Dr. Lars Maritzen is building up the cartel law practice group at Schalast

Starting in May 2024, Dr. Lars Maritzen will become a new Schalast partner at the Düsseldorf office. He is moving together with Associate Rebecca Gebhardt-Balle from the law firm Kleiner Rechtsanwälte. Together with senior associate Hanna Löschan, LL.M. and Prof. Dr. Christoph Schalast, they will build up the cartel law practice group at Schalast and drive forward the expansion of compliance advice. Dr. Lars Maritzen takes over the management of the practice group.

Dr. Lars Maritzen specializes in cartel law, compliance and commercial law with a focus on litigation. In cartel law, he primarily advises on distribution cartel law and on the enforcement and defense of cartel damages claims, both on the injured party and the cartelist side.  In recent years, Dr. Lars Maritzen advised in particular larger groups of injured parties in class actions under the assignment model and in the context of larger litigation groups. He works together with various international litigation funders.

He has been advising national and international clients in the above-mentioned areas for approximately 12 years. He also imparts his knowledge at the Fresenius University as a lecturer for international contract and commercial law and in numerous publications.

"In addition to the exciting challenge of setting up my own practice group, I was particularly attracted by the firm's growth-oriented vision for the future.  I am looking forward to building on the firm's strong M&A business with cartel law and also to working closely together in the area of litigation," explains Dr. Lars Maritzen.

Schalast has already successfully advised numerous companies on cartel law, in particular merger control proceedings. Dr. Lars Maritzen will now further expand this area with his own practice group.

"We are very much looking forward to working with Dr. Lars Maritzen and his team. Cartel law is also very important to me personally. This was demonstrated, for example, by our action for annulment before the European Court of Justice in connection with the RWE-Eon deal. With Dr. Lars Maritzen, we are now gaining an experienced lawyer who will give this exciting area of law an even higher profile," explains Managing Partner Christoph Schalast.