The Banking & Finance Practice Group

As partner in the Banking & Finance practice group, Simon works with co-managing partner Prof. Dr. Andreas Walter and Charlotte Zormeier on FinTech advisory matters. He has been appointed as a partner as of 1 January 2024, after joining the Banking & Finance team from an international law firm three and a half years ago. At the age of 33, he is the youngest partner in our law firm. For Simon, his appointment demonstrates that becoming a partner at Schalast is not about age but rather about your merits, expertise and dedication as a lawyer.

Simon finds it particularly exciting that Schalast's work in many cases goes beyond the traditional tasks of a lawyer. The team offers advice to the often young FinTech projects throughout the entire cycle, from product development and launch to ongoing legal support, especially during financing rounds. Simon prefers to give clients not only a legal assessment of the original idea, but also - if possible - a proposed solution at the same time. At Schalast, this gives him the chance to develop and design in cooperation with the clients. It often happens that the practice group receives a "Make it happen in Germany" assignment from a company that is already active in another country. For international FinTechs coming to Germany from abroad or expanding from Germany into other countries, the international law firm network Multilaw, plays an important role.

 

The Multilaw Next-Gen Lawyers

The FinTechs Simon works with in particular, but also numerous other clients, are either looking to expand internationally or already operate abroad and are now targeting the German market. Multilaw enables the affiliated law firms to obtain the expertise of colleagues in the respective jurisdictions for these cases or to refer the clients to the partner law firm in the target country. There are no major formal hurdles within the network and information can be exchanged quite easily thanks to the relevant framework agreements. This saves the lawyers a lot of time in their day-to-day work and raises the service for clients to an international level. Simon emphasizes that many collaborations have already resulted from referrals by Mulitlaw colleagues, but that his team has also been able to pass on many projects to partner law firms.

Since March 2023, Simon has been Vice Chair of Multilaw's Next-Gen Group for the Europe, Middle East, Africa region. As a result, he can report not only on the network's effect on day-to-day work, but also on Multilaw's other resources. Within Multilaw, the "Next-Gen's" are a peer group that offers junior lawyers the opportunity to network and exchange ideas on eye level. On the Next-Gen EMEA Executive Committee, Simon sits with lawyers from Nigeria, the UK and Ireland. They organize events specifically targeting lawyers on partner track and represent the interests of this peer group in the other multilaw bodies. He says Schalast as an employer strongly supported him in his application and now allows him the resources he needs for his role at Multilaw and the traveling it entails. Through Multilaw, Schalast also offers opportunities for secondments at partner law firms. 

 

Career Development at Schalast

Even apart from his involvement with Multilaw, Simon takes advantage of the opportunities for further education at Schalast. He has decided to pursue an MBA at Boston University as he wants to delve deeper into business strategy topics. What makes Schalast's continuing education opportunities so special, Simon says, is that there is no "one-size-fits-all" model. Instead, young attorneys at Schalast can pursue individual paths. Depending on career goals and desired profile, everything from an LL.M, a Master's degree or an MBA to a doctorate is possible.

 

Why Schalast?

The opportunities for further training already give a good impression of why Simon chose Schalast. What he says he appreciates about Schalast is the freedom for further development, individually and without a set direction. He values the flat hierarchy and the opportunity to develop new projects together with clients and to explore new topics. For Simon, what makes Schalast special is not only the chance to go beyond the usual field of lawyers, but to advance in the area in which you want to develop yourself.