Global law firm Freshfields announces the expansion of its partnership in Germany and Austria for the Global Transactions practice group at the start of the new year. The four new partners in Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna are Dr. Florian Sippel, Dr. Carsten Bork, Dr. David Schwintowski and Lukas Treichl. In addition, the highly regarded partners Dr. Heiner Braun and Dr. Stephan Waldhausen are reinforcing the Munich office.

Dr. Florian Sippel joins the Munich office as Private Equity partner. He was formerly at Freshfields for seven years until 2021, based in Frankfurt, Munich and London. He advises leading private equity funds and strategic investors, with a sector focus on technology, e-commerce and software. Over the years, the private equity funds he has worked for include Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Triton, TPG and Permira. At Freshfields, he was part of the teams that advised Permira on its investment in Adevinta in 2021 and Hellman & Friedman on its acquisition of AutoScout24 in 2019.

Dr. Carsten Bork (Frankfurt) focuses primarily on advising cross-border transactions in the infrastructure and energy sectors, especially for private equity and strategic investors. His clients include CPP Investments, Brookfield, Global Infrastructure Partners (part of BlackRock), and AXA IM. Together with Dr. Simon Schwarz, he led the team that recently advised the Federal Republic of Germany on a security agreement as part of the TKMS IPO. Alongside Dr. Lars Westpfahl, Bork headed the Freshfields team handling the restructuring of Meyer Werft.

Dr. David Schwintowski (Munich) has most recently been based in Singapore and previously in the Munich office, to where he will now return. With his appointment, Freshfields now has a partner who is exclusively dedicated to strategic and transactional advice in the insurance sector. Schwintowski played a central role in many of the industry's most significant and recent deals: He advised Vienna Insurance on its merger with Nürnberger and was in a leading role for Cinven on the sale of Viridium, Germany’s largest life insurer. With Dr. Heiner Braun, he headed the team accompanying Baloise on a merger, which created the second-largest insurer in Switzerland.

Lukas Treichl (Vienna & Munich) is a member of the Global Transactions practice group and Co-Head of the Lab. In that role he regularly advises clients on data-driven transformation projects and strategic digital matters, most notably in the automotive industry. Another focus is on advising private equity and telecommunications companies on digital infrastructure transactions. An AI collaboration platform developed by Treichl with the Lab and CARIAD (Volkswagen Group) was honored by the Financial Times in 2024. He himself has been recognized as “Future Leader” by Germany’s business weekly WirtschaftsWoche and one of “30 talents under 35” by Austrian daily Die Presse.

In addition, partners Dr. Heiner Braun and Dr. Stephan Waldhausen, Global Co-Head of the Industrials sector group, will further strengthen the Munich office. Both are highly regarded for their experience in international transactions for large corporates and financial investors. This brings the number of lawyers in Munich to over 90, including 19 partners.

Braun is one of the most accomplished lawyers in Germany for high-volume international transactions. He also has experience handling transactions with a complex regulatory angle, such as those in insurance or infrastructure. He regularly advises Private Capital clients such as KKR and in 2024, he was the lawyer with the largest deal volume in Germany (Mergerlinks) – advising on the sale of Techem and being the lead partner advising DSV on its $14.3bn acquisition of Schenker – the largest transaction in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

Waldhausen is one of Germany’s most respected and highly rated lawyers for corporate law and takeovers, with strong ties to listed industrial and technology companies. His clients include Siemens Energy, Porsche SE, Beiersdorf, ZF Friedrichshafen, Deutsche Telekom, E.ON, thyssenkrupp, and CompuGroup. He regularly advises on complex M&A transactions not only in Europe, but also in relation to the US (Beiersdorf, Wincor Nixdorf) and Asia (Siemens Energy, Knorr-Bremse, Vossloh).

“We are strengthening our overall position in M&A and Private Equity with today’s announcement, and we increase our deep industry expertise in technology, insurance, and infrastructure,” says Dr. Patrick Cichy, Head of the Corporate/M&A practice in Germany and Austria since May 2024. “We are taking our Munich office to a new level: We now have even more partners on the ground, further driving international transactions and pushing key future sectors.”

Dr. Arend von Riegen, global Co-Head of our Private Capital practice group adds: “We are excellently positioned for the future to advise our private capital clients on all topics that are highly relevant to them. We rely on a cross-generational approach, trusting in both established names and emerging talents, all of whom we have trained ourselves – a proven hallmark of quality in the market.”