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Klaus-Stefan Hohenstatt

Partner

Automotive | Employment, incentives and pensions | Investigations | Media, entertainment and sports | Mergers and acquisitions |

Market leader Klaus-Stefan Hohenstatt acts for major domestic clients involved in complex employee restructurings, as well as advising on co-determination and board-level issues

Chambers Europe 2020

Profile details

About Klaus-Stefan Hohenstatt

Klaus-Stefan is a senior partner in our global people and reward group.

He deals with highly sensitive employment issues that can make or break a deal.

His clients come from a broad range of German companies and multinationals, with a focus on the services industry, media (printing and publishing), general industries (with a focus on the automotive industry), and the consumer and healthcare sectors.

Klaus-Stefan also works as a senior adviser for supervisory and executive boards, tackling difficult or sensitive board matters with tact and discretion. He advises on employment and service contracts for board members (and their termination), and remuneration schemes and pension arrangements for senior executives.

He speaks German, English and French.

Recent work

  • Advising and representing vis-à-vis unions and works councils in the context of various restructuring projects, in particular downsizings, splits of business operations, outsourcing projects etc, including the negotiation of social plans.
  • Advising on a significant number of projects for multinationals with the aim to optimise their system of employee representation by transforming them into a societas europaea (SE) or by implementing a cross-border merger. Recent examples include HDI Global (Talanx), Busch Holding, Otto Bock Health Care and Xing.
  • Giving highly confidential advice for various supervisory boards on executive board remuneration, including bonus schemes and pension arrangements, and on termination agreements.
  • Advising several international service firms and professional partnerships in the context of internal investigations and/or terminations. 

Qualifications

Professional memberships

  • German board member of the European Employment Lawyers Association and Chairman of EELA since 2019
  • Co-Director of the Center of the Legal Profession at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany

Academic positions

  • Honorary professor for employment law at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg

Publications

  • 6th edition, C.H. Beck Verlag, Munich 2021, (co-editor and author) The go-to book on employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructurings ("Umstrukturierung und Übertragung von Unternehmen")

  • ZIP Praxisbuch, 2015 Hohenstatt/Seibt, Geschlechter- und Frauenquoten in der Privatwirtschaft