Noerr increases revenue in Germany ‒ restructuring business becomes growth driver

Noerr continues its successful growth trajectory, benefiting from strong restructuring business in the 2024 financial year. Following the transfer of its offices in Central and Eastern Europe to strategic co-operation partners, Noerr is becoming more agile.

In Germany, revenue increased to €322.7 million (up from €317.8 million in 2023), while the firm’s overall revenue reached €330.4 million (compared to €333.1 million in 2023). Until the transfer, the offices in Central and Eastern Europe contributed €7.8 million to total revenue in 2024 (down from €15.3 million in 2023).

“Noerr stands for top-tier advice and quality leadership in everything it does. The demand for excellent advisory services is unabated. Especially in times of transformation, our ability to challenge existing approaches and forge new paths with our clients is the driver of our success,” says co-managing partner Alexander Ritvay. “A particular focus of our work is currently on complex financial restructurings, where we can leverage our strengths.” For example, Noerr advised the banking syndicate of VARTA AG’s syndicated lenders and the lenders of BayWa r.e. AG during their respective group financial structurings.

“Our client’s interests are always at the heart of our focus and the foundation of our continuous development. As a result, by consistently pursuing our qualitative growth strategy, we have experienced particularly dynamic growth in recent years compared to the broader market,” points out co-managing partner Torsten Fett. “We owe our strong market position to our unwavering commitment to quality ‒ across all areas.”

In the M&A sector, Noerr was able to further expand its position as a legal advisor in the top segment of M&A transactions. For example, the firm advised the Südwest Group steel company on its cross-border merger with the Dutch Van Merksteijn Group and Nippon Steel on the European part of its complex $14.9 billion takeover of US Steel. In the rapidly expanding digital sector, Noerr teams have advised clients including the US financial investor Level Equity on acquiring a stake in the Munich-based software provider Collaboration Factory AG. Noerr had previously advised IBM on the acquisition of divisions of Software AG.

Other significant mandates in the corporate sector include advising Volkswagen Financial Services on a cross-border group reorganisation and Daimler Truck on securing a new €5 billion revolving credit facility. Noerr also advised the Biesterfeld Group on its change of legal form from a German stock corporation to a European Company, a public limited company under EU law. This engagement followed Noerr’s advisory role in the conversion of Fresenius Medical Care to a stock corporation and its deconsolidation from Fresenius.

The Capital Markets practice advised the SDAX-listed private equity holding Mutares on the successful IPO of Steyr Motors AG and its partial exit from the company ‒ one of the few IPOs on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange last year.

Noerr’s expertise in advising clients in highly regulated industries and digital transformation projects also remained in high demand. This included building on its advisory role to the Schwarz Group, the lead investor in Aleph Alpha, an AI company designed as a European alternative to American AI companies, by assisting the group in establishing a long-term strategic partnership with Google. In addition, Noerr has advised trivago N.V. on its strategic investment in Holisto, an AI-powered travel platform.

The law firm itself has been pursuing a clear strategy of digital transformation and innovation for many years, focusing on digital platforms for client work and enhancing internal processes. Leveraging a specialised team of IT and AI experts alongside its advisors, Noerr is further intensifying the development of cutting-edge legal tech and AI solutions and will continue to invest particularly in AI technologies.

In the past financial year, Noerr consistently reaffirmed its market-leading position in dispute representation for companies and state actors in arbitration and court proceedings. A standout achievement was the firm’s successful representation of the federal government before the German Federal Constitutional Court against constitutional complaints regarding the “electricity price brake”. Before the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Luxembourg, Noerr secured a landmark decision that clarified significant questions regarding the jurisdiction of the nascent UPC.

Noerr is effectively managing generational change and the transfer of leadership roles to younger partners. At the beginning of the year, Hamburg partner Simone Schönen assumed the role of co-head of the Restructuring & Insolvency practice group alongside Dresden partner Marlies Raschke, Munich partner Ralph Schilha became co-head of the Corporate practice group and Berlin partner Pascal Schumacher took on the position of co-head of the Data, Tech & Telecoms practice group.

Noerr has strategically realigned its position in the Central and Eastern European markets. Its offices in Bratislava, Bucharest and Prague were transferred to Kinstellar, the region’s leading law firm, while the Budapest and Warsaw offices underwent management buyouts.

At the end of 2024, Noerr employed 540 lawyers, tax advisors, auditors and paralegals in Germany and its offices in Alicante, Brussels, London and New York (PY: 522 or 616 when including the offices in Central and Eastern Europe). As at the reporting date (31 December 2024), the firm had a total of 1,002 employees (PY: 1,028 or 1,180 employees when including the offices in Central and Eastern Europe).