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In each issue of our newsletter, people from our firm introduce themselves personally. This time it is the turn of Hermann Hüwels (Public Law).

I grew up in the Ruhr area, more precisely in Oberhausen, within sight of the factory fence of the "Gutehoffnungshütte" (a joint stock company for mining and smelting operations). Straightforward communication and respect for hard work is something you're born with here. If your parents have a craft business, the choice of career is reduced to a yes/no decision, provided you develop the relevant skills. According to the experts, that wasn't the case for me.

So I was advised to look for something else. It became clear to me during my military service that I should go into law and become a lawyer. After a dispute with an officer, at the tender age of 19, I was elected as a team representative and from then on had to stand up for comrades who had gone overboard for a variety of reasons.

I was sent to the then still young University of Regensburg by the central admissions office. That was a different world for me, but also a great stroke of luck. I was able to study civil law with Dieter Medicus, public law with Udo Steiner, later a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court, and criminal law with my doctoral supervisor Günther Jakobs.

After starting out as a defense lawyer in environmental criminal cases in a Cologne law firm, I spent the longest period of my professional life to date at the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce ("DIHK", formerly the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce), where I acted as a “lawyer for business”, representing the interests of companies in the field of environmental and energy policy in Bonn, Berlin and Brussels. In recent years, he has also been responsible for internal tasks in setting up a certifiable compliance management system at the DIHK.

The “Berlin years” also shape my free time to a large extent. Once you get to know the actors personally and learn to appreciate most of them, your interest in federal politics stays alive. I've also become a fan of Berlin's opera houses. And I'm working on my gaps in German history, most recently with the book “1923 - A German Trauma” by Mark Jones. Now that I have a bit more free time than before, I'm visiting countries I've been curious about for a while. This year it was Japan. Further tours are in preparation.

1:1. This is how we work together. You decide upon a competent partner; he/she will then remain your point of contact. > more