FGvW appoints eight new partners

We are pleased to announce that we have been able to admit eight experienced lawyers from our own ranks to our partnership. It is the largest partner promotion in the history of the firm. Appointed have been with effect from January 1, 2022: Jan Barth (M&A/Corporate), Tina Bieniek (Corporate/Succession and Foundations), Till Böttcher (Real Estate/Construction Law), Lukas Kalkbrenner (IP/Data Protection), Meike Kapp-Schwoerer (Healthcare/Commercial Contracts), Eva Kessler (IP/Trademark Law), Claudia Maaßen (Insurance Law/D&O) and Mike Weitzel (Insurance Law/Product Liability).

“We are very pleased to reflect the successful overall development of our firm with the appointment of no less than eight new partners from our own ranks. With their broad expertise, our new partners exemplify the steady expansion of our advisory spectrum, and they have done outstanding work in recent years,” commented Dr Barbara Mayer, Co-Managing Partner (Freiburg).

Carsten Laschet, Co-Managing Partner (Cologne), adds: “The partner appointments show that young people have a realistic partner perspective at FGvW. Half of our new partners are women. We are thus doubling the number of women in the partnership and proving that FGvW does know how to create a successful work-life balance. Two of our new female partners will continue to work part-time; one new partner has worked part-time for many years and is really taking off now that the children are out of the house."

Jan Barth (Freiburg), an FGvW lawyer since 2016, specializes in advising on M&A transactions. His legal practice also focuses on corporate law, in particular shareholder disputes, and group law issues.

Tina Bieniek (Freiburg), also a lawyer since 2016 and previously a trainee lawyer and research assistant at FGvW, specializes – in addition to her work in traditional corporate law – in advising on corporate succession as well as foundation, association and non-profit law.

Till Böttcher (Freiburg), who joined the firm in 2014, specializes in construction law, architectural/engineering law, commercial tenancy law and public procurement law. He is also regularly involved in real estate transactions.

Lukas Kalkbrenner (Freiburg), who joined FGvW as a lawyer in 2016, provides comprehensive advice on IP and data protection, specializing in particular in data protection issues in the areas of online marketing, corporate compliance and healthcare. In addition, he is constantly entrusted with transactions that require expertise in data protection law.

Meike Kapp-Schwoerer (Freiburg) has been working as a lawyer at FGvW since 2014 and previously worked for the firm as a research assistant and trainee lawyer. In addition to general commercial and corporate law, she focuses in particular on medical device law, advising on the entire product life cycle.

Eva Kessler (Freiburg) joined FGvW in 2002 and specializes in trade mark and design law. Her main areas of expertise include the development of trademark strategies for new projects and products, advising on the acquisition of trademark and design portfolios as well as worldwide trademark and design applications and the global monitoring and defence of trademark rights.

Claudia Maaßen (Cologne) has been an attorney at FGvW since 2016. Previously, she worked for several years as a lawyer in commercial law and as an in-house lawyer in the group legal department of the insurer Generali. She has extensive expertise in the areas of manager liability/D&O, insurance law, product liability and inheritance law.

Mike Weitzel (Cologne) joined the firm in 2009 as a lawyer. He has extensive experience in particular in the areas of product liability and product safety, manager liability/D&O, public liability/insurance, property and technical insurance as well as in litigation and arbitration. 

Carsten Laschet