Noerr appoints six new partners starting from 2017

Noerr has promoted six of its lawyers to partnership from 1 January. Dr Fabian Badtke, Dr Sophia Habbe, Michael Hawkins, Alexander Israel, Dr Patrick Mückl and Dr Nikolai Warneke will reinforce the partnership in their role as equity partners. Dr Tom Billing, Helge Heinrich and Alexandru Ene (Bucharest office) will work as senior counsel and national partners (salaried partners) in the future. The firm appointed a further ten lawyers as associated partners and four as counsel.

“We are pleased to welcome six more lawyers into our team of partners. They have convinced us with their excellent work and therefore stand for Noerr’s strategy of qualitative and sustained growth,” says co-speaker and managing partner Dr Alexander Ritvay. “On average we select four colleagues from within the firm to join the partnership each year,” explains co-speaker Dr Tobias Bürgers, and points out: “At Noerr, talented individuals have real career perspectives. This applies equally to all areas, as we are continuing to focus on providing an integrated full-service offering.” 

The new Equity Partners

Dr. Fabian Badtke (39), lawyer in Frankfurt am Main. Fabian, a specialist in German and European antitrust law, primarily advises clients in national and international merger control proceedings and investigations by the antitrust authorities, the defence and enforcement of claims for damages under antitrust law and on compliance issues. He focuses on the financial services, health care and life sciences, and retail sectors. Notable examples include his advice to Fresenius/Helios on the takeover of around 55 clinics and medical treatment centres from Rhön Klinikum AG, to ABN AMRO on the acquisition of Credit Suisse’s German private banking business and to a trading company active across Europe on the enforcement of claims for damages under antitrust law against a range of supplier cartels. Fabian is the founder and moderator of the antitrust law group in the B2B network XING.

Dr. Sophia Habbe (36), lawyer in Frankfurt am Main. Sophia is an expert in corporate litigation (company and partnership law) as well as compliance and internal investigations. Her work at Noerr focuses in particular on corporate disputes and proceedings with a cross-border aspect. She acted for Capricorn Nürburgring GmbH against claims brought in connection with cooperation regarding a festival. Sophia is the author of many publications in the field of civil procedure and company law and also lectures on negotiation skills at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.

Michael Hawkins (35), solicitor in Alicante. Michael is an expert in European trade mark and design law who assists international companies from a wide range of sectors in protecting and defending their intellectual property. He acts for companies such as King, a developer of video games, in all its trade mark and design law matters worldwide, for example. Apart from this, he advises the US-based veterinary medicine group Zoetis on strategic matters and in proceedings before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The World Trademark Review regards him as being among “The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals”.

Alexander Israel (38), lawyer in Brussels. Alexander is a specialist in antitrust law, litigation before the EU courts and regulatory issues and mainly advises companies from the aerospace, automobile, financial services, consumer goods and technology sectors. He represents various vehicle manufacturers in antitrust proceedings before the EU Commission and coordinates their global defence strategies. In addition, he has advised Lufthansa on matters including the acquisition of Brussels Airlines, bmi and Austrian Airlines and during the STAR Alliance investigations. He succeeded in obtaining a reduction of €205 million in the fine imposed on a cartel in the sanitation sector and defended an investment bank on the subject of credit default swaps before the EU Commission and the DoJ. Chambers Global, Chambers Europe 2016 and Juve rate him as one of the leading advisors in Brussels.

Dr. Patrick Mückl (38), lawyer in Düsseldorf. Patrick is an employment law expert who provides national and international companies with broad-based employment advice. His practice focuses on (strategic) spin-off, restructuring and reorganisation plans. In this context he recently advised several well-known food manufacturers on the restructuring of their German facilities, a leading manufacturer of special steel on complex restructuring measures and a manufacturer of specialist software on a cross-border reorganisation. In addition, Patrick provides employment law advice on major corporate transactions, advising Vonovia on the sale of 13,800 residential units to LEG and the billion-euro takeover of the Südewo Group and trivago on its IPO in New York, for example. Patrick is the author of many publications in the field of employment law.

Dr. Nikolai Warneke (39), lawyer in Frankfurt am Main. Nikolai is an expert in finance law who advises credit institutions, alternative lenders such as debt funds and borrowers in national and international financing transactions. His practice focuses on acquisition and company financing as well as credit facility restructuring. He has advised companies such as SAF-Holland during its attempted takeover of Haldex AB. He recently assisted in the restructuring of the A.T.U Group and on the refinancing of the Basler Fashion Group and advised publishing house Passauer Neue Presse on its acquisition of the newspaper Donaukurier.

The new Senior Counsel

Dr. Tom Billing (43), lawyer in Berlin. Tom is a specialist in sales and distribution law, general terms and conditions, e-commerce und commercial litigation who advises German and international companies on structuring and optimising their distribution systems and on dispute resolution issues. He advises companies such as OBI on the full range of franchise law issues and a British construction machinery manufacturer belonging to the Volvo Group on a legal dispute with a German authorised dealer, for example. His main practice areas include advising on general terms and conditions, especially in the field of e-commerce, as well as banking and payment transaction law. This involves matters such as structuring e-commerce platforms and cooperations between credit institutions, payment providers and online retailers on the introduction of new payment methods. Tom also advises banks, including German savings banks (Sparkassen), on proceedings brought by consumer associations regarding general terms and conditions.

Helge Heinrich (40), lawyer in Brussels and Munich. Helge advises companies and public sector bodies on EU State aid law matters. His practice focuses on regional State aid in connection with “greenfield investments” in Central and Eastern Europe, primarily for companies from the automobile industry, State guarantees, issues related to State financing of public hospitals (including for the City of Munich) and infrastructure investments. He also advises on national and international transactions in the field of antitrust law, especially on merger control issues (including for the ALBA Group) and the development and implementation of competition compliance programmes and assists clients in antitrust-related claims for damages (EP: Electronic Partner, HUK-COBURG, Outokumpu, etc.).

The new National Partner

Alexandru Ene (39), lawyer in Bucharest. Alexandru is an expert in litigation and compliance who advises international companies from diverse lines of industry on investing and operating in Romania. He has advised names such Takata on the introduction of a compliance programme, a DAX 30 company on an internal investigation in connection with an M&A transaction and numerous large and mid-sized companies in commercial and tax litigation.

The new Associated Partners

Katrin Andrä (Berlin; Corporate/M&A), Dr. Jennifer Bryant (Düsseldorf; Litigation, Arbitration & ADR), Lucy Holden (Munich; Litigation, Arbitration & ADR), Robert Korndörfer (London; Corporate/M&A), Daniel Latta (Berlin; Litigation, Arbitration & ADR), Ariane Neubauer (Berlin; Private Equity & Venture Capital), Dr. Frank Schuck (Munich; Tax & Private Clients), Dr. Sebastian Schürer (Düsseldorf; Corporate/M&A), Philipp Takjas (Frankfurt/M.; Restructuring & Insolvency) and Thomas Zollner (Munich; Tax & Private Clients)

The new Counsel

Vyacheskav Khayryuzov (Moscow; IT, Outsourcing & Data Privacy), Nicole Krupp (Düsseldorf; Litigation, Arbitration & ADR), Dr. Paul Malek (Düsseldorf; Litigation, Arbitration & ADR) and Dr. Carsten Schucht (Munich; Litigation, Arbitration & ADR)