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Following the global financial crisis, companies in all industries worldwide have been subject to increasingly strict regulatory requirements. Even a single violation of legal regulations or official requirements may lead to significant consequences that can even threaten the company’s existence. Not infrequently, this results in lengthy preliminary proceedings, criminal sanctions, exclusion from public procurement procedures or government benefits, as well as hardly reparable damage to reputation.

With the help of a compliance management system, hazards can be identified and avoided at an early stage, risks and misconduct can be reacted to appropriately and measures to reduce damage can be taken. However, the implementation of a compliance management system not only serves to avoid or minimize sanctions, but also provides your company – nationally and internationally – with considerable competitive advantages.

We will advise you in the conceptual set-up and implementation of your compliance program. Our compliance expertise is driven by entrepreneurial thinking and is focused on developing the optimal compliance strategy for your company.

Our constantly changing economic system and the digitization of trade require legally compliant and prompt decisions under the consideration of trade law.

We can support you, especially in the following areas:

• Supply contracts
• Framework agreements
• Confidentiality agreements
• Agency agreements
• Logistics contracts
• Advice in connection with defective deliveries

Due to many years of consulting and representation of insurance companies of different industries, our lawyers are proven specialists in insurance law.

This does not only include the familiar handling of the special provisions in the Insurance Contracts Act. Insurance products as a purely contractual construct are substantially designed by the general terms and conditions of the insurance company. Their interpretation also depends on the specifics of the respective insurance industry. Our lawyers continuously come into contact with the relevant case law through their daily practice and continuous training. In this way, we ensure appropriate consideration of the individual needs of our clients in almost all areas of insurance law.

Our activities include in particular the following areas:

• Liability insurance (personal and public liability, asset and professional liability, product and environmental liability, motor liability)
• Law of private personal insurance (law of life, health, accident and disability insurance)
• Property insurance law (building, household, burglary and technical insurance, recourse of the property insurer)
• D&O (Directors & Officers Insurance),
• Fidelity insurance
• Insurance Contract Law

Your mobility is our concern. The increasing volume of traffic gives rise to accidents. The loss of a driving licence can threat your economic existence. Even if “only” penalty points are involved, it can be very important to avoid entries in the central register of traffic infringements.

We proceed with sensitivity and use the right tactics to help you in the following areas:

• Enforcement of your own compensation claims against the opposing third party liability insurer or your own fully-comprehensive insurer, both extrajudicial and judicial
• Defence against unjustified claims for compensation
• Advice and representation in infringements of traffic regulations and criminal proceedings (including cases of excess alcohol and speeding offences)
• Traffic accidents in Germany and abroad
• Third party liability motor insurance questions
• Loss/recovery of the driving licence
• Avoidance of driving bans
• Criminal proceedings

Tax advice plays an important role in the comprehensive advice we provide to our clients, in particular with regard to company sales and acquisitions, company successions and reorganizations, complex real estate and financial transactions as well as inheritance law. As a result, only the coordination of the clients’ economic requirements with their tax interests can guarantee the optimum result.

In close cooperation with the auditors and tax consultants, we advise our clients in all matters relating to domestic, cross-border and international tax law.

Our advisory services include in particular:

• Tax advice on restructuring, company reorganization and corporate acquisitions
• Tax-optimised succession planning for companies and private individuals
• Inheritance and gift tax law
• Tax support for national and international real estate transactions
• Representation in proceedings in fiscal courts
• Representation in criminal prosecutions of tax offenders

Due to the extensive unwritten case law, for the contracting parties the law of tenancy is difficult to access. Faulty regulations in rental and lease contracts usually have far-reaching economic consequences. For many years we are advising large real estate management companies as well as hotel companies and can assist you in this area with expertise.

Focus of our activities are:

• Preparation and examination of commercial and residential leases and supplements to commercial and residential leases
• Enforcement of or defence against claims in connection with rental and lease agreements
• Due-diligence audits
• Advice in connection with the termination of rental and lease agreements
• Execution of the terminated rental and lease agreement
• Residential property law (WEG-Recht)

We advise nationwide hospital providers, medical care centres (MVZ), providers of medicines and physicians of various disciplines on strategic and conceptual issues. In particular through the interdisciplinary cooperation with the corporate and labour law departments as well as OFM Oebel Fröhlich Michels GmbH, we offer our clients comprehensive advice in all matters relating to the healthcare sector.

In the law on medical malpractice, we represent our clients both in the enforcement and in the defense of claims for damages and claims for pain and suffering because of possible treatment errors. In addition, we develop personally agreed patient decrees and precautionary powers that are tailored to the individual needs of our clients.

The main focus of our range of services in the area of medical law is as follows:

• Hospital law
• Medical malpractice law
• Contract and corporate law of the healthcare professions
• Law governing doctors’ contracts
• New forms of health care
• Medical profession law
• Precautionary powers and Patient Decrees

Insolvency raises many questions not only for the company concerned but also for its business partners. In this case it is of crucial importance to know the rights and to assert them as soon as possible. Our insolvency law activity includes in particular targeted creditors’ advice. In cooperation with ROTONDA Inkasso GmbH we are focused on realizing the open claims of our clients even under difficult conditions.

In addition, we also advise companies that have come into an economic crisis. If insolvency is foreseeable, there is a need for immediate action in order to be able to recognize and to reduce the liability risks of the persons involved. We develop strategies for avoiding liability, especially for managing directors and board members. In addition, we develop concepts for the future commercial development, a possible restructuring and, if possible, the continuation of the company. In doing so, we support our clients through holistic advice in close cooperation with auditors and tax consultants.

In summary, our activities in insolvency law focus on the following areas:

• Creditors advice
• Advising the management on liability issues
• Advising companies in times of crisis
• Development of restructuring concepts