Find Lawyers in Germany for Private Equity Law
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Private Equity Law - Germany
About this Practice Area
Henrik Armah is a shareholder in the M&A/Corporate group of Greenberg Traurig's German office. He advises international and domestic clients on M&A transactions, joint ventures, corporate transformations and on all general matters of corporate law. He specializes in cross border transactions (buy side and sell side). His clients include industry players as well as private equity, venture capital and strategic investors. Henrik is an expert with particular experience in the technology,...
Uwe Bärenz is a partner at POELLATH in Berlin. He focuses on private investment funds, GP and investors advice. He is predominantly engaged in private equity funds, including cross-border work, mainly Luxembourg, tax and regulatory issues, filings, terms and conditions, private and public placements, investors' needs (pension funds, insurance companies, investment funds, fund of funds, private clients), complex secondary transactions. He is one of the most experienced advisors for the es...
Dr Matthias Bruse is a founding partner of POELLATH (formerly P+P Pöllath + Partners). He has practiced corporate law since 1984 and has decades of expertise in transactions with a focus on private equity investments and family-owned businesses. In addition, he is also highly regarded for his corporate law advice, often with regard to succession issues. Matthias is also active as arbitrator, in particular with respect to post-M&A disputes. He is frequently ranked as one of the preemi...
Otto Haberstock is a partner at POELLATH in Munich. Otto is a proven expert in legal and tax advice for investors, entrepreneurs, corporates, founders and management teams in M&A, private equity, venture capital and capital market transactions. With more than 20 years of experience, he is one of the leading advisors in the market for complex M&A, private equity and venture capital projects and thus continuously ranked among the top experts in his areas of expertise. He graduated from ...
Josef Hofschroer focuses his practice on corporate law, with an emphasis on M&A transactions for national and international clients. He particularly advises on all aspects of capital markets and securities law. Furthermore, his practice includes distressed investments as well as joint ventures. Josef has particularly wide-ranging experience in the fields of energy, technology, telecommunications and real estate. Among his clients are start-ups, medium-sized and large companies as well as ...
Dr Benedikt Hohaus is a partner at POELLATH in Munich. Benedikt works in the areas of private equity, tax law and corporate law. Within these specialist areas, he focuses on advising private equity funds and managers on all legal and tax aspects of management investments, incentives for managers and employees and management buy-out / management buy-in. Domestic and international ranking publications, including JUVE, Chambers, The Legal500 and IFLR, regularly distinguish him as one of the lead...
Dr Michael Inhester is a partner and a member of the management board at POELLATH in Munich. Michael advises national and international companies from various industries on corporate and tax law. He is known for his pragmatic and solution-oriented approach as a transactional lawyer with many years of cross-industry practical experience in areas such as M&A, restructuring, private equity and venture capital. His client base includes corporate and VC/PE companies. Thanks to his more than 20...
Jens Kleinert practises as a lawyer and a certified tax lawyer, advising clients on all issues dealing with national and international tax law, in particular on the development of tax-optimised structures and the implementation thereof. This also comprises the development and application of capital market products, especially by using investment funds. He has broad experience in advising on complex restructurings and cross-border transactions. His focus is particularly on business succession ...
Dipl-Kfm Dr iur Maximilian Koch is the managing director and founder of KOCH Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH in Dusseldorf, Germany. He studied economics at the University of Hagen (Diplom-Kaufmann) and law at the University of Osnabruck (1st legal state exam (honored exam, among the top 5 % of graduates) in addition Dr iur "summa cum laude"). After his legal clerkship in Lower Saxony, he also passed the 2nd state law examination with a high distinction (among the top 10% of graduates). Dr Koch...
Dr. Barbara Koch-Schulte is a partner at POELLATH in Munich. She specialises in tax and legal advice on management participation (MBI/MBO), including ESOPs, phantom shares and other incentive programs. A main focus is the accompaniment of management participation in the taxation process, in tax audits and other disputes with the tax authorities. Apart from her native German, she speaks fluent English and French. Barbara is listed in independent rankings as a leading expert in her practice are...
Experience: Dr. Kränzlin has more than 28 years of experience as attorney, inhouse counsel and line functions in the industry. In the industry he held various functions as Legal Counsel, General Counsel, Head of M&A and HR & O as well as line functions as managing director, member of the executive board and supervisory board which allows him to cover not only the legal needs for his clients but also the strategic and business oriented aspect of the problem. He focuses in his lega...
Tarek Mardini is a partner in the private funds practice group of POELLATH in Berlin. He specializes in comprehensive advice on contract, corporate, regulatory and tax law and market practice in the area of alternative investment funds and asset management. He advises German and international fund managers on fund structuring, as well as institutional investors and family offices on investments in private equity, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure, real estate funds and other alter...
Dr Eva Nase is a partner at POELLATH in Munich. Eva advises publicly listed and private companies on preparing and conducting their shareholder meetings and on reorganizing the corporate group structure by way of spin-offs and hive-downs of business units, national and international mergers and conversions of legal form (e.g., into a European stock corporation, SE), also from a co-determination perspective, as well as on all corporate advisory matters related to management boards, managing di...
Peter Schorling is chair of the firm’s German Corporate Group, focusing his practice on M&A transactions. Peter advises on all aspects of M&A and corporate law, providing in-depth expertise in buy-side and sell-side transactions, private equity, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and capital markets. In particular, this includes various cross-border projects for international clients. Peter has wide-ranging experience advising clients in the real estate and media, technolo...
Dr. Philip Schwarz van Berk, LL.M . is a partner at POELLATH in Berlin. Philip has been advising German and international fund managers on the structuring of alternative investment funds for over 15 years. He and his team have advised numerous German fund managers on venture capital, buyout and real estate private equity funds. His expertise also includes secondary transactions and advising family offices on investments and investment structures for private equity and venture capital. Philip ...
Dr Frank Thiäner is a partner at POELLATH in Munich. Frank advises shareholders, investors and companies on M&A transactions. His focus is on private equity, family-owned enterprises and cross-border transactions. He also advises on venture capital transactions and succession planning. His clients include well-known German and international private equity funds, owners of medium-sized companies and private investors. He is one of the founders of the Munich M&A Forum e.V., served ...
Christian Tönies is a partner at POELLATH in Munich and Berlin. He spezialises in M&A with a focus on private equity and venture capital transactions, including trade sale, IPOs and asset sale. Together with Michael Inhester, he heads the venture capital practice at POELLATH and advises in particular on the entire range of venture capital – from financing and acquisitions to exits. His clients include venture capital funds, corporate venture capitalists, start-ups, as well as i...
Ben specializes in M&A and venture capital transactions as well as corporate compliance. Ben's clients appreciate his excellent commercial awareness and proven negotiation skills. This enables him to successfully close even the most complex transactions. In the JUVE Handbook of German Commercial Law Firms, Ben is commended for his ability to steer complex projects very efficiently as well as in a result-driven manner" and he is listed as one of the 20 leading venture capital lawyers. Busi...
Amos Veith is co-head of POELLATH's private funds practice and member of the management board at POELLATH in Berlin. He has practised tax and corporate law since 2000 and assisted clients in structuring and reviewing several hundred venture capital and private equity funds and similar alternative investments. He provides fiscal and legal advice to domestic and foreign institutional and private investors and initiators in the foregoing fields of closed-end funds. His clients include many well-...
Philipp von Braunschweig is a partner at POELLATH in Munich. For over 25 years, he acts as a trusted advisor to well-known entrepreneurial families, management teams and, in particular, private equity funds on transactional M&A, venture capital with a focus on leveraged buy-outs and private equity, including management equity programs. He is consistently ranked among the leading lawyers for his private equity and M&A practice. Philipp is a member of the German-American Lawyers' Associ...
Gerhard’s practice focuses on corporate and M&A. He has an outstanding track record advising international clients in all aspects of cross-border M&A projects. Furthermore Gerhard also participates regularly in international arbitration proceedings as both an arbitrator and a counsel in 135 actual cases. After training as a bank clerk he studied at the Universities of Hamburg, Geneva/Switzerland, Tübingen and Harvard Law School (LL.M. 1981) (Honorary Phi Delta Phi). Gerhard...
Jörn mainly advises financial investors and listed companies on all kinds of national and cross-border transactions and generally on issues of corporate and capital markets law. He also regularly represents his clients in contentious matters.In this year's The Best Lawyers® in Germany edition the US publishing house in cooperation with business daily Handelsblatt® has recognized Jörn yet again as Lawyer of the Year for Venture Capital Law.Jörn studied law in Passau, Fre...
Julian specializes in fund formation and fund restructuring and advises Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds on all matters related to tax and regulatory law. He is also an expert on legal issues relating to blockchain technology and crypto tokens and regularly gives lectures on this subject. Julian is a member of #TeamCrypto. Prior to his work at YPOG, Julian joined SMP at the same time as the firm was founded [2017]. Before that Julian was an Associate at Flick Gocke Schaumburg and, dur...
Saskia advises management teams on the structuring of private-equity, venture-capital and crypto funds as domestic or foreign structures and their investors on all matters of corporate, tax and regulatory law.Another focus of Saskia’s practice is on general tax law. Saskia studied law at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, and at the National University of Singapore. During her doctoral thesis, Saskia worked as a research assistant in the tax team of a major international law firm. She comple...
Niklas advises fund managers and investors in the field of alternative investments (private equity, venture capital, debt, real estate) on all matters of investment regulatory law. In addition, he provides advice and support to financial-services companies in the context of license proceedings and, on an ongoing basis, in relation to all matters under the German Banking Act (KWG) and the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG). He has been familiar with regulatory matters concerning private equi...
Private Equity Law Definition
"Private Equity Law" is effectively a special field within the practice area of "Mergers & Acquisitions Law." It typically covers all legal aspects of the investment activity of private equity investment funds. Such private equity investment funds include "classical" corporate buy-out funds, real estate funds, and infrastructure funds. Recently, it has, however, become more and more difficult to draw an exact line between these classical private equity investment funds and other types of investment funds such as sovereign wealth funds, venture capital funds, family offices, and to a certain extent, hedge funds. The reason is that these other types of investment funds have broadened their scope of activity and are now often competing with private equity investment funds for the same transactions.
A typical private equity transaction (as a distinguishing factor to the other investment activities of investment funds) would be aimed at acquiring a significant portion of the equity (typically at least a majority) in a matured and healthy business with a combination of equity made available by the private equity investment fund and debt provided by banks (the so-called "leverage"). Advising on such leveraged buy-outs, which are by nature very complex and regularly implemented on an accelerated time table, requires a combination of legal expertise in structuring a transaction, acquisition finance (both in the private and public debt markets), and traditional M&A skills (such as performing a due diligence on the target and preparing and negotiating the transaction documentation). Private equity deals relate to targets in all kinds of industry sectors and could result in both a private and a public M&A transaction. Consequently, private equity lawyers work closely with specialist lawyers in areas such as Tax, Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Regulatory, as well as with industry experts in the target's sector. Further complexity is added if the target is acquired out of a bankruptcy or needs to be carved-out of a larger conglomerate before it can be acquired.
On very large transactions, several private equity funds may form a consortium to pursue a transaction jointly. This requires additional expertise in setting up the rules governing such "club deals" from the joint bidding and during the joint ownership and until an exit. In addition, private equity investors offer (and require) the target's management in almost every deal to make a co-investment to incentivise them. Private equity law, hence, extends to the legal aspects of such management equity participation programs.
Private equity lawyers also help their clients to grow the acquired company through additional transactions (so-called "buy & build") and assist them upon an exit through a trade sale or an IPO.
Besides the typical transactional work, Private Equity Law also extends to the formation of private investment funds and advising them during their life in connection with the ever increasing regulatory requirements they have to comply with.
"Private Equity Law" is effectively a special field within the practice area of "Mergers & Acquisitions Law." It typically covers all legal aspects of the investment activity of private equity investment funds. Such private equity investment funds include "classical" corporate buy-out funds, real estate funds, and infrastructure funds. Recently, it has, however, become more and more difficult to draw an exact line between these classical private equity investment funds and other types of investment funds such as sovereign wealth funds, venture capital funds, family offices, and to a certain extent, hedge funds. The reason is that these other types of investment funds have broadened their scope of activity and are now often competing with private equity investment funds for the same transactions.
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