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Dispute Resolution

We have one of the most respected litigation and arbitration practices in Germany. Our Dispute Resolution team has been among the largest, most versatile and most innovative in the market for many years. 

The strong position of the Dispute Resolution Practice Area Group is reflected in our performance in the major rankings, such as the JUVE Handbook for Commercial Law Firms, Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500. A large number of our lawyers have also been recognised as leading names and as Germany's best lawyers, e.g. by Kanzleimonitor, Who is Who Legal (WWL), GAR, and Handelsblatt in association with Best Lawyers.

Our approximately 130 lawyers and commercial lawyers combine broad expertise with many years of experience in conflict resolution both in and out of court. We have the skills required to manage complex national and international disputes. In addition to our technical knowledge and understanding of commercial issues, we also offer efficient project management and are strongly service-driven.

Depth of detail across the board

We advise clients ahead of contentious disputes and represent them in proceedings before the state courts, in national and international arbitration proceedings, and also in alternative dispute resolution proceedings (mediation, conciliation, adjudication and expert determination proceedings). 

Depending on the type of proceedings and the specific requirements, our Dispute Resolution lawyers form interdisciplinary teams with experts from other practice areas. This ensures that the specialist substantive law expertise of the entire firm is available in litigation. The spectrum of our dispute resolution cases ranges from traditional civil law, commercial law, transport law and corporate law to post-M&A, banking and financial disputes, life sciences, plant construction and infrastructure projects, as well as conflicts in the technology and energy sectors.

Excellent international network

The CMS Dispute Resolution Practice Area Group consists of some 1,000 lawyers across 70 offices in over 40 countries. Our experienced, efficient international network supports companies whenever they are confronted with conflicts in their day-to-day business. CMS's Dispute Resolution experts in Germany have special country-specific knowledge not only in Europe and the US, but especially in Asia (particularly in China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia), Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

Innovative and technically ahead of the curve

Our Dispute Resolution Practice Area Group owes much of its innovative ability and growing success to the establishment of the CMS Legal Tech and Project Management Center in Berlin. We now include the Legal Tech and Project Management Team in many major instructions, enabling us to offer clients an additional service that makes litigation significantly more efficient. This means that large-scale proceedings in particular can be conducted in a resource-light manner. The experience gained can then also be used on smaller instructions, thereby maximising the benefits for clients.

Key benefits

  • Local contacts due to our strong regional presence
  • Excellent market reputation
  • One-stop project management
  • Leader in the use of legal tech
  • Interdisciplinary teams
  • Competitive pricing

What others say about us:

"The practice group is one of the largest in the market and has recently experienced another significant surge in growth. The main reason for this is mass litigation for its clients [...], which CMS handles in a separate group using a high level of technology. In addition to classic legal proceedings, the team's work increasingly includes claims management and the worldwide coordination of product liability cases. In addition, the practice group has been instructed to advise on numerous new mandates in the classic disciplines of arbitration, product liability and commercial and corporate disputes. [...] Furthermore, CMS [...] is one of the firms that is most frequently called upon to deal with Asia-related disputes."

JUVE Handbuch, 2023/24

"A notable law firm in the dispute resolution world, CMS offers comprehensive services with a particular focus on representing clients from various industries in arbitration. The firm is respected for its prowess in handling commercial and investment arbitration cases, with members of the team regularly being appointed as presiding arbitrators. Furthermore, CMS offers expertise in mass litigation and liability claims and is regularly involved in politically sensitive projects, acting as counsel on multi-jurisdictional disputes [..]."

Chambers Global, 2023

"CMS is well equipped to advise on contentious proceedings that are multi-jurisdictional. Clients seeking guidance in relation to litigation and arbitration proceedings are well served by the full-service disputes team, which is particularly adept at advising on proceedings relating to Asian markets."

Chambers Global, 2023, Germany International & Cross-Border Capabilities

Awarded as "Innovative Lawyers Europe" and 2023 Winner in the category "Innovation in Client Delivery"

Financial Times Awards 2023

"'Involved in top-quality work', CMS 'has a very broad-based team and is knowledgeable in a variety of areas'. The arbitration group is highly rated."

The Legal 500 EMEA, 2022

"One client describes the team at CMS as 'brilliant professionals with an outstanding knowledge of the law, and they know people across all sectors as well'."

Chambers Europe, 2022

"A notable law firm in the dispute resolution world, CMS offers comprehensive services with a particular focus on representing clients from various industries in arbitration. The firm is respected for its prowess in handling commercial and investment arbitration cases, with members of the team regularly being appointed as presiding arbitrators. Furthermore, CMS offers expertise in mass litigation, liability claims and procurement disputes. The team is also regularly involved in politically sensitive and strategically salient projects, acting as counsel in multi-jurisdictional disputes."

Chambers Europe, 2022

Dispute Resolution Law Firm of the Year

JUVE Awards 2022

"In addition to its traditionally strong disciplines, such as arbitration, product liability and commercial and corporate disputes, the versatile practice is also tapping into the growing market of mass litigation."

JUVE German Commercial Law Firms 2023 (GCLF)

Choose area

Dispute Resolution - Schiedsverfahren
Arbitration
Arbitration is the preferred means of resolving commercial disputes, especially international ones. For many years, our Dispute Resolution Practice Ar
Dispute Resolution - Prozessführung
Litigation
It is not always possible to resolve business conflicts through negotiation. Experienced litigation lawyers are needed to enforce or defend against co
Dispute Resolution - Massenverfahren
Class actions
Class actions present particular challenges. Simultaneously defending against a large number of individual claims requires not only legal expertise bu
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The closer the ties between companies, the greater the associated need to maintain business relationships even during and after contentious disputes.
Top 10 Trends in Litigation
Unsere Zusammenstellung der 10 Top Trends in Litigation bietet Ihnen einen...
Update Dispute Resolution (in German)
Litigation and Arbitration News
25/07/2019
CMS Dispute Resolution Global Brochure
There are two sides to every dispute – have proven experience on yours. Whatever business you are in, resolving disputes is a fact of life. Knowing you have experienced and pragmatic advisers on your...

Feed

12/03/2024
Podcast CMS To Go | Güteverfahren – eine effiziente Alternative zu Gerichts­ver­fahren?
Court proceedings clearly often cost a lot of time, money and internal resources, as well as damaging ongoing business relationships. So are there any alternatives? Mediation and arbitration proceedings offer a little-known but efficient option, which Claus Thiery and Sandra Renschke present in our new Litigation Matters podcast. Appearing as a guest is Dr Ulrich Hagel, CEO of EUCON, the European Institute for Conflict Management. As a recognised mediation body, EUCON provides a way of handling commercial disputes. Dr Ulrich Hagel reports at first hand on how me­di­ation/ar­bit­ra­tion proceedings work, what advantages they offer and what the differences are between them and other types of proceedings.
08/03/2024
EU takes stand against environmental crimes with new Directive
The escalating problem of environmental degradation is triggering a re-evaluation of our legal systems' effectiveness in preventing and justly sanctioning such harms. Now the EU has taken a significant...
01/03/2024
Pre-conditions to arbitration and the FIDIC 2nd Edition
Amendments to the FIDIC 2nd Edition contracts published in November 2022 have narrowed the definition of “Dispute” to more closely align it with the pre-conditions to DAAB and arbitration proceedings...
14/02/2024
Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Germany
1. Is there an exequatur procedure? Yes. Recognition of a foreign judgment takes place automatically as long as the requirements are met and no grounds for refusal are invoked. Execution can be sought...
02/02/2024
CMS successfully represents 130 cable network operators in feed-in fee...
Hamburg – The ARD regional public service broadcasters and Deutsche Netzmarketing GmbH (DNMG) have entered into a long-term cooperation agreement for distributing ARD programmes and services across the networks operated by DNMG members. The agreement is the result of a constructive and intensive negotiation process, which led to the parties settling their in-court dispute relating to non-dis­crim­in­at­ory feed-in terms.A CMS team headed by Dr Markus Schöner successfully represented DNMG and its network operators in the court proceedings. The CMS team previously worked on the test case brought by wilhelm. tel GmbH against ZDF, when the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) applied the prohibition of discrimination under competition law to the refusal to pay feed-in fees in a 2021 ruling. Following the case, the cable network operators affiliated with DNMG were able to resolve various issues with ZDF, including the feed-in fee. CMS is currently continuing to represent DNMG and its network operators in the remaining disputes with ARTE. CMS Germany Dr Markus Schöner, Lead Partner Dr Nantje Johnston, Principal Counsel Dr Tim Reher, Partner, all Antitrust, Competition & Trade Dr Matthias Schlingmann, Partner, Dispute ResolutionPress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com
24/01/2024
Podcast CMS To Go | Die neue Abhilfeklage – ein echter Gamechanger?
The collective action for redress that became available in October last year extends the options for collective legal action in Germany. For the first time, consumers and small businesses can take collective action against companies for redress and obtain a direct remedy, such as payments. The existing model declaratory action can only be used to obtain declaratory decisions, in other words it does not lead to a title of execution. In this podcast, Claus Thiery and Sandra Renschke, partner and counsel in the Dispute Resolution practice respectively, explain aspects such as how the remedial procedure is structured, what role consumer associations play and to what extent settlements are a likely outcome. They finish by discussing whether the new type of lawsuit will actually be a game changer, as claimed by policymakers.
23/01/2024
Litigation Matters
Litigation Matters – the podcast that covers the world of civil litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Take part in our discussion about innovative approaches and proven methods of conflict resolution, while also gaining an insight into our lawyers’ daily work in the field of litigation and negotiation.
08/01/2024
Justice in the Digital Age: Exploring AI’s Role in International Arbitration
IntroductionThe use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in international arbitration has been a topic of debate and discussion long before the launch of chatbot ChatGPT in late November 2022.  Indisputably...
19/12/2023
CMS advises Vattenfall on all aspects of selling its district heating business...
Hamburg – Vattenfall has completed a strategic review of its Berlin district heating business and decided to sell it in full to the Federal State of Berlin. An agreement to this effect was signed by...
15/12/2023
Oil & Gas Disputes Survey 2023
Our Oil and Gas Disputes Survey 2023 has highlighted that regulator activity, environmental issues and global economic and political challenges are seen by those in the oil & gas industry to be driving...
04/12/2023
International arbitration law and rules in Germany
German State Courts are arbitration friendly. The jurisdiction for almost all arbitration related issues is concentrated at the Higher Regional Courts. Their attitude is to support arbitration proceedings...
21/11/2023
Lawfulness of AI-assisted advertising under the German Unfair Competition...
Anyone using AI for advertising purposes should carefully check whether the intended use of the AI is lawful under unfair competition law.Using artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and sales is seen...