerships on all aspects of tax structuring and tax planning – both nationally and internationally, including M&A and company acquisitions.
Individuals rely on our expertise in the areas of tax-centered wealth planning, inheritance and asset succession. We provide preventive advice on tax and commercial criminal law (compliance systems) and defend our clients in ongoing criminal investigations and before the criminal courts.
As tax lawyers, we represent our clients in tax audit proceedings and in court proceedings before the fiscal courts and the Federal Fiscal Court.
As advisors to your advisors, we are also involved (and always under client protection) by tax advisors, auditors and legal colleagues in ongoing issues and proceedings for their clients and provide advice to the outside world acting together or in the background.
Intellectual property is the basis of success in many companies. It is therefore advisable to protect this property from product and brand piracy. Our experienced team advises and represents you in all matters relating to intellectual and industrial property and competition law. Thinking strategically, our specialists put themselves in your company’s shoes and ensure that your business success is not jeopardised by the actions of third parties.
In an increasingly regulated business world, compliance with regulatory requirements is crucial. Our lawyers have in-depth expertise in regulatory law and can provide you with tailored advice. We help companies understand and implement the many requirements and regulations in the area of regulatory law. Our services range from advising on compliance issues and assisting with authorisation procedures to representing your interests in dealings with supervisory authorities. We specialise in navigating companies through the often complex and constantly changing legal framework.
CORPORATE
BGH (German Federal Court of Justice) confirms minority protection in a de facto group
Voting prohibition of the controlling shareholder when initiating directors’ and officers’ liability claims in the controlled company; minority shareholders are not at the mercy of the majority company without protection.
Christoph Schmitz-Schunken
CORPORATE & TAX
New opportunities for capital funding for start-ups and growth-oriented companies
On Friday, 17 November 2023, the Bundestag (German Federal Parliament) passed the “Act on Financing of Future Investments” (Financing the Future Act – ZuFinG). One of the aims of this act is to make it much easier for young and fast-growing companies to raise equity capital and access the capital market. To this end, lawmakers enabled extensive amendments and changes to the company, capital market, and tax law. The legal form of public limited companies (AG and Societas Europaea -SE- with registered office in Germany) is to be strengthened by, among other things, the (re-) authorization of multi-voting shares and the promotion of employee share ownership to be expanded.
Christoph Schmitz-Schunken
CORPORATE
Partnership-register & Co.: What the German act on modernization of partnership law (MoPeG) means for civil partnerships (GBR) from 01.01.24
The Civil Partnership (GbR – short for Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts) is German law’s most popular form of parnership. After all, no share capital is required to set it up. A notarized partnership agreement is also not required, nor is an entry in the company register. However, the MoPeG (“Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Personengesellschaftsrechts” – Act on the Modernisation of Partnership Law) is now comprehensively modernizing GbRs as of 01.01.2024. But what does this mean for the GbR – for new formations and existing civil law partnerships?
Christoph Schmitz-Schunken
CORPORATE
Law to reduce bureaucracy: Draft bureaucracy relief act IV presented – the next paper tiger!
It is undisputed: Bureaucratic hurdles make life enormously more difficult for private individuals, but above all for companies. The fact that the German government is now addressing the issue of bureaucracy reduction – as announced in the coalition agreement – is therefore very welcome in principle: after the summer break, the Cabinet adopted critical points for a fourth Bureaucracy Reduction Act (BEG IV). It thus took a first step towards (further) bureaucracy reduction. However, the federal government has yet to achieve a significant breakthrough.
Christoph Schmitz-Schunken
CORPORATE
BGH tightens duties to provide information in due diligence audits to the detriment of the seller
duties to provide information in due diligence audits that are subject to compensation
Christoph Schmitz-Schunken