Our labour law team has a multifaceted and long-standing expertise in advising companies in all fields of labour law.
Our services include ongoing labour law advice in day-to-day business, i.e. with regard to establishing, performing and terminating employment relations, as well as operational and companywide co-determination. Furthermore, we advise on all questions relating to the employment of board members, managing directors and other executives (executive bodies, remuneration, competition regulations). We are also available to represent our clients in court with respect to all legal disputes including Federal Labour Court, before conciliation committees and in negotiations with the works council.
Within the scope of restructuring, we are at your service throughout the entire process of reorganization, from the conceptual approach to the implementation of appropriate staff-related measures. We support you in negotiations with the works council regarding the reconciliation of interests and social compensation plan, with the unions (e.g. referring to a restructuring union agreement) and dealing with industrial conflicts if necessary. If arrangements for outsourcing and insourcing are planned, we develop suitable concepts, handle agreements with the service providers involved and if required, strategies to prevent – or purposely create – a company transfer pursuant to Section 613a of the German Civil Code.
Taking into account the increasing regulatory density, we advise you on all compliance questions in terms of labour law. Initially this includes the development and implementation of instruments to control the compliance of legal norms in different fields, including internal standards of entrepreneurial requirements. We can support you, for instance, in all matters concerning employees´ data protection, organization of working hours as well as with the protection of know-how in labour law. In addition, we also support you in all questions with respect to the deployment of staff from a third party (temporary employees, employment of self-employed persons, service contract employees) and represent you in official investigations connected to any infringements of the law with regard to temporary employment or provisions regarding social security law.
Furthermore, our consultation extends to all aspects of international staff deployment. We support you in preparing the appropriate agreements with regard to the deployment or assignment guidelines and in applying for employment and residence permits.
SGP Attorneys offer legal counsel and represent, both judicially and extra-judicially, financial institutions in the area of private and corporate sectors, savings banks and financial services companies in particular aspects of banking law. One of our main priorities is legal representation in all German courts, with particular emphasis on filing and legally enforcing claims from terminated credit and loan agreements as well as from any credit collateral agreements.
We also defend financial institutions against claims made by third parties arising from guarantees and warranties – also concerning interim relief measures – and against claims regarding rescissions due to the cancellation of loan agreements and reclamation of processing fees. A substantial component of our expertise lies in our knowledge of company crises and insolvency proceedings. We support and advise financial institutions in the reorganisation and restructuring phases of their debtors, in particular on issues concerning restructuring loans and the provision of collateral which is secure against contesting insolvency. By means of interdisciplinary cooperation with our certified tax advisors and certified public accountants, we support our clients in reviewing reorganisation reports (including IDW S 6) with regard to plausibility.
We also advise on the decision as to whether a restructuring loan can be granted without bank liability risk and secured in an insolvency-resistant manner. In insolvency proceedings concerning debtors, we offer legal counsel and represent financial institutions in the defence against claims of rescission under insolvency law and the enforcement of collateral for preferential rights, as well as in drafting and negotiating extended and artificial DIP loans. We devise economic solutions for our clients by linking comprehensive business and fiscal expertise with precise, scientific and practice- oriented legal skills. We provide client training seminars on all relevant topics, either in-house or at our client´s premises. Our attorneys regularly publish articles in professional journals and often speak at external lecture events.
Our team of experts advises on all matters concerning real estate and construction law. We will gladly support you in all stages of your construction projects and in assessing or enforcing claims with respect to the correction of defects and warranty issues.
Due to an increasingly competitive domestic and international environment, companies are confronted with an endless series of legal provisions. Thus, there is an enormous risk of not properly complying with the regulations. High fines, which can threaten the existence of a company, damage claims, including personal liability of the responsible persons, are commonplace.
The installation of a compliance system for exposing existing grievances and controlling high-risk activities efficiently and in a future-oriented manner has therefore become an entrepreneurial necessity.
Our compliance team is specialized in the conceptual approach and implementation of compliance systems. Only by implementing an individual compliance system to effectively expose and prevent infringements of rights caused by the company, its bodies, and its professional staff, can it be ensured that existence threatening financial, personal and defamatory damages are avoided.
In Germany, law does not regulate the modern distribution form of “franchising”. For this reason, when drafting contracts, there are a widespread availability of judgments and numerous individual regulations to be considered. Therefore, the evaluation of a franchise contract is very difficult because the contract constitutes a complex contractual work. This must take into account legal provisions from different legal fields, e.g. protection of industrial property, commercial law, law of obligations, competition law, cartel law, consumer protection law including labour and social law.
Our team of franchise advisors are specialized in providing advice on these complex and multi-layered legal issues. For us, the aim is not only to clarify the content of a franchise contract, but also to discuss with you the fundamental question as to whether your business idea is actually feasible for franchising. In addition, we represent your franchise system in legal disputes with franchisees, either in court or under arbitration proceedings.
We advise our clients extensively on corporate law, i.e. choosing the optimal legal form of setting up companies and subsidiaries, the legal conceptual approach and arrangement of articles of associations and company agreements, as well as preparing general meetings and shareholder resolutions.
Our field of expertise also covers the purchase and sale of companies, including equity shares and shareholding amounts, conversions, integrations and company mergers.
We support our clients during the entire transaction process from initiating contracts to due diligence, as well as drafting all necessary contracts.
Our field of expertise regarding insolvency law covers all issues from consulting on restructuring and extra-judicial settlements of debts, to the institution and legal support of national and international judicial insolvency proceedings, including residual debt discharge proceedings. We also advise and represent our clients in insolvency plan proceedings.
An experienced team of insolvency administrators, certified tax advisors, and certified public accountants support us in our work. Thus, we are able to offer our clients all services from one single source. We are specialized in the nationwide enforcement and defence of claims with respect to rescission under insolvency law. In addition, we represent liability claims regarding the enforcement and defence of preferential rights concerning insolvency proceedings. Our expertise lies in our knowledge of company crises and insolvency proceedings.
We support and advise clients with an interdisciplinary approach on challenging insolvency proceedings, in the phase of reorganisation and restructuring and on all issues of insolvency law. By linking comprehensive economic and fiscal expertise with precise, scientific and practice-oriented legal skills, we devise optimal economic solutions for our clients. Our attorneys regularly publish articles in professional journals and often speak at external lecture events. We provide client training seminars on all relevant topics either in-house or at our client´s premises.
As long-standing specialists in the field of cartel law we know about the difficulties in approaching this legal field in the entrepreneurial practice. In day-to-day business, every company is confronted with matters relating to cartel law whether as a group or small business.
Which data may be collected about competitors? At which point is it deemed to be an unlawful information exchange with respect to cartel law? How do I react to price erosion caused by internet dealers and the pressure of the conventional shop? Etc.
While the risk of exposing a cartel infringement is rising constantly, the consequences thereof often seriously threaten the existence of the company. Apart from cartel authority fines, damage to the company image and cartel damage claims from the customers involved are coming more and more to the foreground.
Our cartel lawyers advise you how to handle cartel law in a legally secure manner, as well as giving advice on individual measures, for instance information systems, joint ventures or efficiency cartels.
In the case of cartel proceedings being instituted, we defend you vigorously and consistently before cartel authorities and in German and European Courts.
With respect to cartel damage claims, our experts support you whether defending unfounded claims or enforcing claims due to excessively high purchase prices caused by cartels. Please contact us for references.
Company mergers and acquisitions play a central role in our counselling practice. We regularly support domestic and cross-border M&A projects of medium-sized and larger companies up to publicly listed groups with all levels of transaction volumes.
The typical purchase and sale of companies, including the equity stake and shareholding amounts involved, belongs to our scope of action as well as conversions, integrations and company mergers. We support our clients throughout the entire transaction process.
Working together with an international network of M&A experts, we support the contractual initiation phase and devise an economic, legal and tax feasible negotiation strategy with our client. We create and optimize the transaction structure, execute due diligence, draft, and implement the complete contractual management and also support you with regard to the closing and integration phase, including comprehensive post-merger legal advice.
We develop, review, and negotiate sales contracts, for domestic as well as for international legal transactions. In this context, our special emphasis is to recognize and prevent potential conflict situations. Our aim is to draft contracts, which ensure both parties a beneficial, trusting, and long-term business relationship.
We advise you with regard to the appropriate legal concept of your sales and supply projects at home and abroad, including but not limited to the appropriate and ideal form of your letter of intent, memorandum of understanding, non-disclosure agreement, general terms and conditions, supply and project contracts, including the entire form printing. In the event of litigation, we represent your interests in Court in an efficient and results-oriented manner.
In addition, our extensive team of experts has long-standing experience in the fields of:
With regard to further legal fields of commercial law, we have created a close network of domestic and international partner offices and cooperating lawyers, with whom we have been working together for many years.
The expertise of the SGP Attorney dispute resolution team is based on extensive and long-standing experience in counselling and representing clients in the initial stages of a contentious dispute as well as in adversarial proceedings. In these cases we seek appropriate and target-oriented mutual solutions, working in close coordination with our clients at all times. We are always prepared to enforce our clients´ interests in all judicial instances if required.
We provide our clients with advance assistance in preventing conflicts and in seeking alternative dispute resolution, e.g. mediation or arbitration. In order to ensure that the clients´ interests are protected in the interim, we also represent our clients nationwide in interim legal protection proceedings.
In cases where legal disputes are unavoidable, we not only represent our clients in all domestic courts, but also in domestic and international arbitration procedures. Our clients appreciate our dispute resolution teams` project management qualities and economic understanding, especially with regard to conducting complex matters of litigation.