JUVE Handbuch 2014/2015 – GvW Graf von Westphalen gets recommendations in all practice groups for the first time

In its Handbuch 2014/2015, the publishing house JUVE again acknowledges law firm GvW Graf von Westphalen’s successful policy. “Managing partners Christof Kleinmann and Dr Robert Theissen have kept their promise to sharpen the firm’s focus with a more tightly organized management, and to strive for more integration internally”, state the independent editors. “The management has been in office for 5 years now and has successfully accompanied the firm in an extensive re-positioning and modernization process.”

In its current edition, JUVE acknowledges GvW’s high quality as a full-service law firm. For the first time, the firm is recommended in all practice areas: Employment law; foreign trade; banking law; subsidies and state aid law; corporate law; real estate and private construction law (including commercial tenancy law and notary services); insolvency administration; IT; capital investment processes; capital markets law; antitrust law; food law; M&A; PPP and project finance; press law and freedom of speech; projects/plant engineering and construction; environment and planning; constitutional and administrative law; procurement; distribution systems.

The “market-leading foreign trade law practice” is still considered to be the firm’s “flagship”. The customs and foreign trade team is said to have developed into “a kind of lighthouse practice of the firm, which is also on the radar of leading corporate groups, due to the excellent reputation and the high level of specialization”. In addition to Dr Lothar Harings (WTO and export control law), Marian Niestedt (EU market organization and customs law) is now also among the leading experts in this field.

In corporate law, the firm is also “increasingly on the radar of well-known clients”, according to the JUVE editors. They go on to say: “Meanwhile, GvW more frequently succeeds to fish in the waters of significantly larger competitors”. Advice on cross-border mandates as well as litigation advice would be “growing steadily” and “increasingly becoming as important as the already established advising of large and sophisticated SMEs”.

The firm’s M&A practice, which “continuously expedites its specialization”, is also internationally acclaimed. JUVE appreciates the lawyers’ China expertise: “GvW has achieved a position in the China business which makes it more and more interesting also for renowned German companies.”

While the practice groups construction and real estate law, public commercial law and employment law are traditionally well-represented in the JUVE rankings, the editors have now also acknowledged the firm’s most recent achievements in IP, IT and media. The “recognized practices” around Stephan Menzemer in the specialty area IT: contracts /processes, and around Dr Walter Scheuerl in press law and freedom of speech, have been mentioned in the JUVE ranking for the first time.

We are pleased that the firm’s industry-specific approach is rewarded by JUVE’s editorial desk. According to JUVE, the firm’s lawyers, who are acting as advisors for several university hospitals, are among the “proven advisors for hospitals, pharmacies and physicians”. This is also guaranteed by the new Düsseldorf office, which “is progressively becoming more established in the field”.