Schima Mayer Starlinger Rechtsanwälte GmbH

sms.law - short for SCHIMA MAYER STARLINGER Attorneys at Law is a fast-growing, modern, and dynamic Austrian business law firm based in Vienna. The firm was founded in 2018 by a merger of two well-renowned practices, when the team around Georg Schima, focussing on Employment Law and Corporate Governance, and the acclaimed Energy and Competition boutique law firm Starlinger Mayer decided to join forces. Not too long after, they were joined by Stephan Schmalzl, who is now heading the Banking & Finance and Corporate/M&A practices, Markus Dax, covering the Real Estate practice, and Philipp Gamauf, who is rounding up the firm’s service portfolio with his Corporate, Employment & Real Estate expertise. At the start of 2024, Julia Andras joined the team, contributing her extensive experience in Dispute Resolution & Litigation, strengthening the team's capabilities.

sms.law’s approach is to offer its clients not only efficient top-tier advice, spot-on communication, a quick response time, and availability, but also most importantly innovative entrepreneurial solutions. The lawyers are fiercely dedicated to their work and renowned for their in-depth knowledge and experience in a wide range of industries, from the energy sector to luxury products – where the team covers the full range of business law.

sms.law works with national as well as international clients across the world and industry sectors. Therefore, one of the firm’s additional big assets for their clients with cross-border matters is their memberships with two of the world’s highest acclaimed law networks - the Ius laboris and MARCALLIANCE platforms together provide access to over 2500 reliable and entrusted long-term partners and advisors in over 100 countries.

Main Areas of Practice

Employment: Leading in the area of employment law especially Georg Schima and Birgit Vogt-Majarek are named as highly renowned experts. In Austria, we are the sole partner of the worldwide and unique lawyer network Ius Laboris. Our services include, inter alia, collective and individual employment law, operational restructuring and business transitions, justification and termination of employment, manager employment contracts and variable compensation models for executives, design and adaptation of working time models, company pension schemes, and pension fund law, collective agreement special subjects, cross-border personnel deployment, immigration, wage, and social dumping as well as representation in proceedings before national and international courts as well as administrative authorities.

Energy: Our team, especially Thomas Starlinger, has many years of relevant industry experience, both from an industrial and consultant perspective. Our strength is advice regarding energy law in combination with our competition and European law expertise.

Competition and antitrust: Christian Mayer and Moritz am Ende are well-known experts and help clients to avoid risks and exploit opportunities. When needed they assist clients before national and international competition authorities and courts. Antitrust risk analysis, transaction planning and monitoring, development and implementation of compliance programs, contract review and contract design, merger applications – to give an example – are essential parts of our legal advice.

Corporate law, corporate governance, M&A: The teams around Georg Schima, Stephan Schmalzl, Christian Mayer, and Birgit Vogt-Majarek are very experienced legal experts,  providing our clients with corporate advice tailored to their goals. We offer a wide range of services, inter alia, mergers, demergers, restructuring and reorganizations, due diligence, corporate governance-legal issues (organ-conflicts of Interest, related party transactions, delimitation of responsibilities, stock-option programs etc), creation and amendment of articles of association or company and syndicate contracts, rules of procedure and much more.

Dispute resolution, litigation: Dispute resolution starts with avoidance of dispute. If a process cannot be avoided, we first analyse opportunities and risks. With all our international experience and a well-rehearsed team of Georg Schima, Julia Andras, Christian Mayer, Thomas Starlinger, and Stephan Schmalzl, we always try to enforce the interests of our clients without lengthy and costly trials.

Banking and finance: Austrian and international financial institutions and companies of all size ranges rely especially on Stephan Schmalzl’s expertise and solution-oriented consulting approach in all areas of banking and finance law.

European and State aid: Our expert Moritz Am Ende advises clients on all aspects of Austrian and EU competition law, including State aid law, as well as general EU and EEA law.

IP/IT, media and data protection law:In today’s business, innovation and customer relations are key. We specialise in protecting intellectual property and guiding companies through complex business environments, offering expertise in contract negotiation, IP strategy, and data protection.

Public law: We assist companies regarding public law issues, in particular in connection with regulatory and employment law, procurement law etc, particularly noteworthy are Thomas Starlinger and Birgit Vogt-Majarek.

Real estate law: Our experts Markus Dax, Philipp Gamauf and Anna Woschitz provide legal advice in all matters relating to real estate and construction projects from the selection procedure through development and management to the transfer of payment or gratuitous transmission.

Industry Sector Expertise

Aeronautics | Advertising | Automotive | Beauty | Construction & Development | Consumer Product Manufacturing | Energy & Natural Resources | Employment Agencies | Financial Services | Food & Beverage Producers | Gaming & Entertainment | Health Care | Hotels & Tourism | Information Science/Technology & Communications | Insurance | Luxury Products | Media | Pharma & Life Sciences | Real Estate | Retail | Sports | Training & Education | Transportation & Ground Handling