On Oct. 1, Greenberg Traurig unveiled its newest outpost, a 55-lawyer office in Berlin. The firm’s launch into the German market, by way of absorbing the entire German arm of U.K-based Olswang, may be the largest mass lateral migration there since 2008, when Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe acquired a 55-lawyer German firm.
Greenberg Traurig’s chief executive, Richard Rosenbaum, says he spent a decade looking for the right group upon which to build the 1,800-lawyer firm’s German base. He says he spent a year negotiating and planning with the Olswang lawyers, who bring expertise in many of the same sectors—such as real estate, tech, telecom and media—that Greenberg Traurig touts. “We’ve been counting down the days,” Rosenbaum says.
