General Commercial Law

We give advice in all areas of Commercial Law. This includes:

• Law of contracts
• Enforcement of claims – if necessary also in court
• Professional claims management
• Commercial contracts, the law of commercial distribution, commercial agents
• General terms and conditions
• Co-operations and licensing
• Property and real estate, including leasing
• Information technology
• Information technology
• International art transactions
• Law of MDs, architects/engineers and private clinics

We further regularly represent our clients in intellectual and industrial property rights protection cases (e.g. copy rights, unfair competition, brands and industrial designs)

Corporate Law

We represent our clients in all kinds of classical corporate law including:

• Incorporation of domestic and international corporations, partnerships, associations, non-profit entities or trusts
• Transactional projects of all kinds
• Re-structurizations and re-organizations
• Corporate „house keeping“ in connection with "GmbH", "Aktiengesellschaft" or structured funds (e.g. limited partnership on shares
• Any matters involving directors and executive officers
• General meetings / shareholders meetings / shareholder resolutions
• Directors & Officers liability

Qualified corporate law advice sometimes also has to include the enforcement of the Client’s rights in court. This is inevitable in case of certain strategic re-organizations or take-over situations to improve the negotiation position. Where appropriate, we also include process financiers in matters of substantial litigation. Just recently, a hostile take-over attempt regarding a pre-IPO candidate could be settled in a very favorable way for our clients only after various preliminary court injunctions to re-install a number of senior management and board positions.

M&A and Private Equity

We provide special expertise in the field of Mergers & Acquisitions („M&A“). We rely on broad experience in the area of corporate mergers and acquisitions, buy-outs and buy-ins (e.g. management buy outs/ins). Typical activities include

• Acquisition and sale of corporations and corporate interests
• From Due Diligence to SPA negotiations
• Restructurings under the German Merger Code („Umwandlungsgesetz“, e.g. Mergers, De-Mergers, carve-outs, change in the corporate form)
• due diligence phase (regularly demanding broad judicial experience that can range from issues of „classic“ corporate law to the evaluation
• Negotiations. They require high level tactical experience, soft skills and a clear view for the pragmatic and commercial solution
• Drafting of transaction documents. Here, thorough knowledge of all relevant areas of corporate law is core (e.g. the laws of Joint Stock Corporations („Aktiengesetz“), Limited Liability Companies under German Law „GmbH Gesetz“ or the German Commercial Code „Handelsgesetzbuch“). Further, the adviser must be absolutely familiar with related areas like the German code on mergers, anti-trust law, tax law and securities law (e.g. in connection with applicable duties of reporting and disclosure)
• Transaction management. The adviser in charge must keep a complete overview over all issues throughout the entire transaction. He or she must take the appropriate action at the very right point of time, schedule exact timelines and availabilities for the participation of key persons or entities involved and generally operate with very well organization and planning without losing the ability to improvise
• Signing and closing preparation. After the formal signature of the transaction documents ( „Signing“), the adviser has to monitor the procedure in connection with the closing of the transaction, also called „Closing-Preparation“. This is the stage during which those conditions have to be fulfilled that the parties agreed to be fulfilled before the transaction becomes legally valid in all aspects and the final exchange of ownership and money is due. Here, the adviser must have deep civil law knowledge to draft and later monitor the completion of the - often complex - condition-mechanisms
• Closing and post-closing phase. Once the deal is closed, those pieces of corporate law work have to be done that may not have been granted the quality of closing conditions but which nevertheless have to be completed for a successful transaction
• Eventually, a party may not keep up with its contractual obligations. The M&A lawyer must therefore also be prepared to offer appropriate representation in post M&A dispute resolution. This may include court procedures to enforce claims

Banking and finance

In the field of banking law, we represent our clients both in and out of court. The range of advise is broad and includes

• examination and advise in connection with loan and securitization agreements
• legal relationships to banking institutions, securitization and financing
• defense against unwarranted claims and credit termination
• enforcement of claims
• litigation in connection with the checking account system
• advise in connection with suretyships and other securities
• wrongful investment advice

Our finance practice includes project finance, structured finance and advise in connection with Government authorities. Of course we co-ordinate the filing process for obligatory documentation with the competent authorities (e.g. the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, "Bafin")

Private Clients & High Net Worths

We focus on Private Clients from all sectors of our society in all relevant legal matters (which ranges from Politics, Economy, Industry and Science). Often, matters are related to family or industrial funds and estates. Sure instinct, discretion and an absolute focus on the client's interests are our core values. For example, many clients constantly invest in the international market of fine arts. Accordingly, we can offer first-hand experience in connection with complex art transactions, purchase contracts with a view on sales taxes etc., exhibition contracts and negotiations, auctions and issues in connection with the origin of art.

We draft absolutely customized contracts for all kinds of needs both for private, family or investment purposes. We help with estate and succession planning and accompany our clients personally at all events and meetings whenever the client wishes professional support - Worldwide and with a maximum of flexibility. Often there are the "small issues", that are - for the best reasons - personally and individually very important to our clients. We think that our client is entitled to high quality advise in connection with all matters he considers important. We want to be the trusted personal lawyer for our Private Client over many years.

Employment Law

In the field of employment law, we traditionally advise employers and management personnel (e.g. directors and executives). The following examples may give an overview:

• Drafting and negotiation of employment-, directors- and executive officers agreements
• Termination of employment
• Termination protection and financial compensation
• Professional claims management
• Employee share option plans („ESOP“)
• All issues of labor law in connection with incorporations or other M&A involvement of corporate entities.

Succession solutions for businesses and enterprises

We provide comprehensive advise for enterprises and their entrepreneurs in connection with all matters of business and financial succession. The needs of our clients are as diversified as the related matters.

Accordingly, as in the area of Private Clients, highly sophisticated and customized solutions must be the standard. These solutions must include a full scale analysis that includes all commercial and legal aspects. Only then optimal concepts can be developed. Business succession is also very often related to the development of solutions for the transfer of private wealth. Eventually, we think that this area also requires very good "soft skills", because an entrepreneur transfers "his business" in many cases only once in a lifetime. Accordingly, such matters must be handled with the required empathy and appreciation for often breathtaking achievements of a lifetime.

Non Profit Organisations and Charity

The laws of Foundations ("Stiftung") and other forms of non-profit organizations ("NPOs") is under constant public focus. In a time when the state resigns from more and more social duties and pure market capitalism is celebrated as the new solution, many weaker individuals fall behind. Accordingly, the always increasing charitable initiatives of many entrepreneurs with "broad shoulders" have never been more important.

We advise various non-profit organizations (e.g. registered communities"), non-profit Limited Liability Companies under German Law "gemeinnützige GmbHs", public non-profit bodies that operate hospitals and fulfill other charitable functions). We accompany charitable foundations of well known entrepreneurs Pro Bono and support international organizations with complete solutions for integrated, Pan-European non-profit structures

Inheritance, Wills and Estates, Family Law and International Conflict of Laws

LK Partners offers comprehensive and high level advise in all matters of domestic and international succession matters, wills and estates, family law and related matters of international Conflict of Laws. Prof. Dr. Thomas Rauscher is one of the leading specialists in this field. He is one of the most sought-after scholars in the area of both domestic and international succession and family law. He is Professor for International Conflicts of Law, European Private Law and Civil Law at the University of Leipzig. He is also the director of the Institute for foreign and European civil procedures. Professor Rauscher is the author of numerous legal volumes, articles and other publications. Together with the country's brightest legal minds, Professor Rauscher is a permanent author for the publication "Staudinger", the most sophisticated legal commentary on the German Civil Code.Our expertise includes:

• marriage contracts, high-level divorces, amicable divorce agreements, separation of marriage estates
• alimony
• child custody and parentage
• customized wills and estates
• disinheritance and asset protection against objectionable attempts of access
• Integrated succession solutions for estates and enterprises
• regulation between heirs
• challenge of wills and the enforcement of claims against an estate in court
• challenge of discriminatory donations and other measures to evade legitimate heirs
• matters in connection with foreign inheritance laws and the relevant rules on conflicts of law
• trusts and special situation structures.