The law firm Orth Kluth is continuing its growth course and is expanding its existing corporate compliance advisory services to include criminal compliance and corporate criminal law.

For this purpose, Orth Kluth was able to gain the renowned criminal law and compliance expert Dr Markus Berndt, one of the founding partners of VBB Rechtsanwälte, as an equity partner. Berndt is joined by another partner from VBB Rechtsanwälte, Malaika Nolde, who specialises in data protection and IT criminal law. In addition, associate Gereon Conrad, LL.M. and of-counsel Dr Hans-Gerd Meister also join Orth Kluth from the previous Criminal Compliance team led by Berndt. The team is well-positioned, particularly with regard to modern requirements for internal investigations as well as the use of legaltech.

"Orth Kluth's success story is also based to a large extent on the fact that - especially in the early years - we have always shown ourselves to be open to complementary areas of law, provided that we were able to staff them to a high standard. We are very pleased that we have now succeeded once again in the area of criminal compliance - a field of advice that is becoming increasingly important", said Dr. Robert Orth, founding partner of Orth Kluth.

Strategically, the firm is thus taking into account the increasing relevance of compliance advice as well as the interface requirements with other areas of law. Markus Berndt emphasises: "As a white-collar crime team, we will be able to further significantly optimise our range of services in a full-service environment. The requirements for compliance mandates increasingly do not stop at the border of criminal law. We are therefore very pleased to be part of the Orth Kluth team from now on."

Orth Kluth's partnership at the Düsseldorf and Berlin offices will thus grow to sixteen heads at the beginning of the coming year, after two partners from its own ranks, Dr Christiane Hoffbauer and Dafni Nikolakudi, have already been appointed equity partners.