Press release March 03, 2023
MUNICH, March 3, 2023: Building on the firm’s longstanding presence in Frankfurt, Morgan Lewis is establishing a Munich office with 20 attorneys and advisors from Shearman & Sterling’s Munich office. Three partners—Florian Harder, head of Shearman & Sterling’s German office and M&A/PE partner; Florian Ziegler, leveraged finance partner; and Jann Jetter, head of the tax practice – will open Morgan Lewis’ new Munich office with a leading transactions and regulatory team across M&A, private equity, finance and tax. Florian Harder becomes Managing Partner of the Munich office.
“Germany is one of the most important legal markets in Europe and its importance is constantly increasing,” said the firm’s chairman Jami McKeon. “We have carefully monitored this market for some time to find the right high caliber team to build on our existing practice while enriching our strong collaborative culture. We expect to have the entire office, including the Business Professional team, join us to enable our new Munich office to operate at full speed from day one. With two offices in Germany, we are expanding our broad global corporate practice and will continue to position ourselves as a first-class legal service provider and strategic partner for our clients in Germany and around the world. Opening a Munich office is strategically aligned with our global client base as the city is home to many multinational companies such as Amazon, Google, Siemens, Linde, Allianz, Audi, BMW, MunichRE and Microsoft and is home to major financiers such as private equity funds and family offices.”
Morgan Lewis has been firmly established in the German market for over 34 years and has more than 20 lawyers in Frankfurt working closely with colleagues around the world to advise German and global clients – from large multinationals and financial institutions to medium-sized companies and startups – across the spectrum of industries, with particular strength in the manufacturing, energy, technology, life sciences, financial services and automotive sectors. The team advises on complex cross-border transactions and finance, private equity, tax, UK and EU antitrust, banking, labor and employment and dispute resolution, among others. With a presence in key financial and business hubs including London, Brussels and Paris, Morgan Lewis’ European team assists some of the world’s best-known companies with their most complex affairs in the European Union and globally.
“Munich is a dynamic hub with strategic importance for several industry sectors, including private equity, infrastructure, energy, life sciences and technology, and offers great opportunities for intellectual property as Munich is the seat of the European Patent Office,” said Steven Wall , the firm’s Managing Partner . “Our new Munich team’s experience in corporate, private equity, finance and tax across a range of sectors and its outstanding skills operating at the heart of the market will complement our existing private equity practice and industry strengths in Frankfurt and worldwide will provide both German offices with the ability to attract and service complex inbound and outbound cross-border transactions.”
New Munich partners
Florian Harder represents private equity houses, strategic investors and international companies in complex M&A transactions in both German and cross-border transactions. In addition, he has extensive experience in venture capital transactions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring and representing management and supervisory boards in all corporate law matters.
Florian Ziegler, who will be based in Morgan Lewis’ Munich and Frankfurt offices, focuses on German and cross-border leveraged finance transactions, including acquisition finance and corporate lending, high yield bond issuance and structured finance products. Florian’s practice focuses on representing traditional non-US banks and non-bank direct lenders and private equity funds as borrowers in acquisition financings. Clients also benefit from his wide range of experience in complex restructurings. Florian is also a notary.
Jann Jetter leads a team of tax attorneys and tax advisors focused on the tax-oriented structuring of private equity funds and private equity transactions, as well as post-deal reorganizations and integrations. In addition, he develops management participation programs for strategic companies and advises on ongoing corporate tax law matters, in particular on binding assessments, tax audits and appeal procedures.
