PwC Legal Austria-oehner & partner

The firm: PwC Legal Austria is one of the leading law firms in Austria. With more than 25 lawyers and associates, PwC Legal Austria advises in all relevant areas of business law.

Global network, local expertise: PwC Legal Austria is part of PwC’s worldwide legal network comprising more than 4,000 lawyers in almost 100 countries. Our lawyers are closely connected through personal contacts and modern intelligent tools. Furthermore, the global PwC network includes 360,000 specialists working in the audit, tax and management consulting sectors. In order to ensure that the clients benefit from PwC's technical excellence, PwC's entire global network is at the clients’ disposal.

PwC Legal Austria provides its clients with a single point of contact, who is supported by professional teams tailored to the client’s needs and with a profound understanding of the specific context and industry.

Active interaction, comprehensive solutions
The strategies, concepts and solutions that PwC Legal Austria presents to its clients do not only take the legal aspects into account, but also tax and commercial aspects. The objective is to support the clients comprehensively and on a long-term basis. This interdisciplinary approach ensures that the client can efficiently tap into the whole PwC service portfolio.

Areas of practice
Corporate/M&A: PwC Legal Austria supports its clients in all corporate law and M&A matters. We accompany our clients from the design phase of an envisaged transaction until the post deal integration.

The M&A practice group of PwC Legal Austria has extensive experience on M&A transactions and complex corporate matters. An interdisciplinary approach makes it possible to offer a wide range of services, such as deal design and structuring, due diligence, SPA and ancillary contract design and negotiations, corporate advisory, restructuring, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital as well corporate governance.

Data protection: Failure to properly manage data, computer and communication systems and networks can put the organization of a client in breach of their contractual duties, duties of confidentiality and duties of care to third parties. Successful strategy development, execution and compliance monitoring require blended skills of a multi-disciplinary professional services team, which PwC Legal Austria is uniquely positioned to provide. Working closely with audit, consulting, risk-management and forensics experts, PwC Legal Austria provides a unique seamless end-to-end service. It provides business-critical support on data protection and privacy, including regulatory reform readiness (GDPR), data impact assessments, communication and negotiation with data authorities, implementation of data and cookie policies, outsourcing and cloud services and data processing contracts.

Dispute resolution and contracts: PwC Legal Austria supports clients in corporate and commercial disputes, domestic and international commercial litigation and arbitration, alternative dispute resolution, group litigation and class action, alternative dispute resolution and white-collar crime.

Employment law and immigration : Global markets have and continue to become increasingly competitive – the recruitment, management and retention of employees has never been more important to businesses. A company’s most important asset – its employees – require special attention and become a strategic focus. Together with other relevant lines of service, such as tax and consulting, PwC Legal Austria offers a true one-stop shop for all human resources issues. The employment law team provides its clients with specialist and commercially focused advice to help in important areas of employment law, such as HR transactional matters, equal pay and reward effectiveness, redundancy and re-organizations, implementing global HR policies and procedures, terminations, complex international corporate transactions, strategic deployment planning and compliance advice and immigration.

Financial services/banking and finance: The financial services practice group of PwC Legal Austria supports their clients with tailor-made and sustainable solutions for all regulatory, banking and finance, capital markets as well as banking M&A topics. It combines deep knowledge of the industry and the clients’ and their counterparts’ businesses with a global perspective and extensive cross-border transactional experience. Working alongside the specialists from tax, finance, deals and assurance, they follow an integrated approach and support the clients beyond “classic” legal advice with their services. This includes financial services regulatory, regulatory health checks, trainings and updates, finance transactions, acquisition, project, real estate, intra-group finance, secondary-market and portfolio transactions and capital markets. The team regularly advises investors with the market entry into the Austrian banking market including match-making with potential target banks. Most of the team members have previously worked in in-house positions and therefore understand the particular needs of in-house bank clients very well.

International business restructuring: PwC Legal Austria supports its clients in corporate and business reorganization. In addition, it advices in the areas of company formation, mergers, de-mergers, other corporate reorganizations, optimization of legal and tax structures, re-domiciliations and liquidations.

Restructuring and insolvency law: The PwC Legal Austria team offers tailor-made solutions in the areas of insolvency law, corporate restructurings and distressed M&A. They represent clients in out-of-court restructuring proceedings as well as in court and advise in pre-crisis and special situations. Based on many years of experience, the team provides targeted support to shareholders and executive bodies of companies in crisis or insolvency, trustees, banks, creditors and sellers, as well as buyers in distressed M&A transactions, in order to avoid possible liability risks and increase the chances of realization. The multidisciplinary consulting approach together with the PwC experts from tax and management consulting offers a broad professional know-how far beyond the scope of legal advice with regard to crisis and insolvency.

Private wealth services: PwC Legal Austria´s private wealth team specializes in working with private clients and family businesses, family offices and their advisors. It has a keen multi-disciplinary appreciation for the varied dynamics of family business and private wealth. It builds relationships that are based on an understanding of the clients’ unique circumstances as well as their business and financial goals. In cooperation with the international PwC private wealth services teams around the globe the Austrian private wealth team supports its clients with asset allocation and protection matters, optimization of the asset structure, estate planning and succession in family businesses, trusts and foundations, establishment of effective supervisory and governance structures (family governance), philanthropic investments and private global mobility matters.

Public and regulatory law: Public and regulatory law issues have become more and more important when carrying out business activities. The public and regulatory law team of PwC Legal Austria consists of true experts in these fields of law and provides wide-ranging and profound services. The team is especially focused on public procurement procedures, thereby assisting not only contracting authorities but also bidders as regards a tender process. The team also advises stakeholders in the infrastructure sector with regard to environmental impact assessment procedures, water rights law, waste management law, trade law, construction and zoning law as well as energy law. Further, PwC Legal Austria has an in-depth expertise in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, diagnostic and related areas, and offers advice and assistance to the Life Sciences and Healthcare industries. The team also represents clients in enforcement proceedings and public procurement review procedures before the Austrian authorities and Administrative Courts, respectively.

Real estate: PwC Legal Austria provides a wide spectrum in legal and economic know-how to optimally advise clients in the purchase, sale, development, administration, liquidation or financing of real estate. The real estate and construction team focuses on the interests of its clients and the real estate project with its specific risk structure and special features. It possess deep knowledge of the market and will support the clients in minimizing risks. Complex and international real estate transactions can be completely carried out within the PwC Network.

The team supports its clients in property transactions whether they are owners, tenants, investors or lenders and provide them with innovative, commercially aware solutions to even the most challenging business issues.  Its range of real-estate legal services includes acquisitions and disposals, leases, due diligence, development, finance and structuring, asset and property management, smart city and urban mobility.

Tax litigation/tax crime: Both multinational as well as domestic corporations are facing the most challenging tax environment: a convergence of global forces has resulted in a substantial increase in the number and size of tax audits, assessments, and disputes with revenue authorities. PwC Legal Austria’s tax litigation and tax crime lawyers assist taxpayers in this emerging area. Together with colleagues from tax, they can work with their clients to prevent, efficiently manage, and favourably resolve tax audits and disputes, both at home and throughout the world. They combine deep technical understanding, local knowledge, strong relationships with government officials, tax litigation experience, and a global perspective. Their expertise includes tax audits, tax appeals, minimum-wage and social-security protection laws, representation before high and constitutional courts, representation in criminal tax cases and tax rulings.