McDermott Will & Emery has appointed restructuring and distressed M&A specialist Matthias Kampshoff as its new Germany managing partner.

Kampshoff succeeds real estate partner Jens Ortmanns, who has led the firm’s German arm since 2019. He will oversee the Chicago-based firm’s offices in Frankfurt, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Munich with a brief to continue growing the team.

With nearly 170 lawyers, McDermott’s German arm is its largest overseas operation. Over the last 12 months headcount has grown by 9%, according to Pirical.

Kampshoff has been a partner in McDermott’s Düsseldorf office for more than a decade, having joined from Taylor Wessing in 2008. In addition to his management responsibilities, he will continue his practice as client partner. In his new role he will work alongside deputy Germany managing partner, Frankfurt-based tax partner Kian Tauser. 

Ortmanns, meanwhile, will continue as global head of real estate – a position he took up in 2023 – and retain his seat on McDermott’s global executive committee and management team. One of Ortmanns’ last responsibilities before standing down as country head was to lead the firm’s partners’ retreat in May. 

McDermott’s chairman, Ira Coleman, thanked Ortmanns for “overseeing a period of significant growth and office moves”, adding that the transaction group had “flourished in recent years and has a strong bench of lawyers covering private equity, finance, restructuring and real estate”.

He said Kampshoff would “play an instrumental role in our continued expansion here and across Europe”.

The German transactions group boasts 35 partners and 52 other lawyers focusing on corporate/M&A, private equity and finance. 

Recent senior hires include those of energy partners Maximilian Uibeleisen and Benedikt von Schorlemer, who joined the firm’s Frankfurt office from Ashurst in March. Last November, the firm made up seven partners in Germany, including four in the transactions team.

Meanwhile, in London, the firm has also recently refreshed its leadership, with Aymen Mahmoud replacing Hamid Yunis as managing partner while recent recruit Graham White, a veteran private equity dealmaker, assumed the new role of senior partner.