EXPERTISE
Legal expertise for commercial reality
Anyone running a business does not need a lawyer who merely lists fields of law. They need a lawyer who understands their situation — and who commands the tools that situation requires. Litigation and contract drafting are my core disciplines. German law on contracts for work and services, distribution law, transport law and international business law are the substantive fields in which they are applied.
Litigation
Litigation is the foundation of my legal work. Everything else is built on it — not the other way around. Anyone who conducts litigation sees what makes contracts hold up in a dispute and what makes them fail.
For more than two decades, I have conducted business disputes for companies before German courts, in cases of real commercial weight, procedural depth and often an international dimension. I represent manufacturers, general contractors, suppliers and exporters, including before the German Federal Court of Justice, working with counsel admitted there.
Many of these cases have an international dimension: foreign contracting parties, courts in more than one country, questions of jurisdiction and enforcement across borders. In my practice, litigation and international procedural law are directly intertwined.
Contract drafting
At LEGAL+, contract drafting is not a separate service alongside litigation. It is its preliminary stage.
Every contract I draft or review is measured against one question: What happens to this contract if a dispute arises? Will the clause withstand scrutiny under German standard terms law? Can the agreed performance be proven? Will the limitation of liability be effective when it is needed? These are the questions asked by someone who regularly sees contracts being taken apart in court. That is my daily work.
I draft and negotiate contracts for work and services, supply agreements, distribution agreements and subcontractor agreements. I review customers’ purchasing terms and draft contracts from foreign counterparties. In cross-border contracts, the quality of the drafting is ultimately determined by whether claims, deviations in performance and responsibilities can in fact be enforced cleanly across borders in a dispute. I therefore do not draft contracts for the ideal case, but for the conflict case.
German Law on Contracts for Work and Services
German law on contracts for work and services is the substantive centre of my practice. Where litigation is the method, this field is its most frequent subject matter.
The law on contracts for work and services under sections 631 et seq. of the German Civil Code is built on a simple principle: the contractor owes the creation of the promised work, and the customer owes the agreed remuneration. Between conclusion of the contract and payment, however, lies acceptance — and with it, a set of rules that determines risk allocation, burden of proof and enforceability. Acceptance under section 640 of the German Civil Code is the pivotal point: it makes the remuneration due, shifts the burden of proof for defects to the customer, and starts the limitation periods for warranty claims. A contractor who does not bring about acceptance properly remains trapped in advance performance — commercially and legally.
I structure contracts for work and services so that the description of the work, change order provisions, acceptance and warranty fit together — and I represent companies when customers refuse acceptance, allege defects or withhold payment.
Distribution law
Commercial agents, authorised dealers, distribution partners abroad — distribution structures generate revenue and create legal ties that may prove significant when a dispute arises. The commercial agent’s compensation claim under section 89b of the German Commercial Code is the best-known example, but by no means the only one. Anyone terminating an authorised dealer agreement will face the question whether a compensation claim may exist by analogy. Anyone appointing a distribution partner abroad must know whether the law of that country contains mandatory protective provisions in favour of the intermediary that cannot simply be displaced by a contractual choice of law. Anyone agreeing on exclusivity arrangements moves in the tension between contractual freedom and the limits imposed by competition law.
I draft distribution agreements that serve the manufacturer’s commercial interests and hold up in a dispute — and I represent companies when distribution relationships come to an end and the accounting begins.
Transport law
In domestic road transport, the German Commercial Code and the rules of carriage law apply. In international road transport, the CMR applies. In sea carriage, the Hague Rules, the Hague-Visby Rules or — depending on the constellation — other conventions apply. In air carriage, the Montreal Convention applies. And in multimodal transport, the key question is which regime applies to which leg of the transport. Liability limits differ significantly, notice and claim deadlines are short, and anyone who misses them loses their claim — often irretrievably.
I advise on the drafting of transport contracts, on the review of freight forwarders’ and carriers’ standard terms, on the assertion and defence of cargo claims, and on the question which transport insurance actually covers the risk. My foundation is many years of advising one of the world’s largest logistics companies — experience that has given me an understanding of the operational reality of transport that goes beyond legal knowledge alone.
International Trade Law
Anyone exporting machinery or industrial equipment operates within a dense regulatory framework that extends far beyond the contract itself. The German Foreign Trade and Payments Act and the German Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance form the national framework. EU Dual-Use Regulation (EU) 2021/821 determines which goods require an export licence because they may have military as well as civilian uses. EU embargo regulations and sanctions lists restrict trade with certain countries, companies and individuals — with changes and tightening measures occurring at short intervals. The legal consequences of violations are not peripheral fines: sections 17 and 18 of the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act provide for criminal penalties, including imprisonment.
Anyone delivering a turnkey project abroad must not only master the contract, but also know which licences are required, which goods list entries are affected, and which compliance requirements the company must meet.
I advise companies on foreign trade law, export control compliance and the contractual safeguarding of international supply transactions — and I represent them when violations are alleged.
Core focus areas
There are few areas in which LEGAL+’s focus becomes clearer than in the interplay of these fields: thinking about contracts with future conflict in mind, and handling conflict with the client’s business objectives in view. The two core focus areas of LEGAL+ show where this interplay is particularly effective:
CONTACT
kontakt@legal-plus.eu
+49 (40) 57199 74 80
+49 (170) 1203 74 0
Bleichenbrücke 11 D-20354 Hamburg
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