Public sector companies, for example companies in which the public sector holds a stake, are subject to federal regulations, e.g. company law (GmbHG, AktG or HGB) on the one hand and public law regulations on the other.
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Special regulations for the public sector
At municipal level, for example, this includes the many municipal utilities, transport, swimming pool, arts and culture and other companies. They are all also subject to the municipal law regulations of the respective federal states regarding the economic activities of municipalities or mergers of municipalities.
Many years of expertise in the public sector
We have many years of experience and a corresponding understanding of the special legal features at the interface between company law and public law.
Our services in public sector corporate law
Corporate law for companies in the public sector
Our special services include, among other things
- Advice on the choice of legal form
- Carrying out (legal) due diligences
- Legal design of optimised corporate structures
- Conception, moderation and drafting of cooperation projects, spin-offs and remunicipalisations
- Legal structuring of privatisation and remunicipalisation projects
- Coordination and implementation of organisational concepts with the relevant approval authorities
- Other contract drafting
- Drafting of management or operator contracts, supply and disposal contracts
- Drafting of company and levy statutes
- Support in legal proceedings relating to corporate and public commercial law
Executive bodies and members of executive bodies
Special legal features apply to bodies of public companies and their members. These may relate to the composition and fundamental interaction of executive and political offices. Questions such as the relationship between the duty of confidentiality under company law and the duty to speak under public law or remuneration issues tend to affect the individual members.
Our services include, for example
- Advising shareholders, e.g. on the structuring of corporate bodies
- Advising corporate bodies (management, supervisory bodies)
- Advising board members on their rights and obligations
- Preparation of remuneration reports for management boards
- Determination and judicial enforcement or defence of recourse claims against board members and insurance companies
Training for municipal supervisory bodies
The supervisory bodies must have the necessary knowledge to fulfil their duties properly. Basic seminars on the rights and duties of board members should be organised for public companies. These and other training measures are explicitly provided for in a number of public corporate governance codes and in the model code.
Our training programme includes
- Training for municipal supervisory boards, administrative boards and works councils on duties, rights and obligations,
- in combination with training on annual financial statements and audit reports.
Sector-specific public law
We also offer further legal advice on individual sectors in the public sector.