POELLATH begins the new year with new partners, seven new counsel and a change in the management board
With Stephan Schade (private funds, Berlin), the partnership welcomes a lawyer from within its own ranks to the partner circle. Katja Weberpals (venture capital, Berlin) joins the POELLATH team from the law firm Hyazinth and André Fest (tax law, Munich) and Tobias Lochen (private funds, Berlin) also join the ranks of the associated partners.
Stephan Schade is a new partner in the Berlin private funds practice. Schade has many years of experience in the core areas of private funds advisory: fund structuring, fund regulatory law, investor advisory, fund taxation, secondaries and fund compliance. Most recently, he has driven the digitalization of the investor onboarding process forward through POELLATH’s own KYC onboarding portal. Stephan Schade has been a lawyer at POELLATH since 2009. With this partner appointment, POELLATH further expands its private funds practice. Currently, the private funds team comprises over 40 professionals, including nine partners.
Venture capital expert Katja Weberpals joins the POELLATH team at the associated partner level. Ms. Weberpals previously worked for the Berlin law firm Hyazinth. With her recruitment and appointment, POELLATH continues to expand its venture capital practice in Berlin. Ms. Weberpals has been focusing on venture capital for many years. She advises on all stages of corporate financing, particularly by means of equity and convertible loans, as well as exits (company acquisitions and sales), secondaries and management participation. Her clients include all players in the venture capital environment such as VC funds, corporate ventures, start-ups, business angels and founders.
André Fest is a new associated partner in the Munich tax law practice. Mr. Fest joined POELLATH as counsel in January 2019. He focuses on tax advisory services for closed-end funds, in particular with regard to tax compliance, i.e. the preparation of tax assessment declarations and tax reports for national and international private equity funds in the form of single and fund-of-funds. He also has extensive knowledge of the standardization, automation and digitalization of tax compliance processes, as well as of setting up tax compliance management systems.
Tobias Lochen is the third new associated partner. He advises on the structuring of alternative investment funds in the Berlin private funds practice, with a particular focus on cross-border structures between Germany and Luxembourg. Tobias Lochen joined POELLATH in 2015. His other practice areas include advising on regulatory law, in particular on registration and full authorization for capital management companies, as well as on the distribution of fund shares. He also assists fund managers and capital management companies throughout the entire life cycle of the fund and advises investors and fund service providers.
Seven new counsel appointed
In addition, POELLATH appointed the following seven attorneys as counsel at the beginning of the year: Lorena Joana Echarri, Sebastian Rosentritt and Moritz Klein (each M&A/private equity, Munich), Korbinian Wintermeier (tax law, Munich), André Blischke (private funds, Frankfurt), as well as Philipp Marx and Philipp Ahlers (both private funds, Berlin).
Change in the POELLATH management board
At the beginning of the new year, the partnership finally appointed Munich partner Eva Nase as a new member of the management board. In this position, she succeeds Munich partner Michael Inhester, who is retiring from the board on a rotating basis after a three-year term of office. This is the first time that a woman has been elected to POELLATH’s management board.
Eva Nase has been with POELLATH since 2002. She advises listed and private companies on the preparation and execution of their annual general meetings and shareholders’ meetings, on the reorganization of their group structures, and on all matters relating to the management board, executive board, supervisory board and board of directors (corporate governance). Furthermore, she focuses on advising on public takeovers with subsequent structural measures.
Along with Eva Nase, partners Peter F. Peschke (Munich) and Amos Veith (Berlin) will continue in office. The management board plans, organizes and implements central firm projects and coordinates the strategic orientation of the firm across all offices.
