Expertise
Volker Beissenhirtz is an experienced lawyer specialising in Restructuring & Insolvency, Civil Fraud & Asset Recovery and Governance, Risk & Compliance. He has over 25 years of experience in legal advice and served in operational roles in management, supervisory bodies and as a compliance officer.
Volker has played leading roles in the restructuring of companies in Germany, the UK and the USA. Based on his experience in corporate crisis, he regularly advises companies on how to adopt resilient structures. Volker has been recognised by Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers as “Best Lawyer” in the field of Restructuring & Insolvency for many years.
In addition to his doctorate and his LL.M. at the LSE, Volker Beissenhirtz is a certified turnaround professional and compliance officer.
To read or download Volker’s long CV, click here.
Experience Highlights
- Board Member of a cooperative, stabilisation after separation of two board members as a result of extensive criminal investigations, creation of transparency for supervisory board and successor board members, processing of past-related facts.
- Managing director of a limited liability company, avoiding insolvency, preparing and implementing a reorganisation plan, raising further financing, developing sales, marketing, business organisation and controlling
- Advisory board member of a medium-sized group of companies in Berlin, designing and implementing early risk detection systems, designing and implementing an “emergency kit” and restructuring the management organisation to increase the company’s resilience
- Compliance officer of a professional association, development of a compliance management system in collaboration with management
- Advising the shareholder of a large textile retail chain on planning and implementing the reorganisation, including structuring the reorganisation, drafting the insolvency plan, initiating insolvency proceedings with self-administration, then supporting the CRO in the successful implementation of the plan
- Drafting an insolvency plan for a company in the telecommunications sector for the shareholder in cooperation with the insolvency administrator
- Advising and representing a group of companies in the successful reorganisation following a crisis caused by criminal acts of the management, including the implementation of complex reorganisation mechanisms outside of insolvency
- Advising and representing the insolvency administrator of a large German solar energy company in the stabilisation and realisation of the US subsidiaries up to the initiation of controlled Chapter 11 proceedings and the recognition of the German insolvency proceedings in the USA under Chapter 15
- Investigation of the facts following suspicion of the commission of various criminal offences in a major sports club, including advising the “whistleblowers”, preparation of criminal charges, coordination between the board of directors, advisors and the State Criminal Police Office
- Investigations following suspicion of bribery within the Group, coordination between private investigators and criminal prosecution authorities, legal assessment and filing of criminal charges, examination of initiation of criminal proceedings in Poland, enforcement of civil liability claims
- Conceptualisation, planning and implementation of a receivables management system for a medium-sized housing association
- Advising an association of the social economy on the conception of a supervisory structure in the context of compliance efforts
- Advising a state supreme authority on setting up a department for handling insolvency cases in the authority’s area of responsibility
Volker has extensive experience advising investors and sellers on corporate acquisitions, both within and beyond the context of crisis and insolvency:
- Provided counsel to a leading global payment provider based in the US on Web 2.0/Web3 payment solutions.
- Assisted the heir of a medium-sized architectural firm with a management buy-in.
- Supported a medium-sized family business in acquiring a mechanical engineering company from insolvency.
- Advised a Berlin-based social welfare organisation on acquiring another social organisation in financial distress and from insolvency.
- Guided an international investment bank through the acquisition of terminated loans from a German automotive supplier.
- Structured the share acquisition of a German publicly listed company for a Russian investor.
- Provided ongoing advice to a major international advertising agency on company acquisitions and the formation of joint ventures, including a recent JV in sports rights marketing.
- Delivered comprehensive transaction support to a major German bank in its investment in an investment group.
Volker is a partner in gunnercooke GmbH, whose registered office is Kurfuerstendamm 15, 10719 Berlin, AG Charlottenburg, HRB 224488 B. All lawyers of gunnercooke GmbH are admitted either in Germany or Austria to practise as Rechtsanwalt or Rechtsanwaeltin and are members of and regulated by the relevant local Bar (Rechtsanwaltskammer).