Vienna, April 2020: fwp is very pleased to have made it to the finishing line in the Legal 500 Europe, Middle East and Africa Guides 2021 with a total of 13 leading experts. Nine fwp partners and four fwp attorneys are being recommended as leading experts in a total of nine areas of practice. Stefan Sallat was able to defend his position as a Rising Star; Markus Fellner’s long-standing experience and vast expertise have been given special recognition by his being elected to the Hall of Fame as a Leading Individual.

A key tenet of fwp has always been to give new colleagues a firm position on the team, offering young talent a chance to add value from day one. Over the course of more than 20 years, this approach has engendered a culture of openness and community where excellence is achieved through teamwork, with every member of the fwp.TEAM sharing these values.

Comments as the ones below, which were provided during the Legal 500 Ranking process, attest to the success of the training approach followed by founding partners Markus Fellner and Kurt Wratzfeld: “The team is ready to work more or less 24 hours a day, always available when you need them. They are experts in restructuring/insolvency law, know any jurisdiction and have very good partners outside of Austria. They are very good in representing their clients; high negotiation skills, very constructive, they never give up.”

The rankings also reflect the outstanding achievements of the fwp.TEAM in the various categories, endorsing fwp’s impressive expertise above all in fields such as Insolvency & Corporate Recovery, Banking & Finance, Administrative Law and Public Sector.

However, Insolvency and Corporate Recovery has always been, and always will be, fwp’s absolute specialty – it not only has fwp leading the field of the best firms in Austria with a Tier 1 position, but also lists fwp partner Markus Fellner as Leading Individual and fwp attorney Stefan Sallat, once again, as Rising Star.

“Such rankings tend to feel a bit like crossing the finishing line at a marathon”, quips fwp partner Michael Hecht, himself a Leading Individual in his own specialty, Administrative Law and Public Sector, and a passionate long-distance runner in his spare time. “Phantastic results like these provide motivation and incentive for all of us to perform even better and step up our pace so we can enjoy a little runner’s high from time to time.”
fwp is also among the leading law firms on the Austrian market in Commercial, Corporate/M&A, Dispute Resolution: Commercial Litigation, Employment, EU and Competition, Public Procurement and Real Estate. Our special congratulations go to fwp attorneys Josef Peer, Severin Plattner and Florian Dauser, who each got their first Legal 500 recommendation in their fields of specialisation, and not least to fwp partner Lukas Flener, for his first-time mention in Real Estate.

In addition, the Legal 500 also recommends the following fwp lawyers in their respective practices:

Administrative Law and Public Sector – Michael Hecht, Josef Peer, Severin Plattner
Banking & Finance – Markus Fellner, Gregor Schett, Florian Kranebitter
Commercial, Corporate/M&A – Markus Fellner, Paul Luiki, Florian Kranebitter and Lukas Flener
Dispute Resolution – Commercial Litigation – Markus Fellner and Gregor Schett
EU and Competition – Lukas Flener
Employment – Kurt Wratzfeld and Florian Dauser
Insolvency and Corporate Recovery – Markus Fellner, Florian Kranebitter, Stefan Sallat
Public Procurement – Michael Hecht and Rudolf Christian Pekar
Real Estate – Lukas Flener and Markus Kajaba