Hausfeld launches in Berlin with €30m litigation pot from Burford Capital

Burford will put up the multimillion-pound pot to fund a raft of German claims for the firm with a focus on competition litigation.

Hausfeld is expected to take a number of competition partners and associates from a local firm for the launch of its Berlin office on 1 January 2016, though no names have yet surfaced.

The news comes one year after the firm opened an office in Brussels to focus on antitrust disputes with the hire of Michelin Europe general counsel Laurent Geelhand as office managing partner.

The launch comes amid a rising number of competition cases in Europe following an announcement by the European Commission that it will adopt the EU Damages Directive for competition law claims.

Hausfeld chairman Michael Hausfeld said: “After increasing demand in Germany in recent years, we are delighted to expand our leading global competition litigation team and capacity to meet our clients’ needs in Germany at a key time in Europe as the enhanced rights for claimants under the EC Damages Directive becomes law next year.”

London managing partner Anthony Maton said the venture “will enhance our ability to offer our clients, amongst the leading German corporations in the retail, transport and automotive sectors, the broadest menu of options in pursuing competition damages claims”.

He added: “This comes as we prepare strong additions on the ground in Germany in our core area of practice and build on our successful collaboration with Burford in London.”

Hausfeld is using third-party funding on a number of its current claims in London, including its group action against Google and upcoming foreign-exchange rigging claim, The Lawyer understands.

Burford chief executive Christopher Bogart said the financing was an example of “how we work with firms and business to help them innovate and grow”.

In July Burford revealed it would begin lending to law firms in the US and financing them “not just for litigation matters”, said Bogart.

The fund, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, posted 48 per cent increased revenue for the first half of 2015 to $40.6m including $30.7m in profits from its litigation investments, up 64 per cent on the same period the previous year.

The Berlin office will be Hausfeld’s seventh office, adding to its bases in London, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington DC and Brussels. It will launch on 1 January under the name Hausfeld Rechtsanwälte LLP.

US firm Greenberg Traurig also moved into Germany in recent months, taking Olswang’s Berlin team after the firm “decoupled” its office in the capital to focus on growing its operations in Munich.

Greenberg Traurig and Hausfeld are bucking a recent trend of US firms downsizing in Germany. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is shutting down in Berlin and Frankfurt, Sidley Austin closed Frankfurt last year and Shearman & Sterling pulled out of Düsseldorf and Munich in 2013.

Previously the most recent launch was that of Morrison & Foerster, which opened in the German capital with the hire of Hogan Lovells’ entire Berlin team in 2013.