Brobeck Hale & Dorr Opens in Munich –

MUNICH – Technology law firm Brobeck Hale & Dorr opened the doors of its Munich office on Jan. 2. The office will be staffed by partners Hubert Besner, Christian Breuer and Rainer Kreifels. All three were previously with the technology-focused Munich-based law firm Besner Kreifels Weber, of which Besner and Kreifels were founding partners in 1995.

In addition to the team, comes U.S. securities partner David Ayres from Brobeck Hale’s London office and Peter Kremer, previously a partner at Heiss & Partners.

A managing partner among the group of five partners in the Munich office has yet to be confirmed, according to Besner. The five partners mentioned are joined by four associates initially.

“The motivation was to become part of a bigger firm and to benefit from the Brobeck Hale structure. As a small local technology firm, we recognized that as soon as a client became too successful they began looking for a bigger law firm,” said Besner.

The Munich office of Brobeck Hale, said Besner, will continue to focus on early-stage technology companies and hopes to retain them as clients as they grow. Besner noted one of the new team’s objectives is to take clients to an initial public offering and continue to represent them post IPO.

“We believe that technology in Germany is just at the beginning of the cycle and if you look at the U.S. development we may have 2,000 to 3,000 listed technology companies in Germany in the next five years,” says Besner.

Brobeck Hale & Dorr is a joint venture established in London in 1990 by two independent law firms in the U.S.: Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, based in San Francisco, and Hale & Dorr LLP, based in Boston.

The Munich office is Brobeck Hale’s first in continental Europe. To date, Brobeck Hale’s German transaction list includes advising GF-X.com on a $60.3 million investment from Deutsche Post, Lufthansa, Panalpina and SwissAir; and advising nCipher on a $5 million investment from Deutsche Bank, RSA Security, Viventures and Celtic House International.