A state measure must be lawful and proportionate. If it is, it must be accepted. If it is not, I defend against it — preventively, before the authority acts, or reactively: from the administrative hearing through the administrative courts to the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights. Legal, not activist: I represent clients because they hold a right that must be enforced. For companies, media houses, professionals, academics and private individuals.
FOCUS AREAS
— Core fundamental rights: freedom of occupation against restrictions on admission and professional practice (Art. 12 GG — Basic Law); property rights against burdens, conditions and restrictions on use (Art. 14 GG); freedom of expression, the press, broadcasting and academic freedom against interference such as advertising bans, supervisory measures and disciplinary sanctions (Art. 5 GG)
— Public economic law and European sanctions law: recovery claims for subsidies and state aid, regulatory intervention, administrative supervision, listing and sanctions proceedings
— Out-of-court representation: I analyse risks, conduct hearing and objection proceedings, negotiate with authorities and submit statements in participation procedures
— Judicial representation at all levels of the administrative courts and before the Federal Constitutional Court, the General Court of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, in both interim relief and main proceedings
SELECTED MANDATES
— Representation of the television broadcaster MTV before the Bavarian administrative courts against broadcasting-time restrictions imposed by the state media authority; interference with freedom of broadcasting (Art. 5 GG)From this mandateMenschenwürde und schwere Jugendgefährdung: Erfahrungen aus einem fünfjährigen Rechtsstreit (in German)On this subjectSteht der Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz ein Beurteilungsspielraum zu? (in German)
— Successful action by an international retail company against the classification of its childcare service as a day-care facility requiring a licence; defence against regulatory interference with freedom of professional practice (Art. 12 GG)On this subjectKinderbetreuung im Handel: Genehmigungspflicht? (in German)
— Representation of a globally leading services company against a subsidy recovery claim by the Free State of Bavaria; funding granted in connection with the creation of jobs in a structurally weak region
— Advising a portfolio holder operating throughout Germany on the Berlin rent cap 2020/2021; constitutional assessment and operational consequences
— Advising the heir of photographer Elisabeth Hase on the sale of the archive to Robert Mann Gallery, New York; cultural property law review and support of the export (Kulturgutschutzgesetz, EU Cultural Goods Regulation)
— Advising an entrepreneurial family on securing the construction of a mausoleum in a cemetery in a major German city
— Preventive advice to a Munich residential portfolio holder in talks with the City of Munich on the realignment of the SoBoN (socially equitable land use — a planning instrument obliging developers to contribute to infrastructure costs and subsidized housing); resulting in a substantial regulatory improvement through a new module for holders of rental housing