DLA Piper appoints seven new counsels in Germany

Following the appointment of five new partners in Germany as of 1 May 2023, DLA Piper has promoted a total of seven lawyers to counsel effective 1 July 2023, including Christopher Ollech (Cologne), Patrick Reuter (Frankfurt), Kais Torchani (Frankfurt) and Elena Vadolas (Frankfurt) from DLA Piper's Finance, Projects and Restructuring practice group, Moritz Mursa (Frankfurt) and Michael Ziegaus-Clavien (Munich) from the Real Estate practice group and Sven Bischoff (Frankfurt) from the Tax practice group in Germany.

Christopher Ollech is specialized in the field of energy law. He advises on regulatory and energy contractual matters, primarily in the areas of renewable energies, e-mobility, energy-intensive industries and the real estate sector. He regularly assists clients in the context of energy infrastructure projects and M&A transactions in this respect. 

Patrick Reuter is highly experienced in advising on domestic as well as cross-border financing transactions. His focus is on leveraged finance, where he advises in particular sponsors and debt funds on unitranche financings. He has developed particular expertise in the area of venture/growth debt in financings to young and upcoming companies. He also advises German and international corporations on syndicated corporate financings.

Kais Torchani advises financiers and borrowers on complex cross-border real estate financings. Kais also focuses on project finance in the areas of infrastructure, wind power and solar parks. He also has a passion for Islamic finance.

Elena Vadolas specialises in financial regulatory law and advises clients on all aspects of prudential banking law, with a particular focus on payments, new banking and FinTech. She also advises clients on asset management and investment law.

Moritz Mursa advises national and international companies, investors and banks on real estate transactions. His advice includes national and international portfolio transactions, sale-and-lease-back transactions and project developments, both in the context of asset deals and share deals.

Michael Ziegaus-Clavien advises on all aspects of commercial real estate law, but specializes in particular in advising national and international companies on the leasing and ongoing asset management of commercially used real estate in all asset classes. In this context, he also intensively engages with the data protection and IT law aspects, inter alia, regarding so-called "smart buildings".

Sven Bischoff advises on all aspects of national and international tax law. The focus of his advice includes M&A transactions as well as restructurings and international tax structuring advice. He advises institutional investors as well as national and international companies.

In addition to the counsel appointments, 21 lawyers from DLA Piper in Germany are appointed senior associates.

"We congratulate our colleagues on their well-deserved promotions," said Dr Kai Bodenstedt and Dr Martin Haller, co-managing partners of DLA Piper in Germany. "Each of them demonstrates exceptional proficiency in their respective fields of law as well as outstanding commitment to mastering the challenges of today and tomorrow together with our clients."