It’s getting hard to keep track of all the law firm comings and goings in the German legal market without a scorecard.
In November, White & Case said that it would close its Munich office in early 2016. In the same month, Goodwin Procter announced that it would open an outpost in Frankfurt, its first in Germany, and Herbert Smith Freehills said it would expand its German presence with a third office, in Düsseldorf. The moves came just weeks after Littler Mendelson unveiled a merger with German employment boutique Vangard that gave the U.S. firm offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich. In October Greenberg Traurig absorbed a 55-lawyer office in Berlin that had been shed by U.K.-based Olswang, and in September, DLA Piper doubled its presence in Hamburg with a 20-lawyer raid that almost depopulated the Hamburg office of Bird & Bird.
