Home / Europe / Germany / Compliance & Forensic Services

Compliance & Forensic Services

Our more than 65 compliance specialists at eight locations in Germany offer you comprehensive compliance advice.

„Die Compliance-Praxis […] deckt die Compliance-Beratung in nahezu allen Facetten ab.“

JUVE Handbuch, 2023/2024

„Kompetent, kunden- und lösungsorientiert.“

The Legal 500, 2023

"CMS's forensic capabilities include, in addition to examining labour and social security breaches, also internal investigations relating to trade secrets, as well as money laundering and fraud allegations, with clients benefiting from the broad expertise of interdisciplinary teams as well as various Legal Tech tools [...]."

The Legal 500 EMEA, 2022

"The CMS practice is one of the practices that cover the compliance spectrum in its entirety. This again includes extensive internal examinations as well as ongoing advice on prevention. Here, [the team] can in particular contribute its technical know-how, as its own Legal Tech tools [...] are available to the team."

JUVE German Commercial Law Firms 2023 (GCLF)

"CMS comprises a solid practice that regularly advises clients from the public, energy, finance and real estate sectors on compliance issues, with a particular strength in large internal investigations and compliance management programmes. The team additionally assists with money laundering issues, product liability, employment compliance and whistle-blower incidents, and represents clients in damages claims and D&O liability proceedings. Its strong international network enables the law firm to handle complex cross-border cases."

Chambers Europe, 2022

"CMS provides advice on corporate compliance matters often in particular to companies from regulated sectors, [and clients] also appreciate 'the agile responsiveness to time-critical legal issues'."

The Legal 500 EMEA, 2021

Choose area

Com­pli­ance-Man­age­ment-Systeme
A trip to Bangkok, a business deal between brothers, and a bottle of wine – about life with and without compliance  . Case study on im
Corporate Governance
Case Study | Terra incognita?. Companies are entering new compliance territory with the LkSG and HinSchG. The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferke
Internal Investigations
Case study of an internal investigation. One tip-off, four fraudsters, years of litigation and millions in damages. Disbelief, schadenfreude, horror:
White-collar crime and criminal tax law
The risk of becoming the focus of a criminal investigation has increased significantly for companies and executives in recent years. The reasons inclu
Compliance Tools & Digital Solutions
With the largest legal tech team in Germany behind us, we offer you a variety of digital solutions that aim to automate certain processes and steps in
ESG-Compliance
Structuring sustainable business practices in a legally compliant manner. Sustainability strategy and ESG compliance. ESG is not a purely legal issue,
HR Compliance
Compliance Management Systems, Internal Investigations, Whistleblowing, etc.
Money laundering prevention
Prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing – fighting crime together and minimising your risks. CMS – a reliable partner in ti
CMS Client Academy
Practice-oriented e-learning courses.
Sanc­tions-Com­pli­ance
Sanctions compliance – more relevant than ever . Importance of sanctions compliance. An increasingly complex geopolitical situation worldwi
Data protection compliance
Since the early 1970s, data protection law has evolved from being something rather “exotic” into a ubiquitous field of regulation. Digitis
Tax Compliance
Our experts work with you to implement regulatory requirements without creating unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles.Overview of our expertise:. Non-fin
Umsetzung der EU-Whistleblower-Richtlinie
Whistleblowing
EU Member States have been under an obligation to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive (2019/1937) into national law since 17 December 2021. This
Competition law compliance
Compliance with competition law is a key part of responsible corporate governance.Our experts for competition law compliance provide comprehensive sup

Overview of our consulting portfolio – qualified and experienced in prevention and crisis management

We offer you the interface expertise to recognise risks quickly and efficiently and to support you both preventively and investigatively in all compliance issues.

Successful prevention

Our Compliance team offers assistance with:

  • Developing, implementing and optimising compliance programmes
  • Risk management (compliance due diligence, business partner screening, compliance clauses in agreements)
  • Setting up and managing reporting systems (whistleblower hotline, ombudsman)
  • Establishing compliance guidelines and conducting training (e.g. on anti-corruption, competition law, prevention of money laundering, IT security and data protection, capital markets law, product safety, procurement law and export control)

Managing a compliance crisis

With our holistic approach, we offer you a single point of contact who has an overview of all relevant compliance aspects and can navigate you through the crisis efficiently and from a single source:

  • Informing management and the relevant supervisory bodies of their duties in a compliance crisis situation and developing a crisis management plan
  • Planning, managing and conducting internal investigations
  • Establishing the facts of the matter, searching documents and e-mail messages with the aid of forensic tools, interviewing employees
  • Developing resolution strategies and identifying immediate steps to be taken
  • Managing defence lawyers, auditors, e-discovery providers, private investigators and crisis PR consultants
  • Advising on cooperation with the investigating authorities
  • Development of amnesty programmes and crown witness arrangements
  • Legal support before and during an official investigation (dawn raid)
  • Dawn raid training
  • Representation in subsequent official or court proceedings

How can we help your business?

Write us a message and we will get in contact.

Your message was sent.

Thank you for contacting us. We will get back to you soon.

Please check these fields.

By including your personal data on this form you agree to it being used in accordance with our Privacy Policy

sending...

Feed

18/03/2024
E-learning | Open source compliance – basics
This e-learning course teaches the basics of open source compliance. The aim of the course is to raise awareness of the advantages as well as the risks and pitfalls of open source software in all these levels of the company. At the end of the course, solutions to identify risks and avoid them as best as possible through appropriate processes are shown. The e-learning course is aimed at everyone in companies who comes into contact with open source software. This includes not only management but also the IT and development department, purchasing, sales and product management.
18/03/2024
E-learning | Money laundering prevention in industry and trade
This e-learning course was developed specifically for employees and suppliers. It is intended to raise awareness of what must be observed legally to successfully prevent money laundering. As the addressees of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Geld­wäschege­setz, GwG), companies are obliged to take precautions against their own abuse for money laundering purposes or financing terrorists. The e-learning course takes into account the special position of goods traders in money laundering prevention and can be individually supplemented and modified with regard to the specific risk exposure (especially business activities with high-risk countries, dealing with deviating payers or conspicuous drop shipments).
18/03/2024
E-learning | Open source compliance for software developers
This e-learning course has been specially designed for software developers. Its purpose is to raise awareness of what needs to be considered from a legal viewpoint when software developers use open source software.
18/03/2024
E-Learning | Preventing corruption – basics and practical tips
In a business context, benefits such as gifts and invitations are mainly intended to promote and maintain business relationships. However, using excessive benefits to influence business decisions is not allowed. There is often uncertainty about what is "allowed" and what is "banned" in the business world. Our basic training on corruption prevention educates your employees and provides practical guidance for everyday business that complies with legal requirements.
18/03/2024
E-learning | Contact with competitors – basic competition law rules
Our e-learning course on dealing with competitors provides our clients with a sound basis for training their employees. This e-learning course guides through the correct conduct under competition law when in contact with competitors.
18/03/2024
E-learning | Protection of reporting persons using a whistleblower system
The EU’s Whistleblower Directive (2019/1937) was transposed into national law in Germany by the Whistleblower Protection Act (Hin­weis­ge­ber­s­chutzge­setz, HinSchG). The Whistleblower Protection Act came into effect on 2 July 2023. We have developed an e-learning course for your employees that answers the essential legal and organisational questions relating to the whistleblower protection provided by having a reporting system in place. The course also explains how a whistleblowing system works and encourages staff to report potential issues internally rather than contacting the relevant external reporting office.
06/03/2024
ARD Conference of Committee Chairs draws up framework compliance policy...
Munich – The committee chairs of German broadcaster ARD have agreed on a framework policy for members of supervisory bodies. This specifies in more detail the requirements under the relevant interstate treaties and establishes the basis for a common compliance culture across the individual broadcasting councils and administration councils. The policy includes standards of conduct for committee members and rules on dealing with possible conflicts of interest. For greater transparency, members of ARD supervisory bodies are also urged to share information on the Internet about their other roles before and during membership of broadcasting councils and administration councils. The onus is now on the broadcasting councils and administration councils of the ARD stations to implement the recommendations of the ARD Conference of Committee Chairs. They also need to check on a case-by-case basis whether additions need to be made as a result of existing statutory regulations or aspects specific to the particular committee.A CMS team including Dr Harald Potinecke and Laura Posch advised the Conference of Committee Chairs and a working party comprising committee members of all stations on all legal aspects of developing the framework compliance policy. Contacts at CMS Germany Dr Harald Potinecke, Partner Laura Posch, Senior Associate, both CompliancePress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com
19/01/2024
Greenwashing: Stricter EU rules on environmental marketing ban misleading...
On 17 January 2024, the European Parliament voted to adopt the Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (the ECGT Directive), which seeks to protect consumers from various misleading...
19/01/2024
CBAM: Just over a week to comply
As the deadline for the first Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) report approaches on January 31st, it is crucial for undertakings engaged in importing relevant goods into the European Union to...
19/01/2024
EU Proposals for a Regulation and a Directive on Anti-Money Laundering...
On 18 January 2024, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a part of the new anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (“AML/CTF”)...
29/12/2023
Tackling the misuse of crypto-assets for ML-TF purposes
As a constantly evolving sector, the crypto-assets ecosystem presents continuous challenges, particularly in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML-TF) risks.To tackle the misuse of crypto-assets...
24/11/2023
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism transition in effect since 1 October...
On 1 October 2023, a two-year transitional period began for implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/956, which introduces the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). CBAM levies punitive CO2 charges...