Projects & Cooperations
Cooperation is a fundamental element of economic life and a driving force behind development and innovation. Wherever people work together, tensions and conflicts are part of everyday reality — this applies to strategic alliances as well as to day-to-day operations or internal organizational processes.
When cooperation fails, the consequences go far beyond missed opportunities, unmet expectations, and reputational harm. Deadlock situations, dependencies that have been entered into, and the absence of conflict resolution mechanisms can turn the anticipated “win—win” into a “no-win,” or even into dangerous “win—lose” or “lose—lose” scenarios. Beyond shared visions, cooperation partners should therefore always keep their own interests in mind, explore what-if scenarios, and take potential adverse developments into account. Cooperation may lose its balance and run into difficulties not only through deliberate advantage-taking or free-riding by one party, but often simply because expectations remain unspoken, issues cannot be addressed before they escalate, or simply because, in the daily business routine, there is no time left for substantive dialogue.
In order to keep options open when things turn out differently than planned, conflicts of interest and risks must be identified early, carefully negotiated, and integrated into a cooperation agreement — for example, through governance provisions, early warning mechanisms, deadlock clauses, and exit strategies.
"Strong relationships are based on trust and communication. Communication is not about saying what we think. Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean.”
Simon Sinek
Consulting Focus
Strategic and legal design and negotiation of projects, collaborative ventures, and other forms of cooperation, in particular
consortium and cooperation agreements (including the EU Consortium Model Agreement used for EU funding projects)
joint venture and strategic alliance agreements
agreements for research and development projects
license agreements (patents, trademarks, know-how
In addition, I support companies in internal projects and processes, for example relating to
legally compliant delegation of duties, prevention of organizational fault, and limitation of liability risks
implementation of statutory compliance requirements (e.g., corporate data protection, ESG) and their integration through internal policies and guidelines (e.g., anti-fraud or whistleblower guidelines)
introduction of company specific reporting channels and complaint procedures in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act (Hin-SchG) and the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG).
I also provide in-house legal training on company-specific topics in the areas of procurement, sales, claims management, and compliance.