NEWS

On April 1, 2025, the newly founded law firm ORTHPARTNERS Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG goes live. A team of around 20 experienced lawyers will work from offices in Düsseldorf, Essen, Berlin and Stuttgart. The full-service commercial law firm is pursuing an ambitious growth strategy and is planning rapid expansion in terms of personnel.

Full service

ORTHPARTNERS positions itself as a contemporary full-service commercial law firm with a clear focus on the needs of clients from the service, industry and public sectors. The range of advisory services covers all relevant areas of commercial law, for example

• Corporate law/M&A
• Labor law
• Public law / Public procurement / State aid / Regulation
• Reorganization, restructuring and insolvency law including liquidation support
• Commercial
• IP/IT and data protection
• Intellectual property rights
• Litigation / Dispute Resolution

The team

The founders of the new law firm are Dr. Robert Orth, previously co-founder of the law firm Orth Kluth (renamed orka), from which he left in March, and Dr. Robert Manger, previously a partner at EY Law. In addition to Dr. Peter Kluth (previously Orth Kluth - renamed orka - where he was co-founder) and Dr. Nikolai Weber (previously EY Law), the founding partners also include Andreas Broich (previously orka), Dr. Gudrun Germakowski (previously McDermott, Will & Emery), Dr. Anke Empting (previously Pinsent Masons), Jan Peter Schiller (previously michels.pmks and CMS), Maren Müller-Mergenthaler (previously at orka) and the Essen notary Dr. Patrick Nordhues.

In addition, an experienced team from EY Law is joining ORTHPARTNERS: Dr. Anika Bender, Kristian Dupper, Nina Reinecke, Maximilian Strauß-Kallwass and Maik Nießen are coming on board in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Essen. Tobias Lunk joins the new ORTHPARTNERS team from orka, Julia Paul joins directly from Pinsent Masons and Sebastian Niehues on June 1. Matthias Soutschek (also from EY Law) will join ORTHPARTNERS on July 1. 

Joining ORTHPARTNERS as Senior Counsel on April 1 are Thomas Kutschaty, former Minister of Justice of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Essen and Judith Pirscher, former District President and former State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in Berlin. In addition, the recognized IT and data protection expert Jürgen Kuck joins the team as Senior Counsel.

Three international desks and a focus on the public sector at the start

One focus of our work is the internationality of our clients. ORTHPARTNERS also has specialized international desks for China, the Nordic European countries and the Netherlands. The lawyers at ORTHPARTNERS advise internationally active companies in the desks, taking into account the country-specific characteristics.

In addition, there is the Public Sector team, which advises authorities and companies from the public sector on corporate law issues, public procurement and regulatory matters as well as on questions relating to state aid. 

Notary public in Essen

The firm's starting team includes notary Dr. Patrick Nordhues, who is based in Essen. As a notary, he regularly notarizes corporate restructurings, transactions, succession planning and real estate matters.

Legal form enables wider range of services

The choice of the innovative legal form "Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG" offers clients clear advantages over traditional partnership companies: It enables an extended range of services that goes beyond traditional freelance advice and enables the full range of legal services - especially in the areas of data protection management, restructuring advice, liquidation support and legal tech.

"Our new law firm combines the highest level of professional expertise with a modern structure that is precisely tailored to the needs of our clients," explains founding partner Dr. Robert Orth. "We combine the best of both worlds: excellent legal advice and innovative services in a flexible and contemporary organizational form."

Dr. Robert Manger adds: "We are very much looking forward to tackling exciting new challenges together with a highly motivated team and providing our clients with comprehensive support - both nationally and internationally."

"Because successful solutions are always created together"

Orth and Manger emphasize the equality of everyone in the team: "Our corporate culture of partnership is based on the values of excellence, empathy, fairness and appreciation - both in dealing with our clients and within our team. This self-image is also reflected in the name of the new law firm."