Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Languages

• English
• French
• German

Lawyer Overview

Claus Köhler is active in corporate and business law and mergers & acquisitions, representing German and foreign clients in Germany, England, and Poland, especially in cross-border transactions, restructuring, and litigation and arbitration as well as in intellectual and industrial property law (trademark, copyright, and license agreements). Claus advises well-known clients in the food industry, publishing houses and energy companies, and companies in the fields of trade and branded goods, insurance, and banks.

In addition, Claus is a member of the Firm's restructuring and reorganization practice. He has extensive experience in restructuring and insolvency issues, including acquisitions and disposals of distressed assets, sovereign restructuring and formal insolvency procedures, and counseling management with pre-insolvency issues.

Claus practiced in Munich for two years at the start of his career. From 1991 to 1995 he worked as in-house counsel for the subsidiary of a multinational U.S. company located in Essen, Germany. In 1995, he became partner in the Munich office of a large German law firm, where he set up and managed their Warsaw (1996-1998) and London (1999-2002) offices.

Claus is member of the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual and Industrial Property and Copyright Law (Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht e.V.), the Association for Antitrust Law (Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht), the AIPPI, and the German Institution for Arbitration (DIS). He is vice president and an arbitrator at the Arbitration Court of the German-Polish Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Warsaw and a professor for international business law at the Leon Kozminski Academy for Entrepreneurship and Management in Warsaw.

He has published on a variety of legal topics and is in charge of the section on bank, capital market, and insurance law in Poland in the Commentary on Economy and Law in Eastern Europe (Handbuch Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa (WIRO)). He is fluent in German, English, and French.

Areas of Practice

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• M&A
• Private Equity
• Buyouts
• Fund Formation
• Venture Capital - Investor
• Venture Capital - Issuer
• Business Restructuring & Reorganization

Representative Cases

• Acquisition of Eurinpro
• Merger with Wagon Plc
• Sale-Leaseback of International Portfolio

West Practice Categories

Banking & Finance Law, Business & Commercial Law, Business Organizations, Business Successions, Closely Held Businesses, Corporate Governance, Directors' & Officers' Liability, Dissolution, Formation & Business Planning, Franchising, Joint Ventures, Lending & Secured Transactions, Limited Liability Companies, Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures, Non-profit & Tax-exempt Organizations, Partnerships, Reorganizations, Shareholders' Rights, Trade Associations, Venture Capital

Bar Admissions

• Munich, Germany
• New York

Education

• Ludwig-Maximilians U - Germany
• OLG Munich

Published Works

• D.IX. The law on banks, stock market and securities, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Berg, Handbuch Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa, EL42 2004, p. 1 et. seq., 2004
• Correction of Defective Capital Increases at Polish Limited Companies, Zeitschrift Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa 2003, p. 166, 2003
• Bank-, Boersen- und Wertpapierrecht, Kapitalmarkt- und Versicherungsrecht, WiRO Handbuch fuer Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa, 2003
• Heilung bei fehlerhafter Kapitalerhoehung bei polnischer GmbH, WiRO Zeitschrift fuer Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa, 2003
• Personality Rights in Germany - Appropriateness of a Comprehensive Protection, International Intellectual Property Law & Policy, Volume 7 2002, Fordham University School of Law, 2002
• Corporate Governance - a new code for Germany, coauthored with Dr. Susanne Schäfer, Global Counsel July 2002, 2002
• Revolutionary developments in German Civil Law, coauthored with Tobias Ackert, Wirtschaftsnachrichten IHK Warsaw, April 2002, 2002
• D.IX. The law on banks, stock market and securities, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Berg, Handbuch Wirtschaft und Recht in Osteuropa, EL41 2001, p. 1 et. seq., 2001
• International Exhaustion and Parallel Imports Commentary on International Exhaustion, International Intellectual Property Law & Policy, Volume 6 2001 (Edited by Hugh C. Hanson, Fordham University School of Law), 106-1, 2001
• New law for investors: GmbH & Co. KG (private limited company and limited partnership), coauthored by Dr. Thomas Berg, Wirtschaftsnachrichten IHK Warsaw, p. 28-29, 2000
• Correct storing and protecting of personal data, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Berg, Ost-West-Contact 2000, p. 34-35, 2000
• The possibility for foreigners to set up a GmbH & Co. KG...under Polish law against the background of the new regulations for business activities and trading companies, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Berg, Ost-Ausschuss Informationen 2000, p. 10-12, 2000
• Poland: The value of mortgages, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Berg, Ost-West-Contact 1999, p. 36 - 38, 1999
• Copyright Liability on the Internet Today in Europe (Germany, France, Italy and the E.U.), European Intellectual Property Review 1999, Vol. 21, S. 485 - 499, 1999
• New exchange regulations facilitate payment transactions, coauthored with Dr. Thomas Berg, Handelsblatt, June 2, 1999, p. 39, 1999
• New multimedia laws regarding the liability of multimedia services providers, Gestaltung und Analyse in der Rechts-, Wirtschafts- und Steuerberatung von Unternehmen, p. 441, Haarmann Hemmelrath & Partner, Verlag Dr. Otto Schmidt, Cologne, 1998
• The liability of third parties for obligations of a Polish limited company, coauthor with Dr. Andrzej Janik, Internationales Steuerrecht1997, Issue 15, p. 473-477,, 1997
• Legal requirements for the purchase of real estate in Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland. Mostly permissions are required. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 25, 1997, V p. 4, 1997
• Germany - Copyright Protection - 2nd part: Database producers, Expertises des Systèmes d'Information 1996, No. 193, p. 148-150, 1996
• Germany - Copyright Protection -1st part: Software producers, Expertises des Systèmes d'Information 1996, No. 192, p. 106-114, 1996
• European Community Legislation in the Financial Services Sector, (Edited by Dennis Campbell and Russell E. Carlisle), Kluwer, Deventer & Boston, 1992
• Development aid through anti-trust law?, Nomos Recht, Volume 43, Verlagsgesellschaft Baden-Baden, Nomos, 1991
• Enforceability of contractual penalties arising from restrictive covenants...which was declared unconstitutional by the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) in the year 1983, Wettbewerb in Recht und Praxis 1990, p. 460-462, 1990

Address

Prinzregentenstr. 11
80538 Munich, Federal Republic of Germany

Phones

49.89.20.60.42.200 (Business Phone)

Faxes

49.89.20.60.42.293 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com