Norton Rose expands German empire with a spate of hires

The ex-managing partner of highly-regarded Munich firm Arcon (previously named Schmidt-Sibeth Heisse Weisskopf Kursawe) and a team of six lawyers will join Norton Rose's two intellectual property (IP) partners in Munich.
Alexander von Bergwelt and his team specialise in M&A, restructuring, joint ventures and IP and IT. They bring with them a strong client base of public and Mittelstand companies in the publishing and new media sectors.
The new team in Munich will add a corporate finance practice to the existing IP and IT, telecoms and media group.
Norton Rose managing partner Roger Birkby said: "Munich is the centre for IP, IT and venture capital. We need a team to tie in with those industries but we also need a team that will be able to work with our major German clients in Southern Germany."
In Frankfurt, tax partner Uwe Hartmann joins the firm, bringing the number of partners there to seven.
Hartmann, who is currently practising as an independent lawyer and tax consultant, was previously a lawyer at Oppenhoff & Rädler (now Linklaters Oppenhoff & Rädler).
Hartmann's recruitment follows the hire of partner Frank Herring and a team of associates, who joined Norton Rose's Frankfurt office from Linklaters Oppenhoff & Rädler in June.
They will be joined by structured finance partner Lucy Wolley Dod, who is transferring from the London office in September.
Herring is one of Germany's leading banking regulatory and collective investment lawyers, and his appointment, combined with the transfer of Wolley Dod and the recruitment of Hartmann, is part of Norton Rose's drive to expand its corporate finance and capital markets practice in Frankfurt.
Birkby said that the strategy is to integrate the three offices into a single German practice.
Cologne will remain full service and will be able to provide support to Munich and Frankfurt.
He said that the firm will continue to expand the corporate and capital markets practices in Frankfurt, but there are no plans to open elsewhere in Germany.