Addleshaws steps up European expansion with 20-strong Taylor Wessing hire in Germany

Addleshaw Goddard has made a major expansion of its German business with the hire of a 20-person team from Taylor Wessing.

The group will join Addleshaw’s Munich office in the new year and includes four partners: Hendrik Boss, Christian Saueressig, Sven Schweneke and Elisabeth Schalk. Their practices span corporate and M&A, private equity, restructuring and insolvency.

They will be joined by five Taylor Wessing salary partners and a wider team of lawyers, taking the total group to 20.

The move significantly expands Addleshaw’s presence in Munich, where it currently has three partners.

European expansion

Addleshaws has been one of the more aggressive UK firms in expanding across continental Europe in recent years.

It opened its first office in the region in Hamburg in 2019 and has since built a network spanning Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Last year, the firm entered Poland with an 80-lawyer team from Linklaters in Warsaw. It also expanded into the Netherlands this year through a merger with Amsterdam firm Florent. The Munich office opened in 2022.

Addleshaws global managing partner Andrew Johnston said the latest hires were part of the firm’s push to build “consistent depth and quality across Europe”.

Head of Germany, Eckart Budelmann, described Munich as the centre of Germany’s private equity and venture capital market.

“Together with the deep restructuring expertise this team brings, we are strengthening our transactional practice enhancing our ability to bring together the right expertise for clients, in Germany and abroad, wherever they need it,” he said.

Taylor Wessing reshapes

The departures come during a period of upheaval at Taylor Wessing. In June, its UK, Dutch, Irish and Belgian businesses left the international firm and merged with US firm Winston & Strawn to create Winston Taylor.

Taylor Wessing now operates 16 offices across 11 jurisdictions and has around 700 lawyers.

The firm is also in merger talks with City firm Stephenson Harwood, with a combination potentially taking effect in May next year.