Although our advice is aimed at preventing conflicts, legal disputes in the context of employment law are often unavoidable. FPS represents clients before all German courts and the European Court of Justice. In particular, we represent companies in proceedings concerning the legitimacy of trade union industrial action. Besides collective cases, representation also extends to individual dismissal protection proceedings as well as disputes in the areas of remuneration, the Employee Inventions Act, non-compete clauses and discrimination. We also support our clients in works council hearings and in approval procedures before the Integration Office. In addition, our mediators have considerable experience in out-of-court dispute resolution to avoid court proceedings.

Drawing up employment contracts for managing directors and board members as well as work contracts for employees at individual contract law level is one of our main focal areas in the field of employment law. This particularly includes the structuring of bonus and target agreements as well as other special allowances or employee share schemes (stock options, stock appreciation rights, etc.). In addition, we sit down with our clients to come up with tailored, innovative solutions to make working time models more flexible – by way of part-time contracts, working time accounts or fixed-term contracts, for example – and we are also very experienced in handling the termination of employment relationships, whether through dismissal or termination/settlement agreements, and dealing with the resulting issues regarding severance packages, holiday pay or preclusion periods.

In the context of any real estate transaction, the financing of the transaction itself also plays a key role. FPS not only advises in the area of due diligence, but also drafts and negotiates loan agreements and deals with complex portfolio financing. In addition, our experts examine refinancing options with traditional or alternative forms of financing and advise on meeting the loan disbursement requirements.

The high level of importance accorded to property ownership in Germany requires a large number of neighbour regulations that govern the legal relationships between landowners and play a major role in the approval or modification of construction projects. When it comes to negotiating and concluding neighbourhood agreements that take into account the interests of all parties, our experts have wide-ranging expertise acquired over a number of decades. In many projects, and in particular high-rise building developments in Frankfurt, we have been successfully working in the field of neighbour law for many years.