Minister Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen

Dear participants of the DAJV LL.M.-Days 2021,

Studying abroad is an incomparable and exciting time in which you can not only develop your professional skills, but also gain valuable personal experience. By participating in a Master of Laws program in the USA, you will gain insight into a foreign legal system and an interesting country. Staying and exchanging ideas on site also promotes intercultural communication and an understanding of other ways of life. Graduates of a study abroad regularly become bridge-builders between their home country and the second international homeland they became familiar with during their studies. Use today’s event to find out more about the master’s programs in the USA and exchange ideas with representatives from universities and the transatlantic network of the German-American Lawyers Association (DAJV). I wish all of you – students, graduates and universities from the United States – an informative and inspiring event.

Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen
Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

DAJV LL.M. Days | Seminar | October 21, 2021

Speaker:

Judge Dr. Marc Eumann has studied Law and obtained his doctorate at Ruhr-University Bochum and attended the LL.M.-program at Duke University, Durham NC. He is on the bench in the judicial district of Bonn, Germany, since 1998 and became Presiding Judge in 2011. After hearing criminal appeals and presiding over economic crimes-cases for some years he was assigned to the 10th criminal law Chamber of the Court in 2017. That Chamber has jurisdiction for cases of general criminal law. Judge Dr. Eumann is on the board of directors of the DAJV since 2002.

Prof. Dr. Susanne Gössl LL.M. (Tulane) is Professor at Kiel University. After studying in Cologne and Naples she obtained an LL.M. at Tulane University Law School (New Orleans, LA) and worked in an NGO in Boulder, CO. During her Referendariat she worked in Washington, DC, at the Worldbank and in a law firm in Chile. She got her phd in Private International Law at the University of Cologne and did her post-doc at the University of Bonn.

Toni Jaeger-Fine is passionate about making herself the best professional she can be — and helping others do the same. A graduate of Duke Law School, Toni was a litigator at Crowell & Moring before joining academia. She worked at NYU and Cardozo Law Schools before joining Fordham Law nearly 15 years ago. Toni is the author of numerous articles, several books on the US legal system, and Becoming a Lawyer: Discovering and Defining Your Professional Persona. She blogs at YourProfessionalPersona.com.

Dr. Elisabeth Rudolf-Sipötz is Managing Director of BrainCapital GmbH and Member of the Board of the German Financial Network eV. She obtained her doctoral degree in business (Dr. oec. HSG) at the University of St. Gallen in 2001 based on her dissertation on «Customer Value». The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Torsten Tomczak, director of the University of St. Gallen Institute for Marketing and Trade (IMH-HSG). Elisabeth gained professional experience at Österreich Werbung (in Vienna and Barcelona), at the GGK (Vienna), at RudolfWitt & Company GmbH (Vallendar), as a research assistant at IMH-HSG and as a freelance marketing consultant. From 1989 to 1996, she studied journalism and communication sciences, law and commercial science in Vienna. In May 1996, she was awarded the Magistra of Social and Economic Sciences at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. During her years of study she was visiting as research scholar at the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University, Evanston, USA) and at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada).

Corrina Weinacker completed her legal education in Düsseldorf, where she started working as a lawyer in an international law firm in 2019. After working as a litigator for 2.5 years, she left Düsseldorf for Chicago where she is currently obtaining an LL.M. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She is an active member of the German-American Lawyers’ Association.

Dr. Thomas Wenninger is a German „Rechtsanwalt“ with PwC Legal. Based in the firm’s Stuttgart and Frankfurt offices, he works in the field of Corporate/M&A and advises clients on business transactions, corporate structuring, shareholders‘ disputes and corporate litigation. Thomas studied law at the universities of Augsburg and Geneva. He spent his legal clerkship, amongst others, at a law firm in Miami and at the legal department of a DAX company in Munich. In 2008, he obtained a Master‘s degree from the George-Washington-University (Washington DC) and in 2009, he was awarded with a doctoral degree by the university of Augsburg. He is also qualified as attorney-at-law in New York. Before joining PwC, Thomas worked for another leading law firm in Stuttgart. Thomas is married and has three children.

Moderator:

Dr. Daniel Biene attended law school with a media industry focus in Germany, Hong Kong, the United States, and Switzerland. In addition to his law degree from Germany and an LL.M. from Cardozo Law School in New York he holds a Ph.D. in international media law and economics from the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. After working for Clifford Chance in Hong Kong and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Berlin he switched his career to the management side and worked in C-level leadership roles for large media companies. Most recently he served as President & CEO of a U.S. subsidiary of Axel Springer, the international media group. During this time he was responsible for several widely known digital media and digital platform brands. He then became a serial entrepreneur and founded successful internet startups backed by renowned venture capital funds. Among the startups founded and led by him are Smartlaw (acquired by Wolters Kluwer) and Legalbase (acquired by LegalZoom), both of which pioneered the legal tech category in Europe. After Smartlaw was acquired he became Managing Director of all of Wolters Kluwer’s digital B2C platform businesses. Later, he took on responsibility for Axiom’s operations in Europe. Dr. Biene is one of only a handful of people with deep leadership experience in both large global corporations as well as internet startups managed according to lean and agile best practices. When working with clients, he places a particular emphasis on combining the best of both worlds, in order to generate tangible and sustainable results quickly. Based on his personal experience, Dr. Biene is intimately familiar with the critical importance of the human factor for the success of ventures large and small. This includes the challenges and opportunities created by digitization, generational change, and globalization in the workplace. He enjoys helping create purpose-driven, highly motivated and truly impactful teams. Dr. Biene is a frequently invited speaker on topics of innovation and digital transformation. He has been serving on the Board of the German-American Lawyers Association for more than 20 years.

DAJV LL.M. Days | Welcome & Opening of the Fair | October 22, 2021

This year the following excellent U.S. law schools participated:

  • Boston University School of Law
  • Cardozo School of Law
  • Cornell Law School
  • Duke University School of Law
  • Emory University School of Law
  • The Fletcher School of Law
  • Georgetown University Law Center
  • Fordham Law School
  • The George Washington University Law School
  • SMU Dedman School of Law
  • UC Berkeley School of Law
  • UCLA School of Law
  • University of Chicago Law School
  • University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law
  • University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
  • USC Gould School of Law
  • Vanderbilt Law School