Event information
The Legal 500 is proud to officially announce the 2025 edition of the GC Summit: Germany, taking place on March 20th in the lovely city of Frankfurt.
This event brings together top in-house counsel from Germany’s most influential companies, alongside leading legal practitioners, for a day of insightful panel discussions, expert presentations, and invaluable networking opportunities.
The Legal 500 GC Summit: Germany will offer practical, forward-looking insights into the evolving role of in-house counsel, as well as the key challenges and opportunities facing legal departments in 2025 and beyond.
In collaboration with our key partners, the event will feature a series of dynamic sessions on cutting-edge topics, including AI, labour law, M&A, dispute resolution and much more.
Drawing from the wealth of experience of our speakers, this event will provide actionable, real-world advice for in-house counsel. Whether you are looking to enhance your professional growth or stay ahead of the curve, the GC Summit: Germany is an essential event for any in-house lawyer in the country.
Agenda
12.00pm Registration
12.30pm-12.45pm Opening remarks
- Isabel Caine, event content editor, Legal 500
- Vanessa Westphal, head of group legal, Merck
12.45pm-1.35pm Labour Law in times of economic crisis
During times of economic crisis, labour law plays a crucial role in balancing the interests of employees and employers while addressing the challenges posed by the economic environment. Key aspects to consider are always aligning of employer and employee representatives throughout the process and especially in tough negotiations. While employers usually have to adhere to a tight timeline in addition to meeting all formal criteria, the expectations of employees must be managed. The panel discusses all aspects of restructuring needs, creative instruments as well as negotiations within a conciliation board.
- Dr. Kathrin Bürger, partner, Seitz
- Dr. Stephan Pötters, partner, Seitz
- Prof. Dr. Marlene Schmidt, partner, Apitzsch Schmidt Klebe Rechtsanwälte
- Ralph Wangemann, managing director human resources and labour director, Opel Automobile
- Dr. Tom Gellrich, partner & managing director, AlixPartners
- Olaf Möllenkamp, chairman, Conciliation boards
1.35pm-2.25pm ESG and AI as Dealbreaker or Dealmaker in Joint Ventures
- Dr. Alexander Duisberg, partner, Ashurst
- Maler James, head of centre of competence for strategic business units and finance at compliance, Volkswagen
- Philip Nicolai, general counsel commercial & technology, Schaeffler Group
- Mark Adolphs, VP and head of legal global M&A, Fresenius Medical Care
- Thilo M. Tern, managing partner, Silvester Group
2.25pm-2.40pm Coffee Break
2.40pm-3.10pm TBC
3.10pm-3.40pm M&A panel presented by Taylor Wessing
- Christian Traichel, partner, Taylor Wessing
- Carsten Burger, managing director, DC Advisory
- Marco Hartmann-Rüppel, partner, Taylor Wessing
- Martin Joos, head of global M&A, Trumpf
- Viktor Strauch, partner, Borromin
3.40pm-4.30pm TBC
4.30pm-4.35pm Closing remarks
4.35pm-6.00pm Drinks and canapes
Speakers
Dr. Kathrin Bürger, partner, Seitz
The main focus of Kathrin Bürger’s work is, on the one hand, assisting companies with changes in collective bargaining agreements (withdrawal/change of employer association) and collective bargaining negotiations as well as strike preparations. On the other hand, Dr. Bürger develops and designs flexible working time and remuneration models and thus supports companies in negotiations of company agreements as well as in the context of conciliation boards. She also advises on labor law issues in connection with restructuring.
Kathrin Bürger studied law and European law at the University of Würzburg and received her doctorate from the University of Jena with a dissertation on the possible applications of mediation in employment law. She obtained her master’s degree by studying in New York. Before joining Seitz, she was a partner at a major international law firm.
Dr. Stephan Pötters, partner, Seitz
Stephan Pötters advises companies in all industries on individual and collective employment law. One focus of his work is on large restructuring and transformation projects, in which he also negotiates collective agreements together with our clients. As co-head of our seitz.digital team, he also advises on data protection law and supports our clients in all legal issues concerning the digitalization of the working environment. Another focus of his work is compliance matters, including internal investigations.
Prof. Dr. Marlene Schmidt, partner, Apitzsch Schmidt Klebe Rechtsanwälte
Ralph Wangemann, managing director human resources and labour director, Opel Automobile
Ralph Wangemann has been the Managing Director of Human Resources and Labor Director at Opel Automobile GmbH since January 2019.
Wangemann studied law at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg and started his career at Opel in 1998 as a personnel officer.
As part of Opel’s acquisition by PSA and the merger with FCA into Stellantis, he played a key role in shaping the transformation.
Dr. Tom Gellrich, partner & managing director, AlixPartners
Dr. Tom Gellrich is a transformation and restructuring leader with deep expertise in guiding clients through complex, large-scale transformations and performance improvement programs. Dr. Gellrich brings extensive experience in large-scale transformations, headquarter and overhead performance, with a particular emphasis on workforce optimization and complex negotiations across various industries, both nationally and internationally. He has also worked on various large national and international transactions. Before joining AlixPartners, Dr. Gellrich worked as a Senior Partner at Roland Berger, where he supported clients in the DACH region, Europe and the UAE. Before that, he was a Partner at goetzpartners and a Senior Vice President at Commerzbank.
Olaf Möllenkamp, chairman, Conciliation boards
Olaf Möllenkamp is a judge at the Labor Court and has been part of the Schleswig-Holstein judiciary since 2001, initially at the Lübeck Regional Court in criminal matters and, since 2004, at the Lübeck Labor Court. In addition to conducting training sessions on labor and works constitution law for executives and works councils, he regularly serves as a speaker at continuing education events for specialized labor law attorneys and teaches procedural law, labor disputes, and collective bargaining law in the corresponding course. He is a certified data protection officer and mediator, an arbitrator in collective bargaining disputes, and the chair of numerous workplace conciliation committees, particularly in the field of IT co-determination.
Christian Traichel, partner, Taylor Wessing
Christian heads up the German Corporate/M&A group and focuses his practice on corporate transactions and corporate law. He supports clients as an experienced negotiator in complex national and cross-border M&A transactions, joint ventures and restructurings. His many years of experience are characterized by factual and goal-oriented negotiation and project management. He advises leading companies from Germany and abroad and has extensive experience in assisting clients from North America, Japan and France with transactions in Germany.
Carsten Burger, managing director, DC Advisory
Carsten is part of the DC Advisory Germany team and brings more than 15 years’ corporate finance and M&A experience to the firm, primarily in the Industrial Technology and Business Services sectors.
Carsten joined DC in 2006 and has advised on numerous sell-side and buy-side transactions, across a client roster including the likes of Bosch, Diehl, EON, Mitsubishi Electric, and Viessmann.
Carsten says: “I have been at DC for such a long time because I highly value our unique international platform and strong presence in Asia, as well as our entrepreneurial, professional, and collegiate working environment. Combined with our deep sector and technology expertise, this makes us unique in the mid-market and enables us to meet our clients’ challenges as they navigate the ever-changing business landscape.”
Marco Hartmann-Rüppel, partner, Taylor Wessing
Marco Hartmann-Rüppel is head of the Competition, EU & Trade Practice Group at Taylor Wessing and a member of our European competition law team that operates from our Brussels office. He has more than 25 years of experience as a trusted advisor and problem solver in all areas of German and European antitrust law and is recognised in Who’s Who Legal as one of the Thought Leaders Germany.
Martin Joos, head of global M&A, Trumpf
Viktor Strauch, partner, Borromin
Viktor Strauch joined Borromin from KPMG where he worked in Frankfurt and Dusseldorf for the Debt Advisory and Valuation department. He focused on valuations within transactions and for tax and accounting purposes.
Viktor holds a degree in Business Administration (Banking) from BHBW Mannheim and a Master in Finance from IE Business School, Madrid. In addition, Viktor has successfully passed the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), CVA (Certified Valuation Analyst) and CPEA (Certified Private Equity Analyst) exams.
Dr. Alexander Duisberg, partner, Ashurst
Maler James, head of centre of competence for strategic business units and finance at compliance, Volkswagen
Philip Nicolai, general counsel commercial & technology, Schaeffler Group
Mark Adolphs, VP and head of legal global M&A, Fresenius Medical Care
Thilo M. Tern, managing partner, Silvester Group
Vanessa Westphal, head of group legal, Merck
Dr. Vanessa Westphal, LL.M. has led the Group Legal Team at Merck since July 2022 and, together with her team, provides strategic counselling to executive management and supervisory boards, as well as delivering business-focused and pragmatic solutions to all central company functions. Prior to this, Vanessa held several global and local positions within Merck; including in Healthcare Legal providing advice across the whole life cycle of medicinal products, and managing the global Compliance and Data Privacy Management System as Head of Compliance and Data Privacy Center of Expertise. Vanessa started her career as associate in the Healthcare & Life Sciences Practice Group at Clifford Chance in Düsseldorf, comprehensively advising international pharma and MedTech companies.
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