Further growth in Hamburg – restructuring expert Simone Schönen moves to Noerr

Simone Schönen is to join Noerr as an associated partner on 1 August 2019, boosting the Restructuring & Insolvency practice group at the firm’s Hamburg office. The restructuring and insolvency expert is coming from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

With the addition of Simone Schönen, Noerr is continuing its expansion in Hamburg. In August, 32 lawyers will be based in the office, which opened two years ago. These include seven equity partners and two associated partners. “More lawyers are about to join us,“ announces Volker Land, the office’s co-head. Notable cases handled by the Hamburg office include advising US investor J. C. Flowers on the acquisition and successful privatisation of HSH Nordbank.

“With Simone Schönen we have managed to gain a highly respected expert in financial restructuring for Noerr,” stresses Volker Land. “This means that we are able to enhance our services offered in Hamburg, which already cover practically the whole range of high-end legal advice for businesses.”

Simone Schönen advises companies, lenders and investors on financial restructuring and refinancing, whether during or outside insolvency proceedings, and has special expertise in the restructuring of bonds. At Noerr she will mainly work together with Volker Land as well as with restructuring experts Christian Pleister and Thomas Hoffmann (Frankfurt/Berlin). “Our restructuring team will profit considerably from Simone’s experience in the field of restructuring in the maritime sector and providing advice to distressed companies on their reorganisation,” underlines Thomas Hoffmann, co-head of Noerr’s Restructuring & Insolvency practice.

“The outstanding market position enjoyed by the Restructuring & Insolvency practice group and the positive, go-ahead atmosphere in Noerr’s new Hamburg office prompted me to make this move,” say Simone Schönen. “It’s an ideal environment in which to tackle new projects with my new colleagues.” The Restructuring & Insolvency group led by Thomas Hoffmann and Martin Kleinschmitt specialises in complex judicial and extra-judicial reorganisation and recovery solutions. The team advises (groups of) creditors and investors as well as debtor companies and their governing bodies in corporate reorganisations. For example, Noerr assisted the main creditors of Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH in the sailing yacht builder’s successful financial recovery out of an insolvency situation. The experts are currently advising the Unser Heimatbäcker (“Lila Bäcker”) bakery group in connection with its envisaged reorganisation in a debtor-in-possession situation.