Interview with: Thomas Gemmeke and Boris Dürr, Partners and Attorneys-at-
It is crucial to bring together the law, tax and finance disciplines when handling transactions and projects, according to Thomas Gemmeke and Boris Dürr, Partners and Attorneys-at-
What are your projections for the coming few years?
Boris Dürr: I expect there to be an over-regulation of the capital markets in Europe, especially for small and mid-sized companies. However, it will be very difficult to keep everything in line with just a few staff members. General Counsel will need more in-house Counsel or a bigger budget for external legal advice.
One very important factor which will increase in the future is multi-disciplinary cooperation. We are a multi-disciplinary law firm and we consider it crucial to bring together the law, tax and finance disciplines when handling transactions and projects, to avoid conflicts altogether. Corporate Counsel should work closely with Tax Counsel and accounting departments. If they handle projects only from the legal side, other issues and conflicts may arise with the tax authorities. This can be avoided if they work together from the very beginning.
Thomas Gemmeke: In Germany, many General Counsel are getting a seat in the Board of Management of companies, because compliance issues will become more and more important.
How can Corporate Counsel ensure compliance?
Boris Dürr: We recommend having a compliance hotline, whereby employees can call to discuss compliance issues anonymously. We can then check the matter out, and help the Corporate Counsel to find a solution.
What should be considered when deciding between litigation and arbitration?
Thomas Gemmeke: Clients often ask us whether they should ask for arbitration in shareholder agreements, and sometimes it is very difficult to decide. On the one hand, arbitration could be faster than standard public litigation, but on the other hand, many international players ask for London as the place of jurisdiction which can be very expensive as the whole process will have to be done in English. Therefore, we recommend our clients to think twice about choosing litigation in London, Paris, or any international location.
Boris Dürr: When making the choice between litigation and arbitration, there are three issues to consider: the costs, whether specialised judges can be chosen, and privacy.
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