A&O raids Shearman for Munich launch

Allen & Overy (A&O) is to open its fifth German office in Munich next month.
The new office will be headed by Shearman & Sterling’s current Munich chief Gottfried Breuninger, who is also Shearman’s global co-head of tax. He will join with Munich M&A partner Astrid Krüger, who was made up at Shearman in 2006.

A&O Germany senior partner Cornelius Fischer-Zernin said: “The Bavarian capital is one of the most important locations in the German legal market and is also one of the major European economic centres.”

The departures will be the third major blow for ­Shearman in Germany after losing global M&A head and rainmaker Rolf Koerfer to A&O and seeing its entire Mannheim office go independent (TheLawyer.com, 10 January and 22 April).

Shearman’s Munich base retains two partners and one counsel, with the latter set to become a partner in January 2009.