Stephanie Trossbach

Catus Law + Compliance, the Frankfurt am Main practice founded and owned by Dr Stephanie Troßbach, has been named Compliance Law Firm of the Year in Germany at the 2024 Corporate INTL Global Awards. The recognition reflects a specialist practice built around the compliance, whistleblowing and data protection needs of German and international organisations, and the depth of experience its founder brings to a field that has grown steadily more demanding under recent German and European legislation.

Dr Troßbach leads the practice as an attorney and compliance specialist whose credentials span several disciplines. In addition to her legal qualification she is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional, a Certified Fraud Examiner and a certified Data Protection Officer, a combination that allows her to approach compliance not as a single subject but as an integrated function drawing on law, ethics, investigation and data governance. This breadth is central to the way Catus positions itself, offering clients a joined-up view of the obligations that increasingly overlap in practice.

Her background lends the practice particular authority. Before founding Catus, Dr Troßbach worked at a leading global law firm and went on to hold a series of compliance roles at a DAX-listed healthcare company, including a two-year posting in the United States. That in-house experience at the highest level of a major corporation informs her advice to clients, giving her a practical understanding of how compliance programmes operate day to day and of the pressures faced by those responsible for them. She now serves both large corporations and mid-market enterprises across a range of industries.

The practice concentrates on two principal services. As an ombudsperson, Dr Troßbach helps organisations meet their whistleblower protection obligations under German and EU law, including the Whistleblower Protection Act (HinSchG), the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) and the Money Laundering Act (GwG), providing a trusted and independent point of contact for reports. As an external Data Protection Officer, she supports clients in complying with the General Data Protection Regulation and the German Federal Data Protection Act, taking on a statutory role that many organisations prefer to outsource to a specialist. Her membership of the German Ombudsman Association reflects her standing in the whistleblowing field.

By combining these functions within a single boutique, Catus offers organisations a way to address several regulatory requirements through one experienced adviser, an approach well suited to companies seeking practical, independent support rather than a purely theoretical treatment of compliance. The Corporate INTL Global Awards recognise firms that demonstrate specialist excellence and a clear command of their field within a jurisdiction. In naming Catus Law + Compliance the Compliance Law Firm of the Year in Germany for 2024, the awards acknowledge both the calibre of Dr Troßbach's expertise and the value of a practice designed around the real compliance challenges facing businesses today.