Grant Thornton continues its course of growth and expands its legal advisory

Press Release

Grant Thornton continues its course of growth and expands its legal advisory

31 Mar 2023

Düsseldorf/Munich, 30 March 2023

• Grant Thornton Germany expands its Legal service line by more than 20 lawyers
• Gaining four partners and their teams from a Big Four firm is a strategic move for further growth in the Legal service line
• The addition of staff allows for expansion of the portfolio and opens the door to new kinds of clients in IT/IP law and in investment and capital markets law

Grant Thornton Germany continues to grow, and from 1 June 2023 will consolidate its Legal service line significantly. The advisory and audit firm has been able to acquire more than 20 new lawyers, and thus to double its number. The team, which comes from one of the “Big Four” firms, will strengthen the Munich and Düsseldorf offices. The company will also set up a presence in legal advisory at its office in Frankfurt am Main.

Renounced market experts to expand the portfolio and new advisory areas

With its new partners, Klaus Brisch (IT and IP law), Dr Oliver Decker (investment and capital markets law), Michael Falter (corporate law/litigation and arbitration) and Dr Mathias Reif (corporate law/M&A), and their teams, the Grant Thornton law firm is expanding into new areas of advisory in IT and IP law, investment and capital markets law, and considerably strengthening the areas of corporate/M&A, litigation and arbitration, industrial property, commercial and marketing law, and employment law. 

In future, the Legal service line at Grant Thornton will be jointly led by Josef Nachmann, Dr Lilian Milkovic and Michael Falter, who will become a director and member of the Legal service line management on joining Grant Thornton. During his time at the British law firm DWF, the corporate lawyer specialising in contentious proceedings was Managing Partner Germany and a member of international management. 

This expansion is part of Grant Thornton’s growth strategy, which envisages being able to offer clients the most wide-ranging portfolio at its offices across the economic centres of Germany. In legal advisory, Grant Thornton now has a law firm with a complete range of business law services, which together with Grant Thornton’s other service lines, offers a comprehensive range of advisory services for mid-market and listed companies, and financial service providers.  

About the change, Michael Falter says, “We are looking forward to working in a business environment that makes the highest demands on the quality of advisory, and we are convinced that by working closely with our colleagues in the other service lines we can offer market-orientated services that benefit our clients”. 

Josef Nachmann, head of the Legal service line at Grant Thornton Germany, is looking forward to the strengthening of this line. “It’s great that we can strengthen our team with such experienced and renounced lawyers. Their additional expertise will enable us to attend to our clients’ needs even better, and to assist them even more fully.” 

Editor’s note: complete profiles of the new experts can be found in the appendix.

About Grant Thornton in Germany

Grant Thornton is one of the ten largest audit firms in Germany, providing services to upper mid-market companies and listed companies with around 1,600 employees at eleven offices. The audit and consultancy firm consists of the service lines Audit & Assurance, Tax, Advisory, Business Process Solutions, Legal, and Private Finance. The company is the German member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd. The Grant Thornton network has 68,000 employees and advises companies in around 150 countries around the world. www.grantthornton.de

Contact 

Susanne Gehrling
Head of Corporate Communications
+49 69 905598 617
susanne.gehrling@de.gt.com 

Profiles of the experts

As a lawyer specialising in the law of information technology, Klaus Brisch possesses nearly 30 years’ professional experience in the areas of IT and IP law, data protection and data security, cyber, compliance and data economy. At Grant Thornton, he will be employing his comprehensive expertise on the subject of digital transformation and legal questions about technical innovation to develop tailored, strategic solutions for clients regarding complex legal questions and regulatory requirements. In outsourcing, the cloud and platform economy, too, Klaus Brisch can rely on his many years of experience in various industries, including the automotive industry, manufacturing, health, and the public sector. He comes to Grant Thornton from Deloitte Legal and will head up the areas of IT, IP and data protection law (“digital law”).

Dr Oliver Decker will take over management of financial services at Grant Thornton Legal, which is represented at various offices. The expert, who is well-known on the market, advises on all aspects of supervisory and investment law, as well as on corporate structures, particularly regarding direct and indirect investments in alternative investment funds for institutional investors, focusing on insurance companies and superannuation schemes, asset managers and capital management companies. Dr Decker is currently head of investment management at Deloitte Legal. Previously, he worked as a lawyer at KPMG Law, Dechert LLP, Allen & Overy LLP, and as in-house counsel at BayernInvest. It is also planned for Dr Decker’s team to expand services in banking and capital markets law. Together with the investment tax lawyer Dr Marcus Helios, who heads the area of financial services tax, and who joined Grant Thornton from EY at the beginning of 2022, the company now offers comprehensive and competent advisory on investment and investment tax law as well as on corporate structuring.

Michael Falter will be a director and, together with Josef Nachmann and Dr Lilian Milkovic, will take on the responsibility for further strategic expansion and lead the service line as a member of service line management. The lawyer specialising in corporate law has many years of experience in managing litigation cases and is currently responsible for dispute resolution at Deloitte Legal in Germany and Central Europe. At Grant Thornton, he will also lead the area of litigation and arbitration. 

Dr Mathias Reif will lead the area of M&A at the Grant Thornton Legal service line. The M&A lawyer has many years of experience in transactions, and has an excellent national and international network. His career to date has included in-house positions at Deutsche Telekom AG as well as Head of Corporate / M&A at dwf Germany. He is currently head of the M&A service line at Deloitte Legal in Cologne, a member in the M&A Steering Committee of Deloitte Legal Germany, head of the Israel desk at Deloitte Germany, and head of office at Deloitte Legal in Cologne.