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Dr Stephan Göckeler
Flick Gocke Schaumburg · Germany
Flick Gocke Schaumburg
Family-Owned Business Law · Germany
Flick Gocke Schaumburg is a multidisciplinary professional partnership of lawyers, tax consultants and auditors with offices in Bonn, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich and Vienna. The firm offers more than 300 highly ¬qualified professionals and experts in their fields.
Flick Gocke Schaumburg’s main strengths include: its tax-focused and integrated advice from a legal, tax and economic side as a multidisciplinary firm; as well as practical and tailor-made advice on the basis of a strong academic education and work style.
Stephan Göckeler, partner at the firm and based in Bonn and Hamburg, noted: “As a corporate lawyer with broad transaction experience, I have worked for more than twenty years in the area of family-owned businesses. The main topics I encounter are the architecture of their corporate framework, such as corporate governance and shareholder agreements, as well as relationship to external managers, legal education of the younger generations, functions as member of supervisory or advisory boards, sale of the business and other succession matters and the position as the trusted ‘general family counsel’.
“Besides the legal and professional capabilities you need to understand the typical family owner, and also actual or potential conflicts within the family, you are sometimes required to assume the role of a mediator or diplomat. This requires the trust of all family members of all generations.”
When asked about some of the key issues faced by clients in the area of family-owned business law, Dr Göckeler said: “Experience helps. You need to listen and to provide advice in a language that can be understood by the clients, especially family owners. As many business owners need to rely on their lawyer’s advice and recommendation, there needs to be a solid basis and a personal trust-relationship.”
According to Dr Göckeler, some notable, key points that may arise include: family succession into the business including generation issues and conflicts; corporate governance; family and external management, including participation of management; corporate financing; as well as sale of the business/company. The latter becomes more and more important as a lot of family-owned businesses do not have an internal successor, and therefore explore the ‘M&A-exit’ as their preferred solution. Again, in this regard trust is at least of equal importance as it is true for the other matters. Usually it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the family to decide whether to sell their business, he explained.
Regarding Flick Gocke Schaumburg’s work on an international playing field, Dr Göckeler added: “Most international context is in the course of a proposed sale of a company and when family members move abroad. Our good relationships with other firms, my background as a California-licensed attorney at-law, my stays in New York and California in the mid-nineties, the international education of most of our professionals, especially the younger and middle-aged ones, are all a solid basis for cross-border advice. Family-owned businesses often also rely on our assistance when expanding to foreign markets – even if they also engage local counsel.”
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