Wragge & Co’s German best friend Graf von Westphalen has spun off its Leipzig office to concentrate its East German operations in Dresden and Berlin.
The office has been under review since the 2002 merger between Graf and Bappert & Modest as there is not enough work in East Germany to sustain a larger operation.
Graf brought the Leipzig office and Bappert the Dresden office, but the firm decided early on to concentrate its resources in Dresden.
Unlike Dresden, Leipzig has no resident partners. Its two associates, Stephan Eichhorn and Alexander Schmidt, will run it independently. Graf will now service East Germany from two offices, Dresden covering the south and Berlin the north.
Graf managing partner Barbara Mayer said: “Leipzig did a bit of everything. That’s part of why we made this decision. It couldn’t achieve a strong focus on business, and that’s our strategy.”
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