European law firm Fieldfisher has boosted its Media & Entertainment and Digital Commerce offering with the recruitment of 11 lawyers, including four partners, across its German offices.
The firm welcomes partners Dr Martin Diesbach (Media & Entertainment), Dr Gerd Hansen (Media & Entertainment), Elisabeth Noltenius (Media and Digital Business) and lawyer Dr Julia Schafdecker (Media and Digital Business). The team will be complemented by an experienced in-house lawyer and copyright and media law expert as well as two further associates from international units.
In addition, a highly regarded soft IP team comprising partner Dr Sascha Pres (IP Litigation) and lawyers Christina Kufer (IP Litigation), Tien Nguyen (IP Litigation) and Laura Krug (IP Litigation) join Fieldfisher Berlin.
Dr Gerd Hansen was the first new partner to join the Munich office on 1 April 2024. After working as a lawyer and as Legal Director Content Production at ProSiebenSat.1, he most recently worked at Sky as Head of Legal Affairs Sky Studios Germany. The rest of the team will start on 1 July 2024.
With this move, Fieldfisher is expanding its market position in the media sector; in the future, a 15 strong lawyer team in Germany alone will offer a comprehensive range of advice for clients from the media sector. Fieldfisher is known for its expertise in the areas of online platforms, media marketing and media regulation; the new additions expand the portfolio through their prominent position in the area of content, among other things, and raise the overall offering to a new level in the media segment.
On an international level, the new additions join the cross-practice Media and Entertainment group with over 45 lawyers from London, Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Amsterdam and Vienna. They advise on media financing, video games, e-sports, film and television production and exploitation, advertising and marketing, publishing, rights licensing, corporate finance, content and services regulation and media tax law.
The new teams will develop the firm’s range of advisory services, working closely with the broader Tech & Data Group and Fieldfisher X, the firm’s experts in defending mass litigation and managing legal complexity. Together with the well-established and innovative IP team, which combines with Fieldfisher’s expertise in tech litigation, the strength of the litigation group at Fieldfisher will be further expanded.
With Fieldfisher X in Berlin, the law firm has established its own technology unit, which consists of an interdisciplinary team of lawyers, data and process experts, developers and legal staff. Fieldfisher X specialises in the provision of scalable legal services and mass litigation defence. In the media and entertainment industry, Fieldfisher X advises several clients in the areas of contract management (Contracts-as-a-Service) and legal operations.
Fieldfisher’s full-service cross-departmental media and entertainment practice includes specialists in entertainment, media financing, digital media, interactive content, videogames, e-sports, film and television production and exploitation, advertising and marketing, sponsorship and endorsement, publishing, rights licensing, corporate finance, banking, IP, technology and general litigation, the regulation of content and services and media tax. It is one of the few practices in the UK to combine commercial media and entertainment expertise with a market leading media sector corporate and tax capability.
Fieldfisher is a European law firm, with market-leading practices in corporate/M&A, finance, real estate, energy and natural resources, technology and life sciences.
