With over 25 years of experience as an industry lawyer, I support businesses and their owners in navigating industrial and commercial legal matters. My professional focus involves drafting, negotiating, and enforcing contracts — both in operational day‑to‑day business as well as in complex projects and strategic collaborations.
My professional career as an in-house legal advisor to industrial companies has allowed me to build substantial practical expertise in diverse areas of commercial law, particularly in global sales and procurement, industrial and power plant construction, projects and cooperations of all kinds, strategic alliances, and cross border transactions.
My many years of experience as an executive and authorized company officer have familiarized me with the workflows, decision-making structures, and corporate culture of owner-managed family businesses. My professional background includes mechanical and plant engineering, the automotive and rail supply industry, and the medical device sector, with a thorough grasp of the respective industry-specific challenges and processes.
"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."
Henry Ford
With a background in law studies, a doctorate in labor law, and the state bar exam, I spent two years living in Japan and working with patent and law firms in Tokyo, which shaped the foundation of my career as an industry lawyer. I have been admitted to the bar since 1997. For more than 25 years as in-house legal advisor and General Counsel in the industrial sector, I was responsible for managing the interfaces between business and law. Since 2024, I have been supporting companies as external counsel in matters of industrial and commercial law.
General Counsel and Head of Legal and Insurance at Dieffenbacher GmbH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, Eppingen, Germany (2011-2023)
In-house legal counsel (Syndikus) at Freudenberg Group, Weinheim, Germany, responsible for the divisions Automotive, Rail, and General Industry (Sealing and Vibration Technology), and Medical Devices (1997-2011)
Lecturer at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Mannheim (2000-2011)
Legal Trainee with Attorney Dr. Reinhard Neumann in Tokyo, Japan (1994/1995), followed by a two-year stay in Japan as a DAAD scholarship holder (Language and Practice Program) and legal staff member in Japanese law and patent firms (1995-1997)
Postgraduate studies in Japanese commercial law at FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany (1992-1994)
Research Assistant to Prof. Dr. Günther Wiese at the Chair of Civil Law, Labor Law, and Commercial Law at the University of Mannheim; Doctorate in Labor Law (1990-1993)
Law studies at the University of Mannheim, international legal studies in English law (LSE, London) and comparative law (Faculté Internationale du Droit Comparé, Strasbourg)
Working languages: German and English
Professional Qualifications
Publications
Labor Law and Environmental Protection, Mannheim Contributions to Labor Law, Vol. 5, Frankfurt/Main 1993 (Doctoral Dissertation)
The Development of Civil-Law Personality Protection in Japan, in: Liber Discipulorum, Festschrift in Honor of Professor Dr. Günther Wiese, 1996
Basic Vocabulary of Legal Terminology, German-English/English-German (Grundwortschatz der Rechtssprache, co-authored with Dr. P. Flory), Neuwied 1995
Basic Vocabulary of Legal Terminology, German-French/French-German (Terminologie Juridique de Base, co-authored with Dr. H. Ellenberger), Neuwied 2002