Litigation | Dispute Resolution

Disputes occur again and again in trading or in business relations with suppliers, cooperation partners and customers. These can include contractual disputes about cooperation, distribution, supply or franchising agreements. We also take on warranty and product liability actions and claims for damages.

Regardless of whether claims are made against you or you wish to assert claims against someone else, we are at your side to resolve the dispute.

Conflicts particularly tend to occur in the field of company law. These can include disputes between shareholders or other disagreements related to corporations and partnerships.

We will assist you in asserting your legal rights or defending yourself against unjustified claims made by other shareholders.

Here we can obtain an interim order to secure your rights if required (e.g. in the run-up to a shareholders’ meeting), contest resolutions or assist you through an action between shareholders on company legal issues, such as the redemption of shares or distribution of profits, etc.

In a dynamic environment that can be financially challenging, businesses can find themselves facing increasing pressure from regulators, both nationally and internationally. This trend often leads to complex disputes. They can range from conflicts related to the validity and carrying out of banking and financial transactions to reversing them and the realising of securities all the way to issues surrounding the civil, criminal and professional liability of companies in the banking and financial sector and their directors.

Our litigation team has many years of experience. We advise companies doing business in the banking and financial sector nationally and internationally. We possess the expertise and sector-knowledge necessary to act on your behalf in such disputes.

Industrial rights (trademarks and hallmarks, design and Community design rights, patents and utility designs, trade secrets and know-how, copyrights and similar) and the German Act against Unfair Competition [UWG] all have a tendency to attract conflict and litigation.

It is part of the everyday reality of business for companies to discover that their rights have been infringed by third parties or that they are suspected of having infringed third party rights themselves.

In working on (alleged) infringements, in the reminders process beforehand and in asserting and enforcing your claims through the courts (or by defending you against alleged claims). In cases concerning IP or unfair competition, an interim order often gives you the way to resolve the dispute successfully.

Disagreements about administrative acts or other kinds of acts by administrative, supervisory and regulatory bodies are part and parcel of business.

We are at your side when it comes to all disputes under public law with administrative or other public bodies. We will give you advice and represent you before you take legal action, in administrative proceedings (which often precede it), in proceedings before the administrative courts and in other disputes under public law.

In times when national courts are increasingly complaining about being chronically overloaded and when court proceedings are taking longer on average, arbitration is a sensible alternative to resolving conflicts. In certain sectors and for certain types of agreements (particularly when it comes to international legal relations), arbitration clauses are already standard.

Our dispute resolution team will support you and your business before, during and after arbitration, both at home and abroad. Our team members naturally possess the language and intercultural skills that are often necessary in these situations.

We advise and represent clients, as needed, in arbitration under various rules, e.g, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), the Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtbarkeit e.V. (DIS), the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC), the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution (SCAI), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and ad hoc arbitration proceedings (conducted by the parties).

We’ll assist you through all the stages of arbitration from initiating the proceedings to exchanging pleadings to oral argument all the way to enforcing the decision.

Grant Thornton also advise you on the recognition and enforcement of domestic and foreign arbitral awards (at home and abroad) and in proceedings to have a German arbitral award annulled.

Independent economic analysis and advisory for disputes.

Our dispute/economic advisory team will support you with disputes in business affairs – whether it’s independent assessments, well-founded economic analyses or consulting on preparing for negotiations and proceedings. We’ll help you understand complex economic interrelationships and formulate clear arguments to strengthen your position.