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The move broadens Fieldfisher's advisory services for digital business models and strengthens its international portfolio in the areas of media, technology and IP.
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.
Commenting on the arrival of the new team, Philipp Plog, Managing Partner of Fieldfisher in Germany, said:
"For Fieldfisher, it is an important step on our growth path and helps us to further develop our advisory portfolio. We are focusing on growth in the digital media segment, but also on the interfaces with technology and litigation, where we are already successfully working in fields such as privacy, adtech, legal tech and cloud. The new teams have outstanding expertise that will complement our advisory offering very well".
Dr Martin Diesbach commented:
"I am looking forward to working at Fieldfisher. The international positioning of the firm, its culture and the dynamism of Fieldfisher in Germany convinced us to make the move. We discovered many points of contact in the client portfolio during our discussions. Fieldfisher is better positioned than almost any other law firm for the upheavals caused by AI that the market is currently experiencing".
Dr Sascha Pres added:
"As an agile and forward-thinking team, we perfectly complement Fieldfisher's strong European IP practice in the area of IP litigation - and this in a fully integrated international unit whose modern corporate culture suits us perfectly. Above all, the proximity and the resulting direct exchange with Fieldfisher X creates ideal conditions for us to continue to pursue our out-of-the-box approach to IP advice with technology and to continue to break new, sustainable ground."
Head of Fieldfisher's International Entertainment Group, Stephen Salzman, said:
"When I transitioned to Fieldfisher's London office in the fall of '21, building out a Pan-European Media & Entertainment practice was always part of the firm's vision, so my very first call was to Martin, knowing how highly respected he is in Germany and internationally, as well as having historically shared clients with him across jurisdictions. Having him, Gerd, Elisabeth, Sascha and their teams join us in Germany is more than we could have ever hoped for, and is the first step in realizing this vision with top-tier practitioners across Europe".
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.