Knauthe

Regardless of whether SMEs or large corporations, our notaries will guide you with proven expertise and competence. In the following areas:

• Drawing up articles of association
• Formation with cash contribution or contribution in kind
• Silent partnership
• Change of corporate form
• Contribution of assets
• Corporate action
• Trusteeship
• Annual general meeting
• Sale and settlement

A successful lifestyle also requires legal clarity. Our notary’s office also offers services regarding private situations and deals with these matters in an objective and sensitive manner. For example:

• Marriage and civil partnership agreements
• Divorce agreements
• Wills and testamentary contracts
• Anticipated succession and gifts
• Right of use, usufruct and land charge
• Certificates of inheritance and inheritance disputes

For international matters, regarding e.g. creating cross-border wills, we work with leading experts of the jurisdiction concerned.

Together with and for our clients, we draw up articles of association and bylaws according to all legal regulations, prepare for company and shareholder general meetings and hold them or advise on disputes relating to Corporate Law. In addition, we will structure remuneration for managers, support you with regard to management participation and develop strategies to avoid the personal liability of Managing Directors, management and supervisory boards.

Is a strategic purchase or sale being planned? Over a period of many years, our law firm has been able to gain valuable experience through the successful conclusion of many transactions. After all, our primary aim for our clients is to avoid risks. KNAUTHE structures the due diligence process with a team of experienced lawyers and guides this process right up until the completion of the transaction. If required, we put together interdisciplinary teams of lawyers with expertise in different subject areas.

Of course, we also advise our clients on how to optimise the acquisition integration (post-merger integration). Ask us.

In order for a company to be managed properly, our law firm develops intra-company rules and guidelines, implements them and knows how to enforce them. We create compliance guidelines for our clients and advise Managing Directors, executive, supervisory and advisory boards in the assessment process carried out by regulatory authorities.

From the first analysis of a company crisis to the conclusion of possible restructuring, our law firm is your partner throughout the restructuring process. If required, we plan and structure insolvency proceedings or “orderly” withdrawal through liquidation. The sooner you call on our advice during a company crisis, the greater the scope for solving the problems.

With an eye on the big picture, we advise holding companies on the selection of investments and their structuring. We draw up contracts and arrange start-ups. We lead the contract negotiations and prepare the exit for clients after successful implementation of the investment strategy.

KNAUTHE has a team of experts to advise you on tax law, in particular in the area of taxation of businesses.
In addition to tax advice with regard to corporate law, we mainly specialise in transactions and restructurings. Furthermore, we also deal with the conception and formation of different types of funds (equity, business and real estate funds) as well as bearer bonds in accordance with tax laws.
The close connection with the corporate finance area allows us to provide comprehensive advice to both national and international companies.
Another focus of our work is to advise wealthy individuals on the tax structuring of succession planning.

One of our key focuses is to advise people in the public eye and business people, who feel their personal rights are being infringed by press and media reports, on the law.
Furthermore, we also provide comprehensive advice to companies in the publishing industry as well as in the film and television industry, in particular on the areas of press and personal rights, telemedia services, publishing law as well as music and film rights.

We offer a full range of IT consulting services. Not only regarding the law but also regarding necessary technical expertise.
This allows us to give companies active in this field the best advice. So, you are in the best hands if you have any concerns or questions regarding e-commerce, software or data protection laws.

We strengthen offeror and target companies through legal measures by including executive and supervisory boards in the acquisition offers according to the German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act.

In addition, we also advise our clients on ad hoc disclosure obligations, insider trading prohibitions and other requirements resulting from the admission of listed companies.

Finally, KNAUTHE advises on the preparation and realisation of general meetings.

In retrospect, it often turns out that recommended capital investments neither corresponded to the investment objectives nor the risk appetite of investors. Capital investment law is not a field of legislation that is governed by a single law. In addition, new court decisions that may be decisive regarding the question of whether an investor is entitled to make a claim or not, are made almost on a weekly basis.

We provide comprehensive advice to fund initiators and publishers of prospectuses in the structuring of investment companies. This not only applies to drawing up prospectuses, but also the defence of prospectus liability claims.

In addition, we can also advise you on the assertion of claims from investors. The liability for incorrect investment advice, incorrect asset management and execution of financial futures without adequate risk disclosure are important areas. Investment in real estate is increasingly the focus of press coverage. Whether on the subject of open real estate funds, many of which have currently suspended the redemption of shares or whether in the field of closed-end funds, i.e. participation in a company. We will advise and assist you if your investment has not gone to plan or met the expectations you rightly had after consulting a investment advisor.

We also assist our clients with business transactions. In addition to the legal review prior to a transaction, our work includes the preparation of due diligence reports that is related to labour law, drawing up the labour law related parts of the company acquisition and merger agreements as well as post-merger integration.

Of course, we also negotiate with the Works Council and assist in arbitration committee proceedings right from the representation of our clients in decision-making procedures before the Labour Court to the implementation of individual contracts.

With much expertise we have been advising clients for years on collective bargaining negotiations as well as on matters regarding tariff changes and opting out. In particular, our office in Berlin has made a mark on a national level through its labour law concepts, amongst other things in the restructuring of public companies including the formulation of collective labour agreements.

When asking our clients for feedback, they also regularly highlight our expertise in the prevention and, if applicable, the implementation of the supervisory board elections under the One-Third Participation Act or the Co-Determination Act. Thus, we can offer you advice and practical help regarding co-determination matters.

Furthermore, we also have extensive knowledge and experience in the field of company pension schemes. On this basis, we advise and support our clients competently right up to the time of conclusion or in the drawing up process of company pension schemes.

Architect and Consultant Contracts

We prepare planning contracts with and for architects and engineers, which pave the way to achieving the objectives of our clients’ projects. Regardless of whether these are constructors, planners or special experts. We also take care of project control or project management contracts.

Zoning and Building Law

Public building legislation is divided into “zoning law” and “building law”. You can trust the expertise of our law firm in both of these areas. We will advise you in legal planning requirements right from the beginning. Particularly when it comes to the establishment or amendment of zoning plans and land use plans by the respective municipalities. If a construction project is to be implemented in a “legally compliant manner”, the guidelines must be checked in detail. If this is required for the realisation of a project, the land use plan may be subject to judicial review. Either way, we will assist and support you in this process.

The Federal States make independent regulations on the basis of building law. Building law regulates the substantive requirements for structural works and the building permit process. In order for a project to be approved, it must comply with both the zoning and the building law regulations. Disputes regarding the building regulations requirements, e.g. regarding clearance, are varied.

Construction Contracts

We will provide you with legal advice during the construction. This enables you to ensure that you can carry out the service according to the contract and ward of supplements. Furthermore, it allows us to assist you during the acceptance and handover of the entire project to the tenants and purchasers. You can rely on us no matter what the circumstances are.

Acceptance and Final Payment

We support you in the acceptance processes and help you in the coordination and preparation process. Even in the event that deficiencies are identified, we know what to do. In terms of the acceptance requirements and the preservation of evidence. The legal accounting validation covers verifiability, legal requirements and special issues relating to fee structures for architects and engineers. This means that we also assist in the assessment of instalment and final payments to planners and contracting companies.

Assertion of Warranty Rights

It is extremely rare for no defects to be found on a construction project. For this reason, it is crucial for you to have a strong partner who enforces your warranty rights or respectively defends against unfounded claims for defects. In this process, we also deal with your legal problems in areas that are closely related to the successful enforcement of warranty claims, for example, the Law of Guarantees

Collateral / Insolvency in Construction

We assist you with the availment of collateral during and after completion of the construction. We advise you from the beginning on drawing up contracts in a way that claims are ensured and even in the event that a contractual partner should enter into insolvency proceedings, your legal position is not put at risk. Thus, we reduce your risk of unenforceable claims for fulfilment of the contract, payment or rectification of defects.

Public Procurement Law

We assist public contracting bodies in handling the awarding of construction contracts according to legal requirements. We help construction companies to optimise their offers and to formulate objections when the public procurement law has been violated. In addition, we represent both tenderers as well as clients in the review and appeal procedures before the procurement chamber and the procurement senate.

Renting / Leasing

When it comes to the administration, expansion and modernisation of real estate stocks, you can fully count on us. Regardless of whether individual contract solutions for all business models are required or you require support in the judicial and extra-judicial enforcement of rights or regarding foreclosures. In addition, we advise and represent commercial tenants and leaseholders in the establishment and execution of contracts and in enforcing their claims.

Creation of Residential Property / Management

In order to sell newly built units, residential and part ownership must be customised. This is essential in e.g. the property development area and for the utilisation of existing properties. We support you here right from the beginning and also advise and represent you in the management of residential property, including in extra-judicial and judicial enforcement.

Facility Management / Asset Management

Facility management and asset management are services that are increasingly outsourced by property owners. Facility management includes the professional execution of technical, infrastructural and commercial functions that are not part of the core business of a real estate company.
Nowadays, property managers and asset managers take on roles that go far beyond traditional house and land administration. Strategic alignment of acquisitions and an increase in value of existing buildings are currently the skills that real estate management firms market themselves with.

All these services require complex sets of rules, as the diverse services extending beyond renting and purchasing are not covered by the statutory provisions of the Federal Civil Code. In the event that a precise contractual agreement has not been drawn up, both the managers as well as the proprietor may face unpleasant surprises.

We advise both managers and proprietors in the definition of their contractual relationships. From our long-standing practice, we know which problems may arise and how to solve them.

Agency Law

The legal regulations on Agency Law are not very elaborate and leave many questions unanswered. In the absence of a written agreement with the client, the estate agent often has great difficulty enforcing his compensation claims. The matter gets increasingly complicated if not only an estate agent markets an object, but instead comprehensive marketing structures have been put into place without establishing clear rules.

We will help you establish your marketing corporation in compliance with the law.

Environmental law is becoming increasingly important. We provide our clients with advice on the “traditional areas” of this law. Thus, on all questions concerning immission control, nuclear and radiation protection, soil protection, water protection, nature conservation and landscape management or on recycling management / waste disposal law. Furthermore, we also cover “more recent” control areas, such as environmental energy and climate change law, the law on hazardous materials or genetic engineering law. Our expertise is also sought-after in related areas, e.g. environmental liability and environmental damage law or environmental criminal law and environmental offences.

We advise and represent our clients in regulatory procedures in order to obtain or ward off various installation approvals, to establish specific operator obligations or to prevent investigation or remediation orders related to soil protection and their high consequential costs. We exercise our clients’ rights before the Administrative Courts, the Higher Administrative Courts and before the Federal Administrative Court. We also look into all areas of environmental law in the framework of legal due diligence.

In the event that roads, waterways, railways, airports or similar infrastructure projects are to be built or changed, the procedural requirements under the planning regulations of the individual Federal States and of the Federal Government are to be taken into account.

This affects different fields of law in which we act for our private and governmental clients. We already exercise the legal interests of our clients in the very first stages of planning and in the subsequent approval process. Thus, we avoid lengthy litigations, which are in many cases immediately brought before the Higher Administrative Courts or the Federal Administrative Court.

Malfeasance of public authorities at the expense of affected individuals or companies in the private sector may result in the public authorities, in other words the Federal Government, a federal State or a municipality being liable. For example, if a construction or installation permit is illegally denied.

We provide our clients with advice in enforcing or warding off claims resulting from government liability. We also represent your claims before the responsible Civil Courts.

In recent years, due to the greatly improved legal protection of businesses, the public procurement law has developed into an independent and complex field of law.

We assist clients and tenderers in the procurement of construction works, delivery services, provision of services and planning services (VOB / A – German Construction Contract Procedure, VOL / A – German Service Performance Contract, VOF – German Professional Service Contract Regulation ) and represent them in review and appeal procedures before the public procurement chamber and the procurement senate.

Should an amicable divorce or separation fail, we will represent our clients before the court in a committed manner in all pending family law issues related to a contested divorce.

Asset disputes and marital property claims to compensation. Goods acquired during marriage / alimony / pension rights adjustment

We offer you support in the following areas of family law:

• All types of divorce proceedings and marriage annulment
• Property compensation claims and marital property claims for compensation, goods acquired during marriage and separation of property
• Alimony for spouses and children, alimony for parents and alimony rights for unmarried parents
• Custody and visitation rights
• Pension rights adjustment

A further core area is to verify notarised marriage contracts and, if necessary, we adjust or appeal them. The reason for this is that in recent years Family Courts have increasingly declared notarised marriage contracts and divorce settlements ineffective and contra bonos mores when there has been an extremely “uneven distribution of the burden”.

To avoid disputes over inheritance, it makes sense to make arrangements during one’s lifetime and in mutual agreement regarding inheritance. In this process, we provide you with both legal and notarial advice as well as draw up contracts for you.

This usually allows us to find the most favourable regulations in terms of inheritance tax or tax.

We will draw up individual wills and testamentary contracts for you. If provisions have already been put into place in the event of death, we verify whether they still meet your needs and / or whether they need to be adjusted due to current tax regulations.

Advice and representation in the event of death for heirs and transferred heirs / entitlement to a compulsory portion

We provide legal and notarial advice and representation to heir and co-heirs. We take care of everything, from the certificate of inheritance application, the verification or warding off of entitlement to a compulsory portion to inheritance disputes.