Dr. Jörn Hirschmann

April 8, 2021, Covington Alert

The German Act on the Stabilization and Restructuring Framework for Companies (StaRUG), implementing the EU Restructuring Directive[1], came into force on 1 January 2021. The StaRUG provides for a new pre-insolvency restructuring procedure that enables companies to restructure their liabilities based on a qualified creditor majority, i.e. with the possibility to ...

October 30, 2020, Covington Alert

So far, restructurings in Germany have been implemented either by way of consensual pre-insolvency solutions or formal and comprehensive insolvency proceedings with court oversight. The EU Restructuring Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of 20 June 2019 paved the way for the implementation of pre-insolvency restructuring proceedings in all EU member states that allow ...

August 8, 2020, Börsen-Zeitung

June 10, 2020, Covington Alert

The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) confirmed in a decision of May 7, 2020 (file number IX ZB 56/19) that distressed debt traders have the unrestricted right to inspect insolvency files.

May 6, 2020, Covington Alert

In the previous Covington alerts published on March 25 and April 7, we gave an overview on the various German State aid programs that are available for German companies facing liquidity difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent shutdown measures. It was clear from the beginning of the pandemic that many German companies would quickly face serious ...

April 7, 2020, Covington Alert

The German government has set up a protective shield for enterprises financially affected by the crisis, which, in addition to short-time work compensation (“Kurzarbeitergeld”), tax and social security deferrals and already existing federal state guarantee programs, establishes a KfW (the German state development bank) credit program and specific further ...

March 25, 2020, Covington Alert

In order to mitigate the effects of the Corona-pandemic on the ability of enterprises to pay their current liabilities, the German parliament has passed a law today containing a set of measures dealing, inter alia, with (i) the obligation to file for insolvency, (ii) certain liability risks of individual directors and managers in connection with a potential ...

December 19, 2019, Covington Alert

The German legislator has adopted a new Act, implementing the European Second Shareholder Rights Directive which, inter alia, sets forth increased transparency and approval requirements for related party transactions. The new Act will come into force on January 1, 2020.

August 27, 2019

FRANKFURT—WirtschaftsWoche, Germany’s leading business weekly news magazine, has named Covington as the top law firm for IT law and Dr. Lars Lensdorf, a partner in Covington’s Frankfurt office, to its list of top IT lawyers in Germany. Dr. Lensdorf focuses his practice on IT law, outsourcing, digitalization and industry 4.0, IT related bank regulatory matters, ...

September 28, 2018

FRANKFURT—Covington advised Investcorp Technology Partners on its acquisition of Berlin-based Softgarden, a human resources software provider. Investcorp is a leading global provider and manager of alternative investments and has $22.6 billion in total assets under management, including assets managed by third party managers and assets subject to a ...

May 9, 2018

FRANKFURT—Covington advised Adiuva Fund II GmbH & Co. KG, a private equity fund advised by Adiuva Capital GmbH, on the acquisition of nt-trading from private equity investor INVICTO Invest GmbH and various co-investors. Adiuva Capital is a Hamburg-based independent investment firm focused on investing in mid-sized enterprises. nt-trading is headquartered in ...

March 28, 2018

LONDON—Covington will open an office in Frankfurt, Germany on April 3 led by eight partners. Frankfurt will be the firm’s third European office and will work closely with the firm’s five offices in the United States, its three offices in Asia, and its offices in the Middle East and Africa. “Covington will offer German companies a unique capability to help them ...