Dear Friends of Bucerius Law School,

What is going on in the market of legal services? The economic crisis, which seemed to be abating, has once again reared its ugly head. Will the challenges remain the same? What sort of parameters should firms have in mind when they search for new strategies to secure their business futures?

This question also applies to companies' legal departments as their impact on the firm's economic development is becoming increasingly important. This is evidenced by the founding of the Federation of Lawyers in Private Practice this past March.

What does a law school have to do with all of this? Well, a legal institution that offers outstanding executive education programs for lawyers that continues to top the rankings needs to be up-to-date on the developments in its target market in order to participate. Therefore, Bucerius Executive Education has established the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession. The Center examines both the developments of the legal service market and the related challenges and success strategies for law firms and legal departments. To do this we enter into a dialogue with the managing partners, chief corporate counsel, practice group leaders and all other essential actors to discuss upcoming strategic challenges facing the firm and legal departments.

I invite you to come see the process for yourself: on November 18th, 2011 at our conference on trends in cooperation between companies and law firms and at our seminar in February 2012 entitled, "Signals 2012: Managing and Developing Talent.

Please feel free to approach us with any questions you may have regarding our conferences and seminars.

Enjoy the newsletter,

Birte Gall

Bucerius Law School is pleased to celebrate its 10th annual Bucerius Exchange Program in International and Comparative Law.The incoming international class is the program’s largest yet, consisting of a diverse selection of 110 students from 53 partner universities in 24 countries.

As in the past, courses will be taught in English by leading guest academics and professionals, including several Bucerius professors. In addition to a challenging academic curriculum, the program also will include exciting extracurricular offerings for students to better acquaint themselves with Hamburg and Germany’s culture, politics, art and history.

For more information on the International Exchange Program, please visit www.law-school.de/exchangeprogram.html

On Friday, September 30, 2011, Bucerius Law School held its annual Commencement Ceremony to start to the new academic year. Dr. Hariolf Wenzler greeted 600 guests including friends, supporters and alumni, at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. He also welcomed the incoming class of 2011, 110 international exchange students and 48 students from the Bucerius/WHU Master of Law and Business – Joachim Herz Program.

With a symbolic handover by Dr. Nicolas Graf von Rosty-Forgách, representing Siemens AG, the Center for Key Qualifications and Personal Development was founded.

Representing the founders Günter Prinz and Rolf Hunck, Professor Dr. Anne Röthel gave the "Award for Outstanding Social Commitment" to Judith Büschleb, who spent the year before her studies volunteering with a church congregation in Peru. Second prize went to Jacob Roggon for his work with German youth. And Corinne Moller received third prize for her work during her trimester abroad in Argentina to promote the nonviolent coexistence of young people.

The Christian Wilde Award for Scientific Dissertations in the field of corporate and capital market law, sponsored by Berenberg Bank, was given by Claus-G. Budelmann to Malte Wundenberg for his doctoral thesis on "Compliance and the Principled Supervision of Banking Groups." Dr. Joachim Baron von Falkenhausen, Latham & Watkins LLP, praised Wundenberg's concise analysis of the subject.

The celebration ended with acknowledgment of the 34 doctoral recipients from the previous academic year by former Minister Professor Manfred Lahnstein, Chairman of the Board of ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.

In gorgeous fall weather, guests celebrated the start of the year well into the wee hours.

Photos of the ceremony can be found at: www.bucerius-event.de

The graduation ceremony of the Class of 2011 of the Bucerius/WHU Master of Law and Business – Joachim Herz (MLB) Program took place in the Bucerius Law School auditorium on Tuesday, August 30, 2011. For the first time, the commencement address was delivered by an MLB Program 2008 alumna, Georgiana Ianus. Ms. Ianus is currently a lawyer at the European Commission and her speech focused on the importance of being passionate about one’s work and sharing one’s passion and knowledge with colleagues and business acquaintances.

The 45 graduates were dressed in the traditional black caps and gowns with blue and red sashes representing the colors of the two degree granting institutions – Bucerius Law School and the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

Class representative Maria José Rojas was honored with the “DAAD Prize for Foreign Students” for her excellent academic results and her continuous dedication to representing the interests of her class throughout the duration of the MLB program.

“Best Teacher Awards” were given to Bucerius Law School’s own Professor Dr. Karsten Schmidt and Dr. Carsten Jungmann for their course on “Business Entities”, and to WHU’s Professor Dr. Jürgen Weigand for his course on “Microeconomics”. Another first was the awarding of the WHU Medal of Honor to Rainer Heydenreich, Vice-Chairman of UBS Deutschland AG for his outstanding and continuous support of the program since its inception.

As part of the MLB graduation ceremony, Rainer Heydenreich, vice-chairman of UBS AG, Germany, was awarded the "Honorary Medal of WHU." Heydenreich was honored due to UBS's strong support of the program from the very beginning. Heydenreich's personal commitment includes numerous lectures and presentations as well as hosting Masters students at his home in Hamburg. 

On Wednesday, October 12, the Clifford Chance International Office invited Dr. Jochen Bittner to speak to an interested audience about his new book "Not like This Europe! The Three Biggest Mistakes by the EU." Dr. Bittner, the political editor of DIE ZEIT since 2001, reported from 2007 through 2011 from Brussels as a correspondent focusing on Europe and NATO. In his latest book, Bittner is critical of the EU and lays out three major flaws: first, the EU regulates small to large and large to small; second, the EU regulates soft to hard and hard to soft; and third, the EU moves too fast from above and too slow from below. In his lecture, he explained his ideas and provided illustrative examples; for example, he compared the government in Brussels to a standard factory, which all too often set details apart instead of solving pressing problems. Bittner discussed his speech with editor Peter Holan, who moderated an audience debate in conclusion. The event was held in English leading to a lively discussion with the international participants who represented their perspectives on the situation of the EU and raised particular questions about the EU enlargement and the debt crisis in the Euro area. Despite all his criticism of the EU and the precarious situation of the Euro, Bittner proved to be more optimistic than one might first think, with theories on level ground in the future.

It all began in July 2009 at the Conference "Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship" (YOU) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. While in attendance, Bucerius student Fabian Heilemann came up with the idea to establish a bargain voucher-based portal in Germany similar to the U.S. company Groupon.

Together with his brother Ferry (graduate of WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management), he founded DailyDeal.de in Berlin in 2009. The company currently employs approximately 200 people and operates in more than 50 cities in Germany and 40 cities and regions in Austria and Switzerland (as of August 2011). The brothers recently sold the start-up to Google - for 150 million dollars. Despite their success, the Heilemanns remain down to earth: "We are still sitting at our IKEA desks and continue to get to the office by 9 o'clock," Fabian said in an interview on German television.

British American Tobacco Germany, a Hamburg-based company, has become a sponsor of Bucerius Law School. The British American Tobacco Group is the world's second largest private tobacco company with representation in around 180 markets. BAT has based its German headquarters in Hamburg since 1926, and currently employs more than 2000. It is one of the largest cigarette manufacturers in Germany.

The legal department of British American Tobacco Germany has had close contact with Bucerius for many years and has offered numerous Bucerius students and graduates internships and full-time employment. The company was represented at the Career Fair that took place on 28 September.

Together with Dr. Christof Maria Fritzen, Ambassador of Malta in Bosnia and Herzegovina and guest lecturer at the Bucerius Law School, Bucerius organized the pro bono project "Comparative Constitutional Law and European Law". As part of this project, motivated young legal scholars from Bosnia and Herzegovina were given the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in the field of constitutional and European law, so as to support the possible accession of their home country to the European Union.

During the first part of the program, held in March in Sarajevo, the students learned about European and constitutional law by various guest lecturers from Europe and the U.S. On October 3, Bucerius welcomed participants to the second part of the program. Over the next two weeks, six students were given the opportunity to participate in courses and talk with the German and international students on campus. In small groups, led by Andrew Haas (Bucerius alumnus and former academic assistant in the Faculty for Public Law I) and Andreas Kolb (Bucerius alumnus and former academic assistant in the Faculty for Public Law II), students examined the legally relevant aspects of the EU accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The academic program was complimented by a diverse extracurricular program.

The project findings were presented on October 20 at a conference at the Law Faculty of the University of Sarajevo. After the official presentation of the project, participants shared their impressions and experiences, and introduced the guests of the University of Sarajevo, members of the diplomatic corps in Sarajevo and friends of the Order of Malta in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bucerius was represented at the closing ceremony by Annalena Galle.

In addition to the academic component, Bucerius' International Exchange Program includes extensive extracurricular offerings including language, culture and history to familiarize students with their host country. A highlight of the extracurricular program is the annual study trip to Berlin and Potsdam. This year, 45 students headed to the capital from October 23-27 for a city tour and visits to numerous museums and monuments such as the House of the Wannsee Conference, the former Stasi prison, Hohenschönhausen, and the German Historical Museum. This year, students also met with former Mayor of Hamburg, Hans-Ulrich Klose (MP), who received the group at the Reichstag for a discussion on current foreign policy issues. At the end of the trip students visited Potsdam, where they toured the new palace and strolled through the park Sanssouci. In the evenings, students had time to explore Berlin's famous nightlife, which combined with the busy days, created many amazing memories to start the second half of the semester!

Bucerius Law School continues to develop its excellence in education: Parallel to the east wing of Marseillestrasse's historic main building, the upgraded attic was inaugurated on September 6, 2011 (left to right: Michael Berndt, member of the ZEIT-Stiftung, Dr. Henneke Lütge, board member of the Bucerius Law School, Prof. Dr. Karsten Schmidt, President of the Bucerius Law School, Prof. Dr. Manfred Lahnstein, Chairman of the Board of ZEIT-Stiftung, Juergen Holler, architect, Hariolf Wenzler, Bucerius CEO, Benedict Landgrebe, Deputy CEO, Prof. Dr. Michael Göring, CEO, ZEIT-Stiftung).

In the attic, there are 22 new student work spaces for group work to be used especially during exam periods. The usable area is 572 square meters; the rebuilding cost € 1.3 million. As owner of the building, the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius sponsored the renovation.  

Martin Hejma (Bucerius incoming class of 2004) made it to the semifinals of the European Tennis University Championships in St. Gallen, which took place September 4-8, 2011. Together with three fellow students from the University of Hamburg, Tobias Hinz, Jan Greve and Max Bülk, Hejma represented Germany and competed against 79 athletes from 12 countries. Last year, the Hamburg team qualified for the tournament for the eighth time. The team beat the Netherlands in the quarterfinals before losing to the Russian team in the semi-final match. They played hard and represented Hamburg well. Here's to next year!

On July 20, 2011 a small bicycle repair shop opened in the basement of the south wing of the law school. Student Konstantin Kleine (incoming class of 2007) approached the administration with the idea supplying a tool kit and repair stand. CEO Hariolf Wenzler, who famously bikes to campus, and Professor Dr Karsten Schmidt, loved the idea.

Students and faculty obtain the key to the bicycle repair shop at the reception desk and go even to work - much to delight of the initiator and avid cyclist Kleine. Even the inexperienced will find the shop accessible - the tools come with step-by-step instructions.

After four years of proven success with the Summer Program in International Business Law, starting in 2012, Bucerius will be offering a new Summer Program in Mediation. Both programs are taught in English and are open to law students and recent graduates from Germany and around the world.

The Bucerius Summer Program in International Business Law is an intensive four-week course for international and German students. It offers seven courses taught by distinguished Bucerius professors and guest professors from all over the world. Students may select as many courses as they want, choosing from topics ranging from corporate governance to international mergers and acquisitions. The program will take place from July 22 - August 17, 2012.

The Bucerius Summer Program in Mediation is a highly interactive program for participants with a strong interest in mediation. It will take place from July 22 - August 10, 2012. Through four mandatory courses, students learn how companies manage conflicts systematically and how conflict resolution projects are designed and implemented. Experienced practitioners and academics explain recent findings and the theoretical background of the topics discussed. In addition, students work with professional mediators to hone their advocacy and problem-solving skills.

Since courses are held in English, knowledge of German is not required. Application deadline is on April 30, 2012. To qualify for a reduced tuition fee students must submit their application by January 15, 2012.Further information can be viewed at www.law-school.de/summerprogram.html.

Editorial
Bucerius Law School
Hochschule für Rechtswissenschaft
Law School Management
Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Karsten Schmidt (President)
Professor Dr. Florian Faust (Vice President)
Dr. Hariolf Wenzler (CEO)
Jungiusstraße 6
20355 Hamburg

Translation: Jiffer Bourguignon
Editing and Contact:
Kasia Kwietniewska, Director
Clifford Chance International Office
kasia.kwietniewska@law-school.de