“Helping clients navigate the challenges of German and European employment and privacy laws, and doing so with great colleagues, is something I enjoy every day.
For more than two decades, Hanno has advised and represented leading domestic and international corporations in a wide variety of industries, including technology, consumer products, automotive, and infrastructure, on all data protection matters and employment law issues and disputes.
Hanno’s practice focuses on the labor law ramifications of corporate restructurings, the acquisition of German firms, and negotiations with employee representatives for the reconciliation of interests and/or social plans, as well as on the employment of management board members, managing directors, and chief executives. He frequently represents clients in complex employment litigation in all German employment courts, including the Federal Labor Court.
His second key focus is advising companies with respect to their complex data protection compliance projects and the implementation of compliance systems and corporate policies as required under the GDPR, as well as whistleblowing systems. Hanno regularly represents clients in matters concerning data protection authorities and in data protection litigation. He has extensive experience responding to data breaches. His many clients praise him as "an excellent attorney" who provides "practical and legally sound advice on high-value data protection issues" and who is "available if and when needed." He also offers "thoughtful, practical and totally actionable advice that is understandable to both in-house counsel and corporate staff" and his “work product is consistently of the highest caliber” (Legal 500 Deutschland 2023).
Hanno is head of Morrison Foerster’s Employment and Labor Group in Germany and is an acknowledged Fachanwalt für Arbeitsrecht (Specialist in Labor and Employment Law). He also served as Berlin managing partner from 2013 to 2017. He frequently publishes articles on employment and privacy matters.
Representative Experience
- Comprehensive advice of TDK and EPCOS regarding their joint venture with Qualcomm requiring the transfer of more than 4,500 employees in 13 countries.
- Legal advice to leading producers of semiconductors regarding merger in Germany (including negotiations with works councils regarding operational changes in German businesses).
- Comprehensive employment advice to an international manufacturer of construction material on a joint venture (including negotiations with trade union and works council).
- Legal advice to Gucci Germany, Yves Saint Laurent Germany and Bottega Veneta in all labor law matters and disputes.
- Comprehensive advice to Sky Deutschland with respect to management board contracts.
- Advised Carbone Lorraine (automotive supplier) on the restructuring of the German subsidiary (company pay agreement, social benefit plan, and reconciliation of inherent interests).
- Ongoing advice to a leading internet sales platform on all labor law issues and in all labor law disputes.
- Extensive advice to a leading global satellite broadcaster with respect to internal investigations in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA.
- Drafting of user general terms and conditions, and the privacy policy for the company website of Fox International Channels.
- Advises Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (Berlin public transit company - BVG) on the introduction of a company pension plan.
- Legal consultation of Bertelsmann Group in the implementation of a global compliance system, including a whistleblowing system.
- Advice to Anschutz Entertainment Group on data transfer agreements and the migration of customer data.
- Data protection advice to Primacom on the implementation of IPv6 addresses.
- Provided advice to PubliGroupe SA in relation to a joint venture (Zanox) with Axel Springer.
- Advice to a German firm in the paper industry on the conducting of an internal investigation prior to an investigation by the German Federal Cartel Authority.
- Comprehensive advice to an international paper manufacturer on the introduction of a compliance system in the EMEA.