Find Lawyers in Germany for Corporate Governance and Compliance Practice

Corporate Governance stands for the legal as well as factual framework of controlling, i. e. managing and supervising legal entities. The term Corporate Governance is neither confined to the inner constitution of an entity nor to entities being organized as corporations. For, Corporate Governance addresses also the influence of outside stakeholders. And corresponding to the diversity of stakeholder groups, the legal form of the entities and the respective governance rules applicable vary extremely as well. Not only corporations, privately held as well as listed ones, but also partnerships, private endowments and public law institutions etc. are each subject to specific corporate governance rules.  Understanding these rules and the underlying incentives that are crucial to the corporate governance of a specific entity as well as the legal structuring of corporate governance is the job of attorneys advising on Corporate Governance Law. In most cases these attorneys are corporate law specialists. Corporate Governance attorneys typically advise on establishing legal entities and on designing top management structures. However, they also render legal advice to corporate bodies of entities on Corporate Governance issues.

Simply put, Compliance means conforming to the applicable rules. Corporate Compliance Practice is the structuring, implementation and the enforcement not only of rules, policies and the like but also of procedures, practices and management structures, i. e. the appropriate organization of control to effectively prevent violations of law. In this organizational respect Corporate Governance and Corporate Compliance are linked to each other. Therefore, attorneys specializing in Corporate Governance Law often also advise on Corporate Compliance projects, even though they frequently liaise with other specialists and work in multidisciplinary teams on suitable policy and risk management systems, internal control systems etc.

German law governing Corporate Governance & Compliance practice is complex and may differ substantially from the standards abroad. Therefore, in particular foreigners dealing with German entities should solicit competent advice in this respect.