advising an Italian logistics company

Advising a family-run Italian logistics company on the sale of a large logistics property in southern Germany to a fund, reviewing the contract and conducting negotiations with the purchaser, assisting with the notarisation and execution of the contract, total transaction volume approx. €25 million.

Advising a large medium-sized industrial company

Advising on the change of use or increase in use of industrial sites (approx. 90,000 m²) which were still partially used and no longer required for operations in the vicinity of a major city in southern Germany. Accompaniment of the development plan procedure, negotiation and drafting of contracts (urban development contract/development contract etc.); drafting of an inter-municipal contract between the planning city and the neighbouring city regarding the provision of compensation areas under nature conservation law (cf. §§ 1a, 135a ff. BauGB)2.

Advising the German subsidiary of a major Swiss corporation

Ongoing advice to the German subsidiary of a major Swiss corporation on the conversion of a former industrial wasteland of approx. 300,000 m² in southern Germany. After accompanying the over-planning of the area and conclusion of an urban development contract/development agreement as well as subsequent development of the area, accompanying the new settlement of third-party companies (drafting of the respective purchase contracts, conducting negotiations, etc.), execution of the urban development contract in constant coordination with the responsible authorities.

Ongoing advice and representation of a large medium-sized mechanical engineering company

Ongoing advice and representation of a large medium-sized mechanical engineering company in connection with international supply agreements, research and development agreements, cooperation agreements, financing agreements (esp. guarantee credit business, Hermes guarantees for export business).

Structuring of a medium-sized group of companies for the purpose of corporate succession

Advising a medium-sized family business on the restructuring of the group of companies for the purpose of initiating succession within the family, setting up new holding companies for domestic and foreign shareholdings, bringing the shareholders’ previous shareholdings under the new holding structure, taking into account the complex tax law issues in close coordination with the ongoing tax advice, coordinating the obtaining of specific expertise by one of Germany’s leading interdisciplinary tax firms. Total transaction volume approx. € 20 million.

Family-internal company succession

Conception and preparation of all contractual documents for the family-internal company succession of a medium-sized family business with a transaction volume of approx. 6 million € (consideration of various participations in non-European countries, consideration of inheritance law, family law and tax law circumstances, structuring of the transaction taking into account the greatest possible preservation of liquidity, parallel development of a suitable testamentary arrangement on the shareholder side).

Implementation of the contractual as well as testamentary regulation of succession

Advising the majority shareholder of a large medium-sized group of companies on the conception and implementation of contractual and testamentary succession arrangements with a total volume of approx. € 40 million (taking into account the patchwork family structure, compensation for a beneficiary of a compulsory portion by transferring real estate and cash assets in exchange for a waiver of the compulsory portion, alignment of the corporate law situation with the planned succession solution, consideration of cross-border issues, etc.).

Advising a Swiss logistics group

Advising a Swiss logistics group in connection with the acquisition of a German logistics company with subsidiaries in Germany and Lithuania by way of a share deal, conducting the legal due diligence, preparing and negotiating the contract documents including the downstream merger of the German targets, coordinating the legal due diligence with regard to the Lithuanian companies by an external law firm on site, coordinating and accompanying the notarisation in Basel.

Advice and representation of heirs

Advice and representation of the heirs of a surprisingly deceased sole proprietor in connection with the accrual of the inheritance, possibilities of limiting liability in the future ongoing business by means of transformation (spin-off of the business from the undivided community of heirs to be absorbed by a simultaneously newly founded unitary GmbH & Co. KG, minimisation of tax effects and sale of a majority of the business while ensuring universal succession, dissolution of the community of heirs).

Advising a large Swiss trading group.

Comprehensive support for market entry in online business in the EU. Accompaniment of the establishment of a German subsidiary, conception of the contractual basis for online trading (purchasing, sales), ongoing advice and representation with regard to copyright law, competition law, trademark law, etc., advice in connection with market entry in other EU states, coordination of external law firms and service providers.

Realisation of a claim to a compulsory portion

Realisation of the claim to the compulsory portion of the disinherited daughter in the event of the risk of the widow (stepmother) with foreign citizenship and substantial real estate abroad moving away by obtaining an attachment order on all domestic assets and registration of an attachment mortgage on the only real estate located in Germany.

Advice and representation of heirs

Advising and representing the heirs of a sole proprietor who died unexpectedly in connection with the accrual of the inheritance, possibilities of limiting liability in the future ongoing business by means of transformation (spin-off of the business from the undivided community of heirs to be incorporated by a simultaneously newly established single-member limited liability company (GmbH & Co. KG, minimisation of tax effects and sale of a majority of the business while ensuring universal succession, dissolution of the community of heirs).

Representation of a medium-sized industrial company in contaminated land law

Representation of a medium-sized industrial company in contaminated site law concerning contamination of former industrial sites in three different federal states with a total remediation expense of approx. 30 million €. Comprehensive out-of-court negotiations on amicable settlement with the competent authorities with the participation of the respective ministries. Conclusion of a settlement agreement with remission or waiver by the federal states of most of the remediation costs already incurred or still to be expected.

Out-of-court advice and representation of a large medium-sized industrial company

Out-of-court advice and representation of a large medium-sized industrial company including subsequent litigation in summary and main proceedings concerning remediation of contaminated land on a property owned by the State of Baden-Württemberg. The client was to be held liable as the universal successor of the alleged tortfeasor. Comprehensive preparation of the company history, including all purchase and transfer/conversion transactions, refutation of the official causation assumptions, presentation of the break in the chain of universal succession in 1921.

Advice, out-of-court representation and litigation

Advice, out-of-court representation and litigation for a wide variety of clients in the field of administrative law, in particular public building law, tax law, development law.