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Contact:

Often recommended in Company Succession and Trusts

JUVE manual 2023/2024

Company law that is to be applied to a family requires, like the family-run company itself, ideas that endure for generations. It is such ideas together with the necessary lightness of touch that Dr Born brings to the table and for which we are very grateful.

Dr. Steen Rothenberger

Often recommended in Company Succession and Trusts

JUVE manual 2022/2023, 2021/2022, 2020/2021, 2019/2020 and 2018/2019

Frequently recommended for cases involving succession/ assets/foundations

JUVE manual 2016/2017 and JUVE manual 2017/18

Dr. Werner Born

Partner, certified mediator (Heidelberg University), mediator (BAFM/ Federal Association for Family Mediation and QVM), supervisor (Steinbeis University) (QVM)

Dr Werner Born studied law at Heidelberg University. After completing his doctorate in Heidelberg, he began working as a lawyer with a focus on family businesses. In 2010 he made partner at RITTERSHAUS where he heads the Practice Group dedicated to Entrepreneurial Families & Private Clients consisting of sixteen lawyers and three notaries. In 2017, they took second place for “Exzellenz in Mediation und Konfliktmanagement” (Excellence in Mediation and Conflict Management), an award that was presented for the first time that year by the Round Table of the same name, and first place in 2021. One reason for these awards is the firm’s continuous development of new fields of business that use mediation-based elements. Due to its innovative approach to mediation-based succession advice, RITTERSHAUS has achieved a leading, high-profile position in family business consultancy. This approach to consultancy is about more “than purely focussing on the legal and fiscal aspects” explained the representative of JUVE (German legal industry publishing house) in the eulogy delivered during the award ceremony honouring the firm with the 2020 prize for law firm of the year for succession, assets and foundations. Another element that makes RITTERSHAUS stand out in Germany is the fact that the firm employs ten lawyers who have received additional training as mediators. Werner Born himself acted as a trailblazer when, in 2012, he completed his mediation training at Heidelberg University. He is also a member of BAFM (Federal Association of Family Mediators) based in Berlin and has, since 2022, been acting as a supervisor (Steinbeis University Berlin). He publishes articles on inheritance tax, mediation for family businesses and has co-authored the chapter on “Gestaltungen der lebzeitigen Unternehmensnachfolge” (Lifetime Company Succession Planning) in the “Handbuch Familienunternehmen” (Family Business Handbook) as well as the chapter on “Mediation für Familienunternehmen – Innovative Anwendungen und Einsatzgebiete in den Systemen Familie, Unternehmen und Gesellschafter” (Mediation for Family Businesses – Innovative Applications and Areas of Use in Family, Company and Shareholder Systems) in the “Handbuch Unternehmensnachfolge” (Company Succession Handbook).

Practice areas
  • Mediating succession planning
  • Fiscally optimised structuring of private and company assets
  • Assisting entrepreneurial families and family businesses with advice on company law, in particular use of mediation to develop corporate and family governance as well as supervisory board/advisory board structures
  • Charitable foundations and family foundations in Germany and abroad
  • Purchasing, selling, and transforming family businesses
  • Mediation
  • Performing case and team supervision
Vita
  • 1982 - 1986 Law studies in Heidelberg
  • 1988 PhD (Dr. iur.) at Heidelberg University
  • 1988 - 1990 Legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe
  • 1990 Admitted to the German bar
  • 1990 - 2010 Lawyer at Schilling, Zutt & Anschütz, Reeg & Born, Kleiner Rechtsanwälte law firm
  • 2010 Joined RITTERSHAUS law firm
  • 2012 Additional qualification as a “Mediator (BAFM)” at the Heidelberg Institute for Mediation, Ms Lis Ripke
  • 2017 Certified mediator (Heidelberg University)
  • 2018 Additional qualification as „CP lawyer“ (Collaborative Praxis, similar to mediation)
  • 2022 Supervisor (Steinbeis University)
Other activities and memberships
  • Member of the Deutsche Vereinigung für gewerblichen Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht/GRUR (German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property)
  • Member of the Deutscher Anwaltverein (German Bar Association)
Publications
Selected mandates

Besides

I have been a member of the rock band Purple Haze since my university days and am singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer.

Contact:

Often recommended in Company Succession and Trusts

JUVE manual 2023/2024

Company law that is to be applied to a family requires, like the family-run company itself, ideas that endure for generations. It is such ideas together with the necessary lightness of touch that Dr Born brings to the table and for which we are very grateful.

Dr. Steen Rothenberger

Often recommended in Company Succession and Trusts

JUVE manual 2022/2023, 2021/2022, 2020/2021, 2019/2020 and 2018/2019

Frequently recommended for cases involving succession/ assets/foundations