Addleshaw Goddard has launched two new offices in Germany, in Frankfurt and Munich, and has hired four new German legal teams, as it continues to invest across Europe, providing more support to clients and building more impact in Europe.

The new offices in Frankfurt and Munich follow in the wake of the announcement this week of the opening of an office in Luxembourg, under the leadership of ex-head of corporate and banking partner from Fieldfisher, Richard Ledain Santiago, and also, on 1 March 2022, of a new Ireland presence, through the merger with Dublin-based law firm Eugene F Collins LLP. Addleshaw Goddard launched in Paris in January 2021 and in Hamburg in June 2019, with both of those jurisdictions tracking well ahead of initial plans, with already around 100 people on the ground. 

This brings the total number of AG offices in Germany to three, continental European offices to five and total number of international offices to 17.

In addition, the firm has added to its Commercial Litigation, Global Investigations, Tax and Intellectual Property offerings with significant hires into Germany.

New German hires 

Dr Markus Perkams joins the Frankfurt office as a litigation partner from US law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.  Dual-qualified in both Germany and England & Wales, Markus advises and represents clients in complex national and international disputes, before both state and arbitration courts. Together with Dr Felix Dörfelt, who joined Addleshaw in November 2020, he will add significant expertise to both AG's German litigation practice and its overall international offering.

The Global Investigations team has been strengthened with the hire of white collar crime and compliance specialists Jörg Bielefeld and Alexander Schmid as partners, and Dr Timo Handel as counsel. The entire team comes from commercial law firm Advant Beiten, and advises and defends both companies and individuals in all areas of commercial and tax criminal law. The team's practice will centre around investigations and audits by law enforcement and supervisory authorities, as well as a new focus on detection and prosecution irregularities. These additions to the team recognise the fact that Global Investigations is one of the fastest growing teams at AG. Jörg Bielefeld and Timo Handel will join the Frankfurt office, with Alexander Schmid joining the Munich office.

Manuela Finger joins AG as a partner together with her team from Gowling, and specialises in Intellectual Property, Information Technology, Digital Media, Data Protection and Commercial. Their practice focuses on contentious and non-contentious matters, providing strategic advice for national and international clients from a wide range of industry sectors. They have particular experience in relation to new product launches, providing advice for companies entering new markets both in Germany and elsewhere. The team will be based in Munich and Frankfurt, working alongside AG partner Yves-Alexander Wolff in Hamburg to add a significant depth to the firm's overall Intellectual Property offering. 

André Suttorp also joins AG in Frankfurt as a partner, along with his team from Advant Beiten, bringing additional expertise in corporate and international tax law. The team advises national and international clients with special focus on M&A, Private Equity and Real Estate transactions. In addition, they have particular experience in the field of tax-optimised restructuring, supporting clients during tax audits and tax litigation.

Finally, Dr Jörg Etzkorn will join the firm as Of Counsel. He was most recently General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at HUK-Coburg and previously worked for other banking and insurance groups. With his many years of in-house consulting experience, Jörg Etzkorn will be key to supporting AG in the areas of compliance, banking law, supervisory law for banks and insurance companies as well as antitrust law from Frankfurt and Munich.

The Munich teams will join existing AG partner Helge Heinrich and his Competition team in Munich, with the Frankfurt hires joining Banking & Finance expert Nadine Bourgeois and commercial and distribution lawyer Janik Goßler, with their respective teams.

Dr Michael Leue, Head of Germany, said: "With our new colleagues, additional areas of expertise and the continued expansion of new locations throughout Germany and Luxembourg, AG is optimally positioned in Europe to serve our clients. We are well ahead of our plan that we had set out initially, with the opening of the Hamburg office in summer 2019, and we look forward to continuing this expansion course. "We are very pleased to be able to offer an even more comprehensive service from Germany and Luxembourg and to have a really strong presence in Europe, building on the opening of our Paris office at the beginning of last year and our Ireland launch earlier this month."

John Joyce, Managing Partner of Addleshaw Goddard, said: "The opening of two new strategic hubs in Germany with an additional four teams, as well as our Ireland presence, and Luxembourg announcement this week, means that we have opened four new European offices in a month. Our European expansion course over the last two years, which started in Hamburg in 2019, has exceeded initial expectations, and we look forward to continuing to deliver our commitment to offering clients comprehensive, EU-wide, support."