With the arrival of Dr. Lars Maritzen on January 1st, Orth Kluth is pushing the expansion of an independent Antitrust Law Practice. Dr. Maritzen comes from Metro AG, where he was Head of Competition & Compliance and responsible for the support of 14 companies, including Metro Germany, Austria, China, Ukraine and Pakistan. Orth Kluth's Antitrust Law Practice so far consists of Dr. Anselm Grün and Dr. Bastian Mehle and is supported by Dr. Markus Berndt in the field of antitrust compliance. Dr. Lars Maritzen takes over the management of the practice group from Dr. Anselm Grün, who will concentrate on his tasks as notary and regulatory law. The focus will be on the entire spectrum of antitrust compliance (CMS system, cause-related vs. noncause-related investigations), to which Dr. Maritzen will contribute in particular his in-house experience, advice on distribution Antitrust Law, inter alia in the areas of selective distribution, exclusive distribution, advice in connection with pricing and terms and conditions, advice on antitrust damages on the assets and liabilities side as well as advice on merger control law in connection with merger projects.

Furthermore, Orth Kluth strengthens its team with the experienced Employment Law expert Esther Herrnstadt. Esther Herrnstadt joins the practice group Employment Law as salary partner. She has special expertise in the field of company pension schemes and thus ideally complements the specialized consulting portfolio within the practice group. Stations as an attorney at Noerr LLP. in Düsseldorf and Hopfgarten in Wuppertal have shaped her focus on advising companies on employment law.

With the new additions of Esther Herrnstadt and Dr. Lars Maritzen, the number of professionals at Orth Kluth grows to 75.

Additionally, Orth Kluth appoints Gereon Conrad LL.M. and Thomas Krahwinkel from its own ranks as salary partners as of January 1st.

Gereon Conrad has been a lawyer at Orth Kluth since 2018. Before, he worked for the law firm VBB Verjans Böttger Berndt Rechtsanwälte, which specializes in commercial and fiscal criminal law. Gereon Conrad advises in questions of white-collar crime law with a focus on criminal compliance and internal investigations. He is a member of the inhouse competence team "Audit & Investigations".

Thomas Krahwinkel has been a lawyer at Orth Kluth since 2011 and a specialist lawyer for Employment Law since 2014. Thomas Krahwinkel advises in individual and collective labor law as well as in service contract law. He focuses on the procedural handling of restructuring projects, the development of individual separation scenarios and the drafting of contracts with executives and organs.

With these salary partner appointments from its own ranks, Orth Kluth continues the generic growth of the past years consequently. At the same time, the appointments of Esther Herrnstadt and Dr. Lars Maritzen show that Orth Kluth is pushing the growth in strategically important areas, also by lateral entrants.