Cerha Hempel

Albert Birkner

Managing Partner / Head of Department of Takeovers & Antitrust, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, Private Clients & Trusts, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Insolvency & Restructuring. Albert specializes in mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, corporate reorganizations and restructurings, joint ventures as well as trusts with a special focus on Austria and (CEE/SEE). He has developed particular expertise in the fields of structuring and implementation of corporate transactions, takeover mechanics and the modelling of co-ownership structures. Albert was/is a lead partner on many prominent matters for several years and holds an extremely vast track record.

Alexander Reich-Rohrwig

Partner, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Commercial. Alexander has been advising national and international clients on highly complex commercial law matters, cross-border transactions and the establishment and structuring of joint ventures for many years. His practice areas include M&A, corporate law, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital but also banking & finance and capital markets. He has been involved in numerous complex cross-border transactions & corporate and financing matters.

Alexandra Stoffl

Senior Associate, specialised in Litigation & Arbitration, Real Estate & Construction. Alexandra has been with CERHA HEMPEL for more than a decade. She is a true construction litigation expert and has recently started being elected arbitrator.

Anna Wolf-Posch

Partner, specialised in Foreign direct investment (FDI), Antitrust & Competition, Compliance & Investigations, Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Compliance. Anna offers her clients a one-stop-shop coordinating merger control notifications and also foreign direct investment control notifications with her network of international partners. Anna Wolf-Posch has a very broad portfolio of high-profile international and domestic cartel and merger control cases and enjoys an excellent reputation amongst clients and peers. In fact, Anna Wolf-Posch has become a leader in her field and is being invited to speak on panels at international competition law conferences together with other competition law leaders.

Armin Schwabl

Partner, specialised in Public Law & European Law, IT & Privacy, Compliance & Investigations, White Collar Crime, Food Law (Foodlawcorner.com), Supply chain compliance. He is a regulatory lawyer with a particular focus on product regulation, telecommunications, trade, waste and environmental law. Armin advises on a broad range of regulatory issues, with a particular focus on food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and tobacco.

Benedikt Spiegelfeld em.

Of Counsel, specialised in Litigation & Arbitration, Distribution Law, em. Benedikt Spiegelfeld has 40 years’ experience of advising international clients. He was regularly acting as chairman, sole arbitrator and co-arbitrator in numerous arbitrations throughout Europe.

Benjamin Twardosz

Partner, specialised in Tax Law, White Collar Crime, Corporate, Public Law & European Law, Private Clients & Trusts. Benjamin specialises in corporate tax law, international tax law, tax litigation, fiscal criminal law, real estate taxation and real estate transfer tax, stamp duty and wage related taxes. He has industry expertise within the real estate sector, the gaming industry, Brazilian clients and private equity funds.

Bernhard Kofler-Senoner

Partner, Head of Competition Practice Group, specialised in Antitrust & Competition, Compliance & Investigations, Distribution Law, Mergers & Acquisitions With almost 20 years of experience in the area of competition law, he heads the firm’s Antitrust and Competition Practice Group comprising lawyers from its office in Vienna and its CEE offices. Bernhard is renowned for his know-how in complex (Phase II) merger control proceedings and high profile cartel proceedings.

Boris Treml

Senior Associate, spesialised in IT & Privacy. His practice areas at CERHA HEMPEL include data protection, information security law and legal tech, with a particular focus on areas that are at the interface between technology and law, such as NIS and regulations governing AI.

Christian Aichinger

Senior Counsel, specialised in Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Insolvency & Restructuring. Christian is a very experienced capital markets and finance attorney with more than 15 years of experience in this field. With his economic and legal background he advises domestic and international clients in connection with any kind of financing and capital market transactions.

Christoph Reiter

Partner, specialised in Insolvency & Restructuring, IT & TMT, Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions. Christoph is an IT/TMT and restructuring/M&A partner with CERHA HEMPEL with over 12 years of practical experience. Christoph is a very versatile lawyer, advising on all fields of civil and contract law with a strong focus on IT & tech contracts, venture and tech transactions and restructurings. Another focus of his practice is e-commerce, where he supports clients on all relating legal aspects under Austrian and EU law. Christoph has been advising renowned national and international clients with regard to IT and e-commerce projects of all kinds and sizes. Among others, he recently advised one of the major Austrian energy companies, Wien Energie GmbH, in the development and rollout of their entire IoT portfolio. Also, he is supporting a major Austrian food retailer group Austrian SPAR group, with regard to all of their IT projects on an ongoing basis. Another main focus of Christoph’s practical work is cybersecurity. In this respect, Christoph is advising clients on the legal aspects of, in particular, the NIS 2 Directive and relating national legislation.

Christoph Schimmer, MSc

Counsel, specialised in Tax Law, Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions. Christoph is a specialist in both fields of practice, tax law (specialisations: corporate tax law and international tax law) and corporate law (specialisations: corporate law and company law). At the interface of the corporate and tax practice, he provides multidisciplinary tax and corporate advice in complex cross-border M&A transactions, reorganizations and tax structuring.

Christopher Peitsch

Partner / Co-Head of the Employment Department, specialised in Employment Law, Litigation. Christopher joined CERHA HEMPEL more than a decade ago as junior associate and became partner in 2023. He specializes in employment law and assists clients in all aspects of employment law. Christopher has established a large international network over the last ten years, is member of the Employment Law Alliance (the largest employment network in the world with just one representing firm per country).

Clemens Hasenauer

Managing Partner / Head of Department Corporate Transactions, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Corporate, Compliance & Investigations, Private Equity & Venture Capital. Clemens is particularly renowned for structuring large international joint ventures and public takeovers. Clemens regularly advises on Austrias most prominent M&A deals.

Georg Konrad

Partner, specialised in Corporate, Insolvency & Restructuring, M&A, Compliance & Investigations, Public Procurement, IT & Privacy, Private Equity & Venture Capital.

Hans Kristoferitsch

Partner / Head of Department Regulatory and White Collar, specialised in Public Law & European Law, Antitrust & Competition, Compliance & Investigations, White Collar Crime, IT & Privacy. Hans is head of the firm’s public law practice group. Since January 2020, Hans also became head of the new Department Regulatory and White Collar. Hans expertise lies in the area of EU law, among other things, and he is renowned as one of the leading Austrian attorneys in state aid and data protection law. Furthermore, he advises in all fields of public law, including constitutional law, energy law and administrative law.

Harald Stingl

Partner, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, Banking & Finance, Insolvency & Restructuring, Private Equity & Venture Capital. Harald is a key corporate / M&A partner and has 18 years of experience in complex cross-border corporate, M&A, restructurings, distressed entities, joint ventures and private equity.

Heinrich Foglar-Deinhardstein

Partner, specialised in Corporate, Insolvency & Restructuring, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Clients & Trusts, Private Equity & Venture Capital Heinrich focuses on corporate reorganisations, cross-border transactions and on private clients and Trust Law. He is actively involved in solving various forms of disputes and reorganisations within trusts and private clients and is frequently working for Austrian family businesses, private foundations and family trusts in particular with view to their matters under Austrian corporate law, takeover law and law of succession.

Holger Bielesz

Partner, specialised in Litigation & Arbitration, White Collar Crime, Compliance & Investigations, Insolvency & Restructuring. For more than 15 years, Holger has been specializing in commercial dispute resolution and advising companies on white-collar crime and compliance issues. His work focuses on the defense of financial institutions in investor liability litigation, disputes relating to construction contracts, corporate and distribution law disputes as well as conflicts in insolvency and restructuring situations.

Irene Welser

Senior Partner / Head of Department Contentious Business, specialised in Litigation & Arbitration, Corporate, Public Law & European Law, Real Estate & Construction, IP & Unfair Competition, Private Clients & Trusts. Irene heads the Contentious Business Department of the firm, with a team of approximately 20 lawyers. She has been practising law for more than 25 years and is also a former managing partner of the firm. Irene is a passionate litigator and arbitrator and advises domestic and international clients on commercial and civil law.

Jakob Hartig

Partner, specialised in Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Clients & Trusts, Private Equity & Venture Capital. Jakob has more than 10 years of professional experience in particular in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, and foundation law. He has profound experience in advising national and international clients on cross-border and multi-national transactions and on highly complex national and cross-border corporate law matters.

Johannes Prinz

Partner, specialised in Tax Law, Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions. Johannes is dual qualified as Austrian attorney and as a tax adviser. He is a tax expert focussing on taxation of corporate groups and corporate restructuring, tax planning, taxation of mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments, value added tax, non-profit organizations, withholding tax and tax treaty issues, domestic and cross-border group internal reorganisations and business restructuring, holding structures, taxation of inbound and outbound investments, as well as structured finance.

Johannes Aehrenthal

Partner, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, Private Clients & Trusts, Real Estate & Construction, Distribution Law. Johannes has comprehensive and long-standing experience in advising Austrian and international clients in numerous cross-border M&A and real estate transactions in Austria and the CEE region. He is advising both industrial investors as well as private equity and venture capital investors, funds and real estate developers.

Julian Feichtinger

Partner / Head of the Employment Law Team, specialised in Employment Law. He is the Head of the Employment Law team, and specialises in labour law litigation, restructuring, company pension schemes. Julian advises and reperesents clients on all aspects of collective and individual employment law, predominantly acting for international and national companies but also NGOs and higher education institutions.

Lorenz Pracht, LL.M.

Partner, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Capital Markets, Compliance & Investigations, Corporate, Tax Law, Banking & Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Lorenz has become a key member in our firm’s M&A practice and has profound experience in complex cross-border M&A transactions, reorganisations, restructurings and joint ventures. He has advised numerous large corporate clients in complex M&A projects. Furthermore, he spent more than two years at one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies, which contributed to making him a specialist in energy law matters.

Mark Krenn

Partner, specialised in Real Estate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, IP & Unfair Competition. Mark has considerable experience handling large volume real estate transactions in Austria and CEE, as well as in setting up joint ventures for real estate projects. Mark's work covers all real estate asset classes, including shopping centres, residential projects, hotels, offices and logistics projects.

Martin Eichinger

Partner, specialised in Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions (including trusts and foundations), Finance & Capital Market transactions and Private Clients. Prior to joining CERHA HEMPEL Martin gained in-depth knowledge and more than six years of experience while working at one of the leading CEE law firms and a renowned private client boutique law firm in Vienna where he advised inter alia an Austrian billionaire and other Austrian high net worth individuals in any of their private and business related matters.

Matthias Nödl

Senior Counsel, specialised in Real Estate & Construction, Litigation & Arbitration, Mergers & Aquisitions, Insolvency & Restructuring, Private Clients & Trusts. Matthias is a renowned real estate and construction law specialist. As an attorney (senior counsel), former partner at a leading international law firm in Vienna and former legal counsel at a leading Austrian construction group, Matthias Nödl has many years' experience in the fields of construction law, architectural law and real estate law (including projects, transactions and litigation).

Michael Mayer

Counsel, specialised in Antitrust & Competition, Distribution Law, Complinace & Investigations Michael has considerable experience in all areas of competition law. His focus lies in merger control and fines proceedings both before the Austrian competition authorities and the EU Commission, as well as in the implementation of compliance systems.

Michaela Siegwart

Partner, specialised in Public Procurement, Litigation & Arbitration, IP & Unfair Competition. Michaela has represented and advised national and international clients in commercial litigation for almost 20 years. She specialises in public procurement, insurance, construction and contract law.

Nadine Leitner

Nadine Leitner Partner, specialised in Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Clients & Trusts, Private Equity & Venture Capital. Nadine has advised in and led some of the most significant national and cross border deals in the Austrian market. She is well known for her ability to precisely, efficiently and swiftly handle and structure complex M&A and corporate law projects.

Paul Krepil

Senior Associate, specialised in Litigation & Arbitration, Compliance & Investigations, Insolvency & Restructuring, White Collar Crime Paul has over eight years of experience in international litigation and arbitration. Prior to joining CERHA HEMPEL, he worked as an associate at a renowned international law firm that specialises in the CEE/SEE region for several years. Paul regularly publishes on current developments in litigation and arbitration.

Peter Lewisch

Senior Counsel, specialised in White Collar Crime, Public Law & European Law, Antitrust & Competition Peter, a criminal law specialist, leads the white collar crime team. He is also a full professor for criminal law at the University of Vienna and director of the Law School’s Centre for Business and Financial Crime. He is regarded as the leading Austrian lawyer for complex and high profile business crime and white collar cases, in particular for cases with an international background.

Peter Knobl

Partner, specialised in Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Tax Law, Compliance & Investigations Peter’s areas of focus include banking and capital markets, banking regulatory, restructuring of banks, investment funds, payment services, stock exchange services and settlement, investment services, insurance regulatory.

Peter Vcelouch

Partner, Head of Department Real Estate and Construction, specialised in Real Estate & Construction, Litigation & Arbitration, Public Law & European Law, Insolvency & Restructuring. Peter regularly advises on planning and construction contracts and represents clients in claim management matters and in construction-related litigation and arbitration proceedings. Peter also advises national and international clients in commercial litigation and arbitration issues, in particular with respect to large scale construction projects.

Sergei Makarchuk

Sergei Makarchuk Of counsel, specialised in Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate, IP & Unfair Competition, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Antitrust & Competition, Compliance & Investigations. Sergei has 20 years’ extensive experience in corporate, commercial, competition law, mergers & acquisitions, IT, and intellectual property law.

Stefan Huber

Partner, specialised in Public Law & European Law, Compliance & Investigations, White Collar Crime, Public Procurement, Litigation & Arbitration. Stefan is an expert in Austrian higher education law, public and European law and highly active in compliance work, criminal law as well as white collar crime. Also one of Austria’s leading experts in export control law.

Susanne Molitoris, LL.M.

Senior Counsel, spesialised in Employment Law, Litigation & Arbitration. Susanne advices on all aspects of collective and individual employment law. She regularly provides outsourcing and transaction related employment law advice; in particular with regard to corss-border transactions. Moreover, she regularly accompanies international clients at their market entry in Austria.

Thomas Trettnak

Partner, specialised in Corporate/M&A, Insolvency & Restructuring, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Private Clients & Trusts. Thomas is Head of CEE Insolvency & Restructuring Practice, concentrating in mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganizations with a special focus on insolvency & restructuring, as well as venture capital and private equity mandates. Thomas is particularly renowned for cross-border transactions, often for Anglo-Saxon clients in view of his admission to the New York Bar.

Thomas Zivny

Partner, specialised in Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate. Thomas is primarily active in the field of capital markets, project finance, healthcare and corporate law. His team advises banks in connection with project financing in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, focussing in particular on real estate financing. The spectrum ranges from financing and restructuring to disposals and covers the entire lifecycle of the real estate. In the field of debt capital markets, Thomas advises issuers of corporate bonds as well as bank issuance programmes.

Volker Glas

Partner, specialised in Capital Markets, Banking & Finance, Corporate, Private Equity & Venture Capital. Volker represents issuers and underwriters in debt and equity capital markets transactions, corporate borrowers, Austrian and international banks in syndicated loans, acquisition and project financings, and structured finance transactions.

Wolfgang Sindelar

Senior Counsel, specialised in Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Insolvency & Restructuring, Real Estate & Construction, Capital Markets, Employment Law, Private Clients & Trusts

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