Last Leipzig Gaedertz partners find homes

KPMG Treuhand & Goerdeler and Haarmann Hemmelrath & Partner have recruited the last partners to quit the defunct Leipzig office of Gaedertz.

Corporate lawyer Peter Krüger, who set up Gaedertz's Leipzig office in 1990, has joined the German member firm of KLegal International as its Leipzig head. Gaedertz associate Falk Hoffmann, a specialist in administrative law, joins with him.

Multidisciplinary partnership Haarmanns has also gained from the decline of Gaedertz. Corporate, insolvency and commercial specialist Bernd Brinkman joins its Leipzig office as a partner, accompanied by employment specialist Arndt von Hollen, corporate lawyer Dagmar Unger and Gabriel Glos, an expert in real estate, construction and tendering law.

The firms remain committed to the troubled Leipzig market despite many other firms' departures. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Wessing & Berenberg-Gossler and Linklaters Oppenhoff & Rädler are among those to have shut in recent months.

Michael Thierhoff, co-head of Haarmanns in Leipzig, says: "A lot of clients have gone over the years, but there's still a client base, and clients say that they want local consultants to work with them."

The hires complete the dispersal of Gaedertz's Leipzig office. The third partner, Andreas Fink, has already joined Norton Rose in Cologne.

The break-up of Gaedertz was triggered when partners failed to endorse a recommended merger with Norton Rose. The Cologne office has since merged with Norton Rose and the Hamburg office with Latham & Watkins. The Munich office has split, with three of its partners joining Norton Rose (The Lawyer, 12 February 2001).