Sullivan & Cromwell is launching a litigation practice in Germany after hiring a pair of partners from Hengeler Mueller.
Commercial disputes duo Philipp Hanfland and Maximilian Bülau have joined the 1,000-lawyer firm in Frankfurt as co-heads of the new practice, with Hanfland also set to lead S&C's European disputes practice.
Hanfland and Bülau "are at the very top of the German market for advising on the most significant commercial litigation and cross-border, securities and post-M&A disputes," S&C co-chairs Robert Giuffra and Scott Miller said in a joint statement.
They added: “With their arrival, S&C adds senior disputes capability in one of Europe’s most important jurisdictions, reinforcing our commitment to delivering the highest-quality advice on global transactional and disputes matters.”
Hanfland has spent the past 20 years at Hengeler, where he made partner in 2013. He represents companies in complex, cross-border disputes before state courts, international arbitration proceedings and alternative dispute resolution processes, with a practice spanning securities litigation, corporate and insolvency litigation, post-M&A, contractual disputes, and disputes arising from major catastrophic events.
Meanwhile, Bülau’s practice covers a broad spectrum of commercial litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, with a particular focus on securities litigation and on contract and corporate law disputes. He made partner at Hengeler in 2020 and regularly represents national and international clients in post-M&A disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals.
“Philipp and Max are a key step in extending our market-leading litigation practice into Europe,” said Sharon Nelles, managing partner of S&C’s litigation group, which has recently acted for clients including the Argentine Republic, Citibank, Goldman Sachs and Tesla in multibillion-dollar disputes.
“Our clients increasingly face disputes on both sides of the Atlantic, and adding two practice leaders of this calibre to our Frankfurt office means our clients can rely on one transatlantic litigation and arbitration practice for their most demanding matters,” Nelles added.
The duo take S&C's partner count to 12 in its Frankfurt office, which focuses on M&A and private equity, capital markets, finance and restructuring and competition law and is the firm's sole German location.
They mark the third exit from Hengeler this month after private equity partner Daniel Möritz defected to Freshfields, as the UK firm continued to rebuild its Germany bench following the defection of four senior private equity partners to Latham & Watkins late last year.
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