Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is set to open its fourth German office in Stuttgart.
First published in German magazine JUVE, Latham & Watkins associate Ruediger Lahme will join the new Stuttgart office as counsel from September, while Quinn Emanuel counsel Jesko Preuss will relocate from the firm’s Mannheim premises.
Lahme, who has been with Latham for seven years, specialises in antitrust and focuses on cartel damage. Recent mandates include civil proceedings against an airline involved in air cargo investigations, as well as advising a Finnish chemicals producer in a pan-European multi-defendant cartel damages litigation.
Preuss was first made an associate at Quinn Emanuel in August 2012, a position he held for five years before he was made counsel two months ago in Mannheim.
Quinn has lost a number of City partners to rival Latham in the past year, including commercial litigator Martin Davies and most recently David Berman. Davies was a partner in commercial litigation and left the firm in January, while Berman was a partner in the firm’s financial services advisory practice and left in July.
Stuttgart is Quinn’s fourth office in Germany. It also has offices in Hamburg, Mannheim and Munich.
It is thought that the new office will have a particular focus on IP litigation, considered a speciality on the continent.
Quinn’s decision to open an office in Stuttgart is testimony to the region’s growing promise.
In March, The Lawyer reported that Gowling WLG opened its second German office in Stuttgart, however, its focus is on corporate law/M&A, capital markets law, and commercial law while the Munich office specialises in IP/IT . Both offices work together to service domestic and global clients.
Stuttgart is the latest in a series of office openings for Quinn. In the past 18 months, the litigation firm has opened in Perth and Zurich, while hiring a number of lawyers from Shearman & Sterling in Brussels.
