Pinsent Masons expands Munich office with double hire

03 Dec 2012 | 04:22 pm | 1 min. read

International law firm Pinsent Masons has strengthened its practice in Germany with the arrival of two senior lawyers in its Munich office. Christian Lütkehaus arrives from Portelet, a boutique advisory and asset management firm with offices in Mumbai (India), Shanghai, Singapore and Zurich, co-founded by him in 1997. He will be joined by Dr. Holger Kessen, who was a partner at the Munich office of v. Boetticher Hasse Lohmann.

Christian has a broad range of knowledge and experience advising clients on foreign direct investments and the establishment or reorganisation of businesses, including joint ventures. He lived across Asia from 1997 to 2011, and advised clients from a variety of jurisdictions and industries on strategically important contracts, business relationships and compliance matters in the Middle East, India, Singapore/Southeast Asia and China. He furthermore worked on power generation projects and advised clients throughout the whole project cycle, from procurement of a project to its completion. Christian has particular industry experience in energy and construction, engineering, environmental technologies, and financial services, in particular asset management.

Holger is a litigator with a focus on banking, commercial and civil law. He has represented major fund syndicators, mid-sized banks, investment funds, commercial businesses, executives and private clients before German courts. He has been named as a frequently recommended litigator in the leading German legal directory "JUVE-Handbuch 2012/2013". Holger is also certified as a specialised banking and capital markets lawyer. He advises banks and other financial service providers on banking law and regulatory matters and regularly publishes articles for the German "juris PraxisReport Bank - und Kapitalmarktrecht". He started his career as in-house counsel for German banks.

Commenting on their arrivals, David Ryan, managing partner at Pinsent Masons said, "This news shows the firm's commitment to growing our capability in Germany. Munich is a key part of our international expansion and underlines our strategy to develop greater links between Europe and Asia."

Dr. Ulrich Lohmann, partner and head of Pinsent Masons' Munich office, said: "We are very pleased that Christian and Holger are joining us. The Munich office has had a very successful launch and clients are already benefiting from having access to the firm's international network."