The law firm is mainly focusing on international construction law, international inheritance law (probate law) and real estate law covering all kind of related services.

The independence of nations and the solidarity of humans are given facts. It is no longer possible to be isolated from people who live in other nations. Their point of view, their kind of action, their opulence or their misery is important to us. With regard to international practise the lawyer in particular has to choose a particular approach. Unfortunately the (legal) world is still divided in sovereign an independent states and jurisdictions. As long as individuals abstain from crossing frontiers, legal relations will be exclusively governed by national law. But people often do have contact with foreign states and/or jurisdictions and their citizens because they follow the business.

It is then that the question arises whether the relation is governed by national law or by the law of some other country or jurisdiction. The answer comes from the so called private international law (conflicts of law). If a relationship has connections with more than one country or jurisdiction, the applicable law has to be determined by the given set of rules of the conflict of laws´ provisions. Conflicts of laws impose a lot of difficult questions to lawyers in every country. Once the national law which governs the case has been determined, the lawyer has to apply the law even if it is that of a foreign country. Knowledge of foreign law is thus indispensable.

Foreign law is often very different from national law so that specialists will be needed. That was the reason why Dr. Hök & Colleagues decided in 1994 to become a member of EUROJURIS, a European lawyer´s network. Since then the law firm Dr. Hök, Stieglmeier & Kollegen has grown to become a European wide operating specialised and experienced law firm, whose lawyers practice in several languages, including German, English, French, Polish, and Spanish.
 

Dr. Hök, Stieglmeier & Kollegen law firm deals with commercial law, construction law, property law (conveyancing, facility management), debt recovery especially in foreign countries or cross border litigation, probate and succession law, EC law, medical negligence, labour law, including a wide range of services with regard to construction projects and real estate.

Construction Business Services
 

We advise our clients on national and international construction, building and civil engineering projects, on infrastructure projects as well as on industrial construction projects.

• Construction contracts under the German Civil Code (BGB) and under the Regulations on the Procurement of Construction Services (VOB/B), e.g.
  - Measurement Contracts
  - Lump sum Contracts
  - Design & Build Contracts
  - Guaranteed maximum price contracts
  - General contractor agreements
  - Full-service management agreements
  - Subcontractor agreements 
• FIDIC based construction contracts, e.g.
  - Measurement Contracts
  - Lump sum Contracts
  - Design & Build Contracts
  - Turnkey Contracts
  - Design, Build & Operate Contracts
  - Subcontractor agreements 
• Consortium and Joint Venture Agreements
• Architects´ Service Agreements, Civil Engineering and Project Management Contracts, e.g. under the German Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure (HOAI) and FIDIC White Book (2006), RIBA Stages of Work, ACE
• Advisory Services on Procurement Procedures, especially Standard Bidding Documents of multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, EBRD etc.
• Advisory services “on site” during construction and after completion for domestic projects and abroad
• International construction law & International Litigation
• The appropriate procurement form, e.g. FIDIC (Rainbow Edition), ENAA, JCT, NEC, AIA
• Advice in different legal systems, e.g. French, Arabian law systems, English and Polish law
  • ”On site" legal support in the construction process
  • Contract Negotiations (Design & Build, Measurement, Turnkey, Engineering)
• Integrated technical-legal construction management
  • Technical-legal project management
  • Claim-Management
• National and international construction litigation, dispute adjudication and arbitration
• FIDIC trainings at all levels covering all FIDIC modules (open house and inhouse) worldwide in German, English and French

Over the years the law firm has become specialised on FIDIC forms of contract. The law firm does provide services for contract preparation, proper contract management and the prosecution of claims under FIDIC forms of Contract. The law firm has experience with FIDIC based projects in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Among those projects were water treatment plant projects, railway projects, road projects, dam projects and other major infrastructure investments. The law firm was involved therein in different functions, either as a counsel for the Employer or the Contractor or as a member of the Engineer´s and/or designer´s team.

Dr. Hök is a FIDIC licensed FIDIC trainer. He has been qualified as a FIDIC assessed and listed adjudicator and arbitrator and has been appointed as such in various European countries. Dr. Hök is member of VBI and a fellow of DBF. Inter alia, he has been appointed for FIDIC trainings in Botswana, Cameroon, Denmark, India, Oman, Qatar, Romania and Serbia and he was a speaker on various IBC FIDIC Users´ Conferences in Europe and Asia.

Probate Law Services (Inheritance law)
 

We advise our clients in international probate cases (inheritance cases)

• Construction of wills (how to establish a will in writing, notary public, etc.)
  Form of a will (Hague Convention)
• Legalisation (Hague Convention)
• Content of wills (droit réservataire, Pflichtteil, portions of inheritance that must devolve upon the heirs, which is often the case in civil law jurisdictions)
• German probate procedures

-          Erbschein (certificate of inheritance)

-          Execution of wills

• French Probate Procedures
• Litigation
• Problems with trusts in Germany, France
• Split heirship cases

On the basis of conflicts of law rules, we are experienced in German, English, US and French inheritance law and German tax law. The law firm is mainly involved in split heirship cases arising form the diversity of the existing conflict of laws´ rules.

International Litigation Services
 

We defend the interests of our clients in front of German courts in international litigation cases, we deal especially with:

• International venue questions
• Conflicts of law rules
• Foreign languages (English, French, Polish etc.)
• Cross border recovery of debts
• Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and other instruments

We defend the interests of our clients before DABs and arbitral courts throughout the world. The law firm is in particular specialised on FIDIC disputes.

Commercial Law Services
 

We advise our clients in several commercial law areas, including:

• Establishing of German Companies
• Registration of Companies
• Registration of branches and subsidiaries
• Labour Law Services
• Distribution Agreements (Agency Law)
• Company law, mergers & acquisitions (PME, SME)

Real Estate Services
 

We advise our clients on questions concerning

• How to buy and sell real estate in Germany and France (e.g. drafting and negotiating contracts, land registry research work, title search work)
• Verifying real estate valuation expertises
• How to finance a real estate operation with German banks
• Advisory Services for rent contracts and facility management 

For further information please follow the links under this website. There is detailed information about FIDIC contracts, inheritance law etc.