Dentons has hired a seven-lawyer litigation and dispute resolution team in Germany from PwC Legal.
The group, which joined the firm’s Berlin office at the start of May, is led by partners Roman Dörfler and Martin Beckmann alongside a counsel, two senior associates and an associate.
The group’s hire comes just a week after three corporate partners left Dentons in Munich for Reed Smith, amid a highly competitive lateral market in Germany driven by a shortage of experienced lawyers, particularly in specialised areas, and high demand from top-tier domestic as well as international firms.
Rebekka Hye-Knudsen, Dentons’ co-managing partner for Germany, said building a strong litigation and dispute resolution offering was a “central component” of the firm’s growth strategy in Germany.
“The new team complements our existing services and will strengthen our firm in the long term,” she added.
The incoming group adds expertise in corporate and insolvency-related disputes, model declaratory actions and class actions to Dentons’ German disputes bench, which has a notable practice handling complex international arbitration proceedings, particularly for clients in the automotive and healthcare sectors.
Dörfler and Beckmann joined PwC Legal in 2019 from German boutique lindenpartners. Dörfler has more than 20 years’ experience handling complex national and international disputes before state courts and arbitral tribunals. He focuses on corporate and commercial disputes as well as banking and capital markets law and is well known for representing financial institutions.
Meanwhile, Beckmann has been practising law since 2005 and represents clients in complex national and international disputes before state courts, in arbitration proceedings and in out-of-court dispute resolution. His practice focuses on financial, corporate and insolvency disputes.
The group’s hire swells Dentons’ German litigation and dispute resolution practice to more than 20 lawyers and follows partner Sebastian Wülbeck joining the practice in Düsseldorf last September from disputes boutique Dietrich | Graf Zedtwitz.
Matthias Santelmann, co-managing partner for Germany, commented: “Increasing regulation, new instruments of collective legal protection and increasingly complex commercial disputes: these are the realities our clients face. With the addition of Roman Dörfler, Martin Beckmann and their team, we will be able to provide clients with comprehensive support in major cross-border disputes, while strengthening our market position in litigation.”
Clifford Chance boosted its disputes team in Germany last October when it hired a 15-lawyer class actions team in Frankfurt from White & Case, as part of a broader growth push that saw it add disputes partners across Australia, Spain, Italy and the US.
Meanwhile, Willkie Farr hired market-leading cartel litigation lawyers Rüdiger Lahme and Andreas Ruster from Quinn Emanuel to help launch its Hamburg office last July, and Bird & Bird hired international arbitration partner Heiko Heppner in Frankfurt from Dentons last December alongside corporate partner and venture capital specialist Clemens Maschke.
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