Find Lawyers in Cologne, Germany for Corporate Law

Corporate lawyers advise partnerships and corporations in all legal and commercial matters beginning with the founding of a company via corporate restructuring measures to the liquidation of the entity. Therefore, a corporate lawyer has to deal, among other legal issues, with the choice of the entity’s legal form based on the entrepreneurs’ business, drafting articles of association, rules of procedure, and shareholders’ agreements. Following the company’s establishment, counselling includes a variety of legal advice to shareholders, the management and the supervisory board regarding the preparation of annual general meetings, capital raising and maintenance measures, commercial contracts with the client’s customers and suppliers, but also legal representation in court or arbitration proceedings with respect to disputes between shareholders and the company’s executive bodies. A corporate lawyer is expected to be familiar with restructuring and reorganization measures an entity might face during its existence like mergers and acquisitions, splits, spin-offs, or the change of legal form. These measures might arise in a very complex surrounding, such as in the regulated sector or in distressed situations.

For quite some time now, a lawyer advising on corporate law in the German market is required to have a thorough knowledge of private equity and venture capital transactions, meaning cross-border acquisitions, management buy-outs, investors’ participation, and shareholders’ exit strategies and due diligence reporting. In contrast, stock corporations will demand a more capital market-oriented experience, so that the advisor shall be in a position to assist with public takeovers, squeeze-outs, and delisting. Another steadily growing important field of corporate law covers corporate governance and compliance analysis, which means helping management and supervisory boards to avoid legal infringements and to comply with reporting obligations and insider-dealing regulations.

In most law firms, it is the corporate lawyer who is a company’s contact person. Consequently, it is the corporate lawyer’s task to build a team of experts covering the respective fields of law just like tax, real estate, labor, insolvency, or litigation, always having in mind to suit the client’s business needs by delivering cost-efficient, innovative, and effective solutions.