Another blow for Haarmann Hemmelrath as two star partners quit

One of the founding partners of Haarmann Hemmelrath’s Munich operation has announced he is the leave the firm, just a week after name partner Wilhelm Haarman handed in his resignation.

Andreas Oldenbourg will leave the firm on 30 September 2005 along with fellow partner Simon Preisenberger.

In a statement sent to The Lawyer Oldenbourg said: "Together with Simon Preisenberger I will set up my own practice that will be focused on corporate, M&A and private equity."

The German legal world was rocked last weekend when, as first revealed on www.thelawyer.com, Haarmann Hemmelrath founding partner, Wilhelm Haarmann announced he was to step down. Haarmann handed in his resignation at a partner meeting the previous weekend.

Well-placed sources at the firm claimed he left following a row over the allocation of lockstep points. Haarmann says he was in favour of the lockstep but not the "methodology" used by the firm. He is due to leave the firm 30 June 2006.

Oldenbourg says that today’s resignations have nothing to do with the departure of Haarmann.