K&L Gates has launched a new office in Frankfurt with the lateral hires of Mathias Schulze Steinen and Frank Thomas. Both partners join form Simmons & Simmons. This will mark K&L Gates second office in Germany, the first being in Berlin. The Frankfurt office will focus its practice on corporate, M&A and finance.

Source:  www.thelawyer.com

Fish & Richardson P.C. is preparing to open it’s first non-US office in Munich, Germany. The branch will open October 1 with two partners and three associates, and plans to grow to twelve attorneys by 2008. Frank Peterreins and Alexander Harguth are managing partners.
Source: news.moneycentral.msn.com

DLA Piper has opened a new office in Munich. This office will focus on technology, media and commercial areas of practice and will be run by managing partner Thomas Jansen. DLA Piper already has offices in Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg and intends, to continue expanding within Germany over the next 18 months. The firm chose to open this fourth office in Munich because the region was not represented adequately by the three existing offices.
Source: www.law.com

Dechert private equity partner, Volkmar Bruckner, was recruited by Latham & Watkins to join its Munich office. Bruckner is skilled in both corporate/M&A and private equity, giving Latham a fourth corporate partner in Munich. Latham opened its Munich office in January of 2006, and has built it up by recruiting star private equity laterals from other top firms. Dechert’s Munich office now has 12 lawyers, 10 of whom specialize in private equity or corporate law.
Source: www.thelawyer.com

Willkie Farr & Gallagher has hired five lawyers from Clifford Chance’s Frankfurt office. The private equity group consists of counsels Andreas Hautkappe and Rolf Hünermann, who join Willkie as salaried partners, and associates Stefan Joergens, Ole Oldenburg and Ingo Bednarz, who also join as partners. Other recent hires in Germany for the firm include private equity partner Mario Schmidt last December and former PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner Patrick Meiisel, who joined Willkie last month.
Source: www.legalweek.com

Dewey Ballantine’s Frankfurt office has a new addition. The firm acquired capital markets partner, Matthias von Oppen, from White & Case. Von Oppen was at White & Case for seven years, and his clients include Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and HVB. In the wake of Dewey’s failed merger with Orrick, the firm lost a number of of key partners. With hires such as von Oppen, the firm hopes to rebuild.
Source: www.thelawyer.com

Atlanta firm Smith, Gambrell & Russell opened an office in Frankfurt to better serve its European clients. It joins U.S. firms White & Case, Jones Day, Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper who also have offices there. Source: www.law.com