Heuking hires four for return to Munich

The move comes just two years after the firm closed its Munich office following the departures of 23 lawyers to PricewatehouseCoopers Veltins.
Company and corporate partner Ulrike Helkenberg will join from Zirngibl Langwieser; construction partner Carsten Wagner joins from his own firm; corporate partner Matheas Schröder joins from Fingerhut; and labour law partner Stephan Altenburg will join from Schwarz Kurtze Schniewind Kelwing Wicke. However, the latter two lawyers are still negotiating their departures.
The Heuking partner in charge of the Munich office Armin Von Griessenback said that Munich is an important city for the firm.
"The Munich economy is very strong and is the headquarters of a lot of software and IT companies," he said. "We're doing a lot of IT work and there are a lot of synergies between our branch offices and Munich."
He added: "A lot of our clients wanted us to have an office in Munich."
Heuking has 48 partners, with offices in Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Chemnitz.
When the original Heuking office closed in August 2000, the firm's managing partner Roland Hoffmann-Theinert said the split arose out of different perspectives on global strategy.
At the time he said: "If we still want to advise entrepreneurs, then we should stay in an independent law firm and not become an annex of an accountancy firm." That was a key area of disagreement with the Munich partners.
Heuking has an exclusive relationship with Denton Wilde Sapte and a year ago Heuking changed its profit-sharing system to fit in with that of Dentons.