2015 Legal Awards

M&A awards Legal Awards 2015 27 LEGAL awards Employees In the society’s opinion, a company in their sector should have extremely motivated employees, training and further education being central, having a finger on the pulse of time and being responsive to the requirements of the clients, solving their problems and not just presenting themselves as a problem to the solution. “The fact that the client has or could have problems, is surely known, but he expects solutions and not simple the presentation of the problems” Kling underlines. “As a rule we are looking for motivated employees and those who are firmly rooted in the region. This is the way to concentrate on the professional tasks and which, because of the regional attachment of the employees, often avoids changes of the employer, so this provides a high degree of continuity in personnel. We almost have a zero-fluctuation of employees and thus the know-how is available to the clients for decades. The result is that our employees know the company and it’s business as well or sometimes even better than the clients themselves. This is achieved by providing appropriate further training and continuing education programmes in the company and other features of motivation.” Consultation The approach of the society is to have an overall observation of the type of consultation required. “It is not only the legal solution or consequence of a case that is presented, but rather an consideration of the overall economy” Kling states. “We in particular check the possibility of gaining advantages from the resulting problems and finding a solution without large legal disputes, which leads to the business basis remaining in place, and the clients and their opposing party can continue with their business relationships, which mostly have been in existence for many years” Kling continues. “Moreover in our opinion it is essential for a consultant with special sector know-how and many years of experience and successfully managed projects to be able to point out potential results to the client already at the start of new projects. Focus areas The major areas of activity for Wirtschaftsprüfer Steuerberater Wirtschaftsjurist are tax configuration consulta- tion, also with tax expertises, the accompaniment of tax audits and representation in fiscal court proceedings, the complete support of companies, from foundation, purchase and sale, configuration and succession advice. “In this context we of course also carry out due diligence checks. Another main focus is on software and other technological companies” Kling says. What is it then that makes this firm stand out from the others? “We differ from our competitors while in our un- derstanding having the same broad specialist knowledge, but we can act at lower cost and shorter processing times because of our structure” Kling explains. “In particular medium sized companies value this ability, that we are not focussed on providing the maximum number of consultation hours, but focus on the goal in order to manage the mandate on the long term and in the best case be a companion and contact person for all legal, financial and tax matters for decades Kling ex- plains. “For this purpose we have a matrix structure in the company which enables the client to get an appro- priate contact partner and further employees in the team who can accordingly act for him” Kling elaborates. The road ahead The society cannot discuss future projects, but they are looking forward to the future with great expectations and assume that they will be able to continue their positive development of significantly overproportionate growth in personnel and clients. “We see 2016 as a great challenge in connection with the partially uncertain global political situation and the outgoing financial imponderables. But we are available to our clients as problem-solvers even in such situations. “In this we wish already to progressively advise our clients, i.e. approach any problems with early critical advice, so that these can be recognised and companies can react to them, so that any negative developments do not become too large and no unpleasant surprises follow. “We see the greatest challenge for our wealthy business clients in the current low interest rate phase, which must be countered with alternative investment strategies, as well as the resulting opportunities for companies needing capital to be able to cover their capital requirement during the low interest rates in order to realise projects. In the legal environment the aim is to minimise liability potential and master the tightened tax restric- tions” Kling concludes.