The corporate law firm has promoted three lawyers to Local Partner and six to Counsel with effect from 1 January 2025. These promotions demonstrate the firm’s continued focus on developing its own junior talent while simultaneously building and expanding its team with experienced lawyers.

The following lawyers have been promoted to Local Partner: Katharina Feierabend, Stephan Wachsmuth and Dr Jörg Wünschel. The following lawyers have been appointed as Counsel: Theresa Jakob, Philipp Junker, Hawa Mahamoud, Chara Papagiannidi, Dominika Sewerin and Marie-Therese Wich.

The appointments of Local Partners in Munich (Feierabend, Wachsmuth) and Berlin (Wünschel) reinforce GSK Stockmann’s traditionally important Real Estate and Corporate divisions. The new Counsel in Munich (Jakob), Heidelberg (Junker) and Frankfurt (Sewerin) are all part of the firm’s Projects & Public Sector division. Mahamoud, Papagiannidi and Wich will be supporting the Banking and Corporate divisions as Counsel at the firm’s Luxembourg office. These promotions demonstrate the firm’s commitment to further strengthen the partnership between its German and Luxembourg locations.

GSK Stockmann Managing Partner Oliver Glück commented: “Over the years, we have looked to the expertise we have built up internally when it comes to promotions. One of our key concerns is offering our talented junior lawyers opportunities for professional development, while at the same time strengthening our strategic practice areas and locations with the right expertise. The well-deserved Local Partner and Counsel promotions underline this approach, particularly the reinforcement at Counsel level.”

 Lawyer profiles:

Promoted to Local Partner:

Katharina Feierabend studied law at LMU Munich. She completed her legal traineeship at the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court with placements at the Consulate General in Chicago, among others. She has worked as a lawyer at GSK Stockmann since being admitted to practise law in Germany in 2019. Her key practice areas are in real estate law, in particular asset management in the context of complex and high-volume commercial leases for a wide range of uses (including data centres and in connection with insolvency law) as well as real estate transactions (asset/share deals, portfolios and development properties, including forward deals). She has also played a leading role in the development of GSK’s legal tech products in the real estate sector.

Stephan Wachsmuth studied law, with a specialism in tax law, at the Universities of Heidelberg and Neuchâtel. During his legal traineeship with the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court, he completed placements at several of the Big Four audit firms and at the European Parliament. After completing his second state examination in 2017, he initially worked as a senior tax official (head of the tax investigation department at the Pforzheim tax office) and completed a postgraduate degree (LL.M.) in tax law at the University of Potsdam while working as a civil servant. He joined GSK Stockmann after being admitted as a lawyer in Germany in 2020. In 2023, he was also admitted to practise as a tax adviser and as a certified specialist for tax law.

Dr Jörg Wünschel studied law at the University of Freiburg and art history at the Universities of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. During his doctoral studies, he worked as a research assistant at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of Karlsruhe and was a visiting scholar at Columbia Law School. His legal traineeship with the Berlin Higher Regional Court included placements at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and two leading German law firms. He was admitted to practise law in Germany in 2018 and joined GSK Stockmann in the same year. His primary areas of practice are intellectual property law and digitalisation law as well as copyright and art law.

Promoted to Counsel:

Theresa Jakob has worked as a lawyer at GSK Stockmann since being admitted to practise law in Germany in 2017. She studied at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and at the Université de Rennes 1, graduating with a Maître en Droit. She completed her legal traineeship with the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court, including a placement at a national commercial law firm specialising in real estate law. Her main areas of practice include advising local authorities and investors/project developers on public construction law issues, in particular planning law and building regulations.

Philipp Junker studied law at the University of Mainz before starting his legal career in 2018 at a medium-sized commercial law firm in the field of private construction and architect law. He has been working at GSK Stockmann’s Heidelberg office since 2022. As a certified specialist for construction and architect law, he advises both developers and contractors on all aspects of real estate projects. In addition to providing legal support during construction projects, his main areas of expertise include litigation and facility management.

Hawa Mahamoud is member of the banking and capital markets group of GSK Stockmann in Luxembourg and specialises in banking law, securities law, capital markets regulation and corporate law. She advises banks, financial institutions and corporates on the issue of debt and equity securities including stock exchange listings, securitisations, repackagings, high-yield bonds, structured products and derivatives and related regulatory matters. She is Avocat à la Cour and was admitted to the Bar in Luxembourg in 2016. She holds LL.M.s in European Banking and Finance Law and European and International Tax Law from the University of Luxembourg and a cerificate in Private International Law from the Hague Academy of International Law. She regularly contributes to articles on the latest developments in banking and finance and capital markets in legal directories.

Chara Papagiannidi is admitted to practise law in Greece (2016) and Luxembourg (2017). She studied law at the Democritus University of Thrace in Greece and holds an LL.M. in European Banking and Financial Law from the University of Luxembourg. Chara has extensive experience drafting and negotiating a broad spectrum of financial agreements and instruments as well as other legal documents in relation to core corporate law matters including M&A transactions, share deals, the migration of foreign entities to Luxembourg and corporate finance. Additionally, she has in-depth knowledge as to advanced corporate legal matters concerning listed entities and regularly advises on complex capital markets compliance issues based on Luxembourg transparency law, takeover law and market abuse regulation. Since 2016, Chara has worked on several high profile cross-border finance and equity capital markets transactions for EU-based and international clients.

Dominika Sewerin studied at the University of Freiburg, including a period of study abroad at the University of Linköping in Sweden as part of the Erasmus programme. She completed her legal traineeship with the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, including a placement at the German-Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm. She was admitted to practise law in Germany in 2013. Before joining GSK Stockmann in 2015, she worked at a major international law firm in the field of dispute resolution. Her main areas of practice include construction and architect law as well as litigation, in particular large-scale litigation in the area of construction and architect law.

Marie-Therese Wich studied law at the University of Jena including a period of study abroad at the University of Bourgogne in Dijon (France). During her legal traineeship with the Bamberg Higher Regional Court, she completed placements at the German Embassy in Paris, among others. She has been working at GSK Stockmann in Luxembourg since 2016, having previously worked for an independent Luxembourg law firm. She has also completed secondments in the legal departments of various fund management companies and a bank in Luxembourg. Marie-Therese Wich specialises in investment fund law (AIFs and UCITS, regulated and unregulated Luxembourg fund structures) and corporate law. She was admitted as a lawyer in Germany and in Luxembourg in 2017. Marie-Therese Wich is a member of various fund organisations, including “Fondsfrauen” (network for women in finance), the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), Cross-Border Business Lawyers (CBBL) and the Franco-German Lawyers’ Association (DFJ).