Dr. Rainer Voß

Dr. Rainer Voß, a partner at Lenz und Johlen Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB, has been named Town Planning Lawyer of the Year in Germany at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025. A specialist attorney for administrative law and an accredited attorney-mediator (DAA/FU Hagen), he is among the leading practitioners in Germany in the closely connected fields of public building law, urban planning and the environment.

Dr. Voß's practice focuses on construction and planning law together with environmental law, with a particular concentration on urban development law. He advises on the legal questions surrounding urban renewal and development measures and on building and modernisation regulations — the rules that shape how towns and cities grow, adapt and regenerate. Town planning law of this kind requires a sure command of administrative procedure and a feel for the interplay between public authorities, investors and the communities affected by development.

He practises from Lenz und Johlen's offices in Cologne, where the firm is headquartered, and Berlin. The firm brings nearly seventy years of experience and describes itself as specialised, competent and reliable. It ranks among Germany's leading practices — placed in the country's top twenty in its core fields — for public building and planning law, administrative law, building and architects' law, public procurement and environmental law. That depth provides an ideal setting for Dr. Voß's town planning work, which frequently sits at the intersection of several of these disciplines.

Beyond his advisory and contentious practice, Dr. Voß is an active contributor to the professional development of others in his field. He lectures at the German Attorney Academy, teaching specialist-attorney seminars in administrative law, building and architects' law and mediation, and he also teaches at the vhw — the Federal Association for Housing and Urban Development. His work as a mediator complements this teaching, reflecting an interest in resolving planning-related conflicts constructively rather than solely through litigation. He has been quoted in the German media on the relationship between investors and municipal administrations and on questions of neighbourly relations in development.

Town planning disputes and projects can have far-reaching consequences for landowners, developers, public authorities and residents alike. Decisions about land use, development plans and urban renewal shape the physical fabric of cities for decades, and the legal frameworks that govern them are correspondingly detailed and contested. An adviser who can combine technical mastery of these frameworks with the ability to mediate between competing interests is especially valuable, and Dr. Voß's dual role as specialist lawyer and mediator equips him well for exactly that.

This is not the first time his work in the field has been recognised; he was previously honoured as Town Planning Lawyer of the Year in Germany in earlier editions of the awards, underlining the consistency of his standing among peers. The renewed recognition for 2025 confirms his position as one of the country's foremost advisers on urban planning and public building law.

For developers, investors, municipalities and others engaged in shaping the built environment, Dr. Rainer Voß offers deeply specialised counsel grounded in administrative and planning law and delivered through one of Germany's most respected practices in the field.