Brobeck Hale and Dorr opens in Munich

Technology law firm Brobeck Hale and Dorr opened the doors of its Munich office on January 2. Partners Hubert Besner, Christian Breuer and Rainer Kreifels will staff the office. All three were previously with the technology-focused Munich-based law firm Besner Kreifels Weber of which Besner and Kreifels were founding partners in 1995. In addition to Besner, Breuer and Kreifels come US securities partner David Ayres on secondment from Brobeck Hale and Dorr’s London office and Peter Kremer, who was previously a partner at Heiss & Partners. Kremer has known the ex-partners of Besner Kreifels Weber for some years.

A managing partner among the group of five partners in the Brobeck Hale and Dorr Munich office has yet to be confirmed, according to Besner. Four associates join the five partners mentioned initially.

Besner says of his and Breuer and Kreifels moves: “The motivation was to become part of a bigger firm and to benefit from the Brobeck Hale and Dorr structure. As a small local technology firm we recognised that as soon as a client became too successful they began looking for a bigger law firm.” The Munich office of Brobeck Hale and Dorr, says Besner, will continue to focus on early stage technology companies and hope to retain them as clients as they grow. Besner notes one of the new team’s objectives is to take clients to IPO and continue to represent them post IPO.

“We believe that technology in Germany is just at the beginning of the cycle and if you look at the US development we may have 2,000 to 3,000 listed technology companies in Germany in the next five years,” says Besner.

Brobeck Hale and Dorr is a joint venture established in London in 1990 by two independent law firms in the US: Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (based in San Francisco and founded 1926) and Hale and Dorr LLP (based in Boston and founded 1918).

The Munich office is Brobeck Hale and Dorr’s first office in continental Europe. To date Brobeck Hale and Dorr’s German transaction list includes; advising GF-X.com on $60.3 million investment from Deutsche Post, Lufthansa, Panalpina and SwissAir; advising nCipher on $5 million investment from Deutsche Bank, RSA Security, Viventures and Celtic House International. Its IPO experience extends to Infineon Technologies listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (representing Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank): listing web.de on the Neuer Markt (representing Robertson Stephens and DG Bank); listing Trintech on the Neuer Markt and NASDAQ (representing Deutsche Bank); and listing letsbuyit.com on the Neuer Markt (representing Robertson Stephens and DG Bank).

“We targeted the Munich and the Isar Valley because it is recognised to be continental Europe’s leading technology and venture capital centre,” said Tom Kellerman, managing partner of Brobeck Hale and Dorr in London.

The telephone number at Brobeck Hale and Dorr’s Munich office is

+49 89 242 130.