KWR KARASEK WIETRZYK Rechtsanwälte GmbH has promoted five former counsels to partner status. The firm is thus consistently continuing its course of sustained growth and strengthening its key practice areas in public commercial law, construction and property law, public procurement law, as well as in dispute resolution and energy law.
The following five lawyers have been promoted to partner:
• Mag. Sarina Illo Ortner has been part of the KWR Energy team since 2014 and specialises in public commercial law, primarily regulatory law and public construction law. She was admitted to the bar in 2018 and appointed as counsel in 2024. She represents leading companies, predominantly in administrative proceedings.
• Dr Andreas Herrmann has also been with KWR since 2014 and has been registered as a solicitor since 2018. He was promoted to counsel in 2024. His practice focuses on construction and property law; he also advises national and international property investment funds.
• Dr Julian Ring joined KWR’s construction and property law team in 2018, where he has been practising as a solicitor since 2021 and as a counsel since 2024. His focus is on construction contract law as well as tenancy and housing law.
• Mats Schröder, LL.M. has been with KWR since 2012 and has been registered as a solicitor since 2018. He was also appointed as Counsel in 2024. He specialises in public procurement law and handles extensive procurement procedures, both above and below the thresholds, for public contracting authorities.
• Nicolas O. Zenz, LL.M., BSc has been with KWR since 2019; he was appointed as a solicitor in 2020 and as Counsel in 2024. Together with S. Illo Ortner, he heads KWR’s Energy Team, where he is responsible for all private law matters, ranging from sector-specific contract drafting and advice in the field of (renewable) energy to dispute resolution. In addition, he specialises primarily in arbitration and B2C and consumer law.
“As a partnership, we are absolutely delighted to welcome Sarina Illo Ortner, Andreas Herrmann, Julian Ring, Mats Schröder and Nicolas O. Zenz to our partnership. We offer young talent an environment in which they can develop to their full potential in line with their strengths, whilst being actively supported and guided by us on their path to partnership. All five new partners have been with KWR since their trainee days and are, both professionally and personally, among the absolute pillars of our firm. The path we have chosen is bearing fruit. The promotions of proven experts underline our sustainable growth, even in an economically challenging environment. We are thus taking another major step forward in our KWR 2035 firm strategy and sending a clear signal to our staff and the market. At KWR, people are still made into partners. We offer genuine prospects, not just empty promises. With this expansion, we are significantly lowering the average age of our partnership and are now among the youngest partnerships of established large law firms in Austria. This, too, is another important management decision aimed at positioning our firm for a sustainable and forward-looking future,” said KWR partner and firm spokesperson Clemens Berlakovits.