Press release - 17 April 2024
After completing a master’s degree at Stanford Law School, Christoph Birner (29) rose to the rank of lawyer in April as a member of the CMS transactions team in the Corporate and Banking & Finance areas. An expert in M&A and financing transactions, he was admitted to the Bar not only in Vienna, but also in New York in 2024.
Christoph Birner has worked on the CMS transactions team for several years, advising numerous international clients on corporate and financing transactions. Recently, for instance, he was part of the team that advised the Greek Sfakianakis Group on the acquisition of Ajar Car Rental GmbH (the master franchisee of Enterprise, National, and Alamo), supporting its market entry into Austria.
"Christoph Birner is another young talent from among our own ranks who has been admitted to the Bar. We are very pleased about this, not least because he is at home in all areas of business law and corporate law. This is all the more important in the context of a stable M&A market and our firm’s involvement in a record number of transactions, as shown in the recently published M&A study, as he will be able to contribute his specific M&A expertise to an even greater extent,” says Günther Hanslik, managing partner and head of the financial transactions team at CMS Vienna.
From the start, Christoph Birner’s goal has been to combine legal and business expertise. Accordingly, he completed a law degree as well as a degree in business administration in Vienna. He then went on to expand his know-how by pursuing another law degree at the renowned Stanford University.
He also gained additional experience abroad – always an asset for an internationally active law firm like CMS – during academic stays at Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, the University of St. Gallen, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School.
"The international and interdisciplinary environment at CMS is perfect for me to succeed in my chosen specialist areas and to devise the best possible solutions for our clients,” says Christoph Birner.
