Find Lawyers in Cologne, Germany for Litigation

Practice Area Overview

Litigation is a very wide practice area involving every type of dispute or claim which may arise between different companies or between companies and individuals in the course of a contractual relationship or any other commercial or personal interaction. This can include breach of contract cases, torts, claims for damages resulting from anti-trust infringements, partnership/joint venture disputes, regulatory investigations, and shareholder issues. 

Depending on the specific litigious situation, there is a broad range of different remedies and recourses potentially available to the parties of a dispute, including an action for performance or damages, a preliminary injunction or other provisional measures, independent evidential procedures, or an attachment order.

Litigation is subject to frequent changes and developments over a period of time. As global trade and foreign investment intensifies, so do disputes across borders. Disputes can occur in a variety of different venues, including state courts, arbitral tribunals, and administrative bodies and increasingly involve multi-jurisdictional issues.

Disputes expose organizations to a number of risks, adverse publicity, damage to relationships, disruption of business operations, and potentially high direct costs. Therefore, successful litigators need to be able to identify the commercial and legal drivers of a dispute early so that they can minimize uncertainty and risk in order to achieve for their clients the best possible negotiated, arbitrated, or litigated outcome at a reasonable cost. This requires not only specialized knowledge in litigation procedures and tactics, but also a sophisticated understanding of a client’s business as well as an in-depth understanding of the way in which the relevant market operates.

Against this background, the tasks litigators are facing are multifold. They may, for instance, be involved in pre-trial advice, including the analysis of and assistance with complex factual and legal issues, in crisis and conflict management in the sense of developing proper communication strategies, in in- and out-of-court settlement negotiations, in the coordination and structuring of cross-border procedures, in representing clients in hearings before state courts, arbitral tribunals, and regulatory authorities, and in the enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards.
Francis Bellen King & Wood Mallesons

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