Leaders League. What sets your firm apart from competitors in the German market?

Thomas Bezani. Görg is one of Germany’s leading business law firms. As an independent firm with 270 lawyers at six offices in Berlin, Cologne, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Munich, we advise on the core areas of business law.

From our original strength in insolvency and restructuring, we have grown over the last 20 years into a fullservice business law firm serving national and international clients.

From our six offices we particularly focus on corporate M&A, banking and finance, employment, real estate, energy, as well as insolvency and restructuring. We also have close relationships within an established global network of independent law firms.

For each client, we select the appropriate law firms from our global network.

One noteworthy particularity is that we have a strong insolvency administration unit, Görg Insolvenzverwalter GbR, which is a legally separate entity but works closely with our legal services. While insolvency administration is usually the work of small niche firms in Germany, we are among the top firms with strong local presence in 23 cities.

Would you say that you are currently in a phase of growth or rather consolidation?

Today we are happy with our regional coverage as we are present in the main economic centers of Germany. All our offices are still in the growth phase, and we are committed to developing our core practices.

In Hamburg, Paul Caesar Rode from CMS Hasche Sigle joined our M&A practice as an associate partner in August 2017 and employment partner Burkhard Fabritius arrived from Flick Gocke Schaumburg in October 2016. Cologne saw the arrival of ex-Freshfields tax partner Adalbert Rödding in March 2017 and a highprofile M&A team led by ex-Freshfields Oliver von Rosenberg in November 2016. Frankfurt also expanded with a highpowered corporate real estate team led by

Ingo Winterstein and Gero Pfeiffer joining in February 2017 and highly-respected corporate law/M&A expert Marcus Herrmann coming on board in September 2016.

Anglo-Saxon firms have been quite active (again) this year in lateral hires and new office openings. What do you think of their high level of activity?

The German market is very strong at the moment and Anglo-Saxon firms use this to strengthen their market position further via lateral hires and office openings. Görg is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the synergies that exist in our market, due to how Germany functions as European hub for global law firms. As a national firm our market position is very strong as well but we follow a different strategy: we focus on organic growth on all levels, especially through partner appointments from within our firm.

Our offering is grounded in the extensive knowledge acquired by our combined experience in this dynamic market. We deliver A-grade advice in a prompt and professional manner.

Has the result of September’s general election added a level of uncertainty to the economic landscape in Germany? What is your analysis of the road ahead?

It is important that the coalition negotiations don’t take too long. They quickly need to re-establish governability again and to work out a future-oriented concept. The big challenge is to secure growth and jobs in the times ahead.

The economic impact of the September’s general election is marginal though. The overlaps of a Jamaica-coalition don’t differ much from what we have had before. Given this context, it is easy to understand why we are pleased to observe that faith in the German economy remains high.

Jeanne Yizhen Yin