At the start of 2023 Austria adopted the EU Whistleblowing Directive. Medium-sized – and large Companies will all be required to set up a whistleblowing system that meets legal requirements for documentation, data protection and confidentiality, which can usually only be achieved with a professional system.
The new Whistleblower Protection Act assumes that it is advantageous for every company if potential whistleblowers are given the opportunity to submit information to internal reporting offices. Although there are no penalties for failing to set up an internal whistleblower system, without internal reporting systems there is hardly any legal recourse against the publication of the tip.
The installation and support of these systems should be accompanied by trained experts in order to ensure compliance with the various legal requirements. KNOETZL has accompanied such processes several times in the past and will be pleased to support you with words and deeds in the implementation of a system that fits the size of your company. With a trained eye and a sense for discreet day-to-day suitability, we pay attention to an efficient, cost-effective solution that meets the diverse requirements of your business.
AS REGULATORS’, PROSECUTORS’ AND CONSUMERS’ VIGILANCE INCREASES, LEGALLY MANAGING DATA AND LIMITING LIABILITY POSES A CONSIDERABLE CHALLENGE.
Businesses that particularly work with large data sets require dispute counsel with focused and specific training and skills. Successfully representing some of the world’s largest and household brand digital giants in their enterprise-wide, cutting-edge data-handling matters, KNOETZL possesses in-depth understanding of the practice of (large) data management, including under the GDPR. In combination with our known prowess as a litigation powerhouse, this deep understanding positions us uniquely in the Austrian market as a go-to firm of seasoned, experienced data litigators. Sophisticated social media, digital sales, internet advertising, processing and electronic enterprise servicer companies know to call upon our data processing specialists in their most important legal disputes and investigations.
In addition, KNOETZL provides extensive guidance in cases of corruption and security breaches and assists with our expertise in investigative crisis situations. Confronting the threat of potentially substantial penalties with the appropriate speed and aggressiveness and disposing of these cases as quickly and thoroughly as possible, is where we at KNOETZL excel.
WE ARE DEEPLY SORRY FOR ALL PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THE CORONAVIRUS. WE SUFFER WITH OUR FRIENDS, BUSINESS PARTNERS AND MEMBERS OF THE LEGAL COMMUNITY WHO ARE IN FEAR AND IN NEED OF MEDICAL TREATMENT, AND WE WISH THEM ALL A COMPLETE AND SPEEDY RECOVERY. WE ARE DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO ALL MEMBERS OF OUR MEDICAL, RESPONDER AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES WHO PROVIDE THEIR STEADY, PROFESSIONAL AND DEDICATED SUPPORT TO OUR LARGER COMMUNITIES AND TO US.
Moreover, we are pained by the negative effects on the businesses of our clients and friends who need help in these troubled times to assess the legal effects of cancellations (or holding) of events, supply chain disruptions, loss of continuous work force, price gouging, liquidity, travel plans, delivery failures, and employment-related advice or strategic planning for and negotiate or force positive results in any legal dispute or corporate crisis that may arise. We have been trained for, and have currently studied the plethora of legal questions attached, such as force major and attribution of responsibility, and are ready to provide help where it is needed, to ease the negative effects of this horrible, pandemic, scourge.
For any questions in that respect please contact us through our managing partner, Tim Pfister, our head of litigation, Bettina Knoetzl, or the leader of our employment law practice, Bert Ortner. We are ready to assist on short notice with our customary laser-focused advice, just as needed.
For our own employees and their precious families, we hope that through practicing our early, cautious measures (“ZDZC Campaign”), put into place when there was but a single-digit tally of COVID-19 deaths reported in mainland China, all may stay well. We pray that the spread of the virus may soon slow down and the world’s economies recover quickly. We are dedicated to contribute as much as is within our power to do.
MEMBERS OF OUR TEAM ARE ROUTINELY CALLED UPON AS A RESULT OF THEIR EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN HIGH-VALUE, MULTIJURISDICTIONAL ASSET TRACING AND RECOVERY. WE ACT, IN THIS CAPACITY, FOR MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS, HIGH NET WORTH INDIVIDUALS AND OTHER VICTIMS OF FRAUD.
Our close relationships and seasoned teamwork with experienced local and international forensic experts and fraud recovery lawyers in virtually every jurisdiction in the world, ensure that we can help identify, trace, freeze and recover hard financial, book entry, and physical assets with the most effective use of dedicated resources. In cases where tangible assets are not accessible or identifiable, we help clients to identify strategic and book-entry assets that may support legal efforts towards recovery. Our experience in this sector includes securing and enforcing multimillion arbitral awards and foreign judgments simultaneously in multiple jurisdictions, securing worldwide freezing orders, contesting and halting complex, hidden, asset transfers in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, and recovering fraudulently misappropriated assets. Our clients and our international fraud and asset tracing partners value our tenacity and our imaginative use of all available civil and criminal law instruments, procedures and offices, to secure their recovery.
One of our partners is the longstanding Austrian member, and an active and recognized leader, of ICC FraudNet , the world’s leading asset recovery network comprised of the top civil asset recovery specialist lawyers in every country.
We understand the importance of the workforce as an essential element of successful business.
We apply our extensive experience and strategic expertise to guide our clients through workplace disputes to ensure their best commercial advantage.
Unfair competition demands purposeful reaction and full risk understanding.
When they are victimized or have to strike first to prevent harm, we lead our clients to the best solutions. We establish and defend their rightful market position, and avoid adverse business effects resulting from harmful disputes caused by wrongfully-acting competitors.
The protection and security of intellectual capital as a core corporate asset is a vital aspect of many industries.
We provide tailored, analytical and comprehensive strategic advice as well as forceful representation in all kinds of intellectual property disputes.
We assist with world-wide Asset Recovery, utilizing our global connections, including the international fraud & asset recovery network “ICC FraudNet”.
Our lawyers are recognized as leading experts in Asset Tracing and have achieved the return of significant sums for our clients throughout the enforcement of court decisions and arbitral awards.
We offer our clients the highest quality of advice and guide them through all forms of traditionally available, and creatively structured, alternative dispute resolution.
The benefits of alternative dispute resolution reside in the numerous options available and the flexibility they offer to parties in dispute. Finding a party’s greatest advantage in ADR requires experienced dispute resolution specialists to assist in making the right choices and determining effective strategies and tactics.
We respond to the need of our clients for counsel on the complete spectrum of dispute resolution options, processes and strategies, including non-adversarial, cost-effective approaches to contentious matters, as may be appropriate and effective.
Our team includes accredited mediators with the experience to broker advantageous settlement agreements in complex disputes. We are committed to facilitating the best solution and finding a way for our clients to resolve issues, in order to get past their disputes and move forward.
Litigation is the core of our practice. Our litigation team has a clear mission and a driving purpose: to achieve optimal outcomes for corporate, financial and governmental clients in their most significant, sensitive and complicated litigations before the Austrian courts, and well beyond.
Our approach combines unmatched strategic thinking and decades of peerless experience with the endurance, stamina and commitment required to ultimately win the day.
We work seamlessly with international partner law firms and industry experts in the CEE and SEE regions and are widely regarded as true leaders and innovators in this market. Highly regarded, top tier ranked international law firms choose KNOETZL as their local counsel.
Our team’s diverse skillset covers civil, commercial, sovereign and criminal litigation, focusing significantly on liability claims, corporate disputes, banking, insurance and financial derivatives cases, investor protection, business crime, energy, technology and life science.
Our services also include asset-tracing and effective provisional measures, such as freeze orders and attachments, in the domestic and international context, and the enforcement of foreign judgments.
Our lawyers are widely recognized for their skill in representing clients in connection with contract-based and treaty-based investment disputes.
The members of the arbitration team have acquired substantial experience with investment arbitration proceedings conducted under the ICSID Convention’s Rules, the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules as well as the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
We regularly analyze the different levels of protection afforded to investors under international treaties and advise on the structuring of investments.
The team at KNOETZL is multilingual, providing our clients with representation in connection with their investments around the world.
We assist our corporate clients in conducting internal investigations and as they face external investigations.
One of our partners enjoys a reputation of international prominence in the field of investigations and, as the Austrian, and active, member of ICC FraudNet, she provides our firm and our clients with ready access to the necessary, top-of-the-class, network to handle multi-cross-border investigations quickly and effectively.
Our team of lawyers is experienced in dealing with technical aspects of internal and external investigations in a pragmatic and effective manner, including through the skilled utilization of forensic software. We understand the need to find answers quickly while avoiding disruption of our client’s business and operations.
KNOETZL combines the experience, knowledge and contacts best suited to nimbly deliver investigative solutions and results.
KNOETZL is well known for its legal capabilities at the intersection of civil and criminal law. Lawyers of KNOETZL have been involved in the biggest fraud cases in the country and the region, handling both the civil and the criminal defense side on behalf of a companies, substantial individuals or governmental institutions.
Our white collar clients can profit from our deep and distinguished experience, our longstanding reciprocal relationships we have established and nurtured with courts, the relevant regulatory and criminal prosecution authorities, and with local media representatives, so as to bolster reputational protection as needed – particularly in cases of ongoing business concerns and public persons. Our broad range of company, public officials and managerial defense work includes investment fraud, tax fraud, bankruptcy related actions and internal fraud cases.
We defend and attack related matters before civil courts, which includes handling of massive class-action-types of lawsuits and high profile cases with large, sometimes enormous, amounts in dispute. Our broad knowledge on the defense side has made us a feared representative of victims of white collar crime and asset displacement, as well.
We believe that KNOETZL corporate clients secure significant advantage over their rivals in being represented by our seasoned experts in all mission critical disputes.
In no area is their advantage as solid as when we are called upon to apply our experience, analytical acumen, practical solutions and strategic expertise to their most critical and sensitive corporate crises. This is the area in which our services are the most vital to our enterprise clients and are first choice for savvy players in the market.
We provide seasoned and professional, hands-on, legal advice when a potential or actual crisis of any sort threatens a client’s business, at any stage of the crisis.
The team at KNOETZL supports local and international companies across all business and governmental sectors in dealing with critical situations, and acts in a routine and focused manner, even under serious time pressure, as is so often the case.
Our primary objective is to help our clients prevent crisis situations. If worse comes to worst in a rapidly-unfolding critical circumstance, our extensive experience and prompt response time provides our clients with a rapid and thorough assessment of all issues they encounter in the face of a corporate crisis, together with viable and business-oriented solutions.
We advise and act on behalf of clients in institutional and in ad-hoc arbitration proceedings.
The members of the arbitration team are engaged as counsel and as arbitrators by a wide array of parties and under all significant arbitration rules, including the ICSID Convention’s Rules, the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Rules of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, the Rules of the German Institution of Arbitration (DIS) and the Rules of Arbitration of the VIAC (Vienna Rules).
The distinct ability of each of our team members to collaborate with partner law firms, legal and industry experts and in-house counsel ensures high standards and perfect handling of the most complex cases. Because of the diversity of the arbitration team, we offer clients advice in various languages (including French, Spanish, Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) and a deep market knowledge in a wide range of jurisdictions (among others, in South America, CEE and SEE).
We act for our clients at all stages of arbitral proceedings, in setting aside proceedings and in relation to all aspects of the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards.
The members of the arbitration team have been successfully involved in some of the largest and most complex commercial arbitrations in Austria and the CEE region of the last decade, and on behalf of some of the world’s largest companies.
We represent enterprise clients involved in class, group and representative actions.
One of our partners has successfully defended clients against class action lawsuits, including Austria’s biggest class action case to date. Our team, as a whole, has gained unparalleled expertise regarding the Austrian procedure for handling claims for collective redress, both within and outside the context of a sanctioned class.
We continually monitor the pulse and closely follow local and international trends regarding the latest legal and procedural developments, especially in the context of increasing regulation and propagation of class, collective and concerted actions on the European level.
We understand that compliance issues have become increasingly important in almost all business sectors during the last years. Our lawyers have been at the forefront of developments and services in this critical area.
We review actual, planned and contested business practices for compliance with laws, regulations and policies, and we assist in identifying risks to organizations as we help develop and oversee the implementation of appropriate policies and effective control.
Our compliance work encompasses a broad spectrum such as anti-corruption, reporting or disclosure, financial controls, money laundering, financing of criminal activities.
WE REPRESENT COMPANIES AND INDIVIDUALS DURING FRAUD, CRIMINAL AND BUSINESS-IRREGULARITY INVESTIGATION PROCEEDINGS AND GUIDE THEM THROUGH TRIALS WHEN THEY ARISE.
Our team expertly handles the technically legal aspects of white collar crime matters and is equally skilled at understanding and addressing commercial and reputational (including PR) risks and effects upon our clients and their businesses that may arise as an offshoot.
The members of KNOETZL have supported clients in large-scale white collar crime matters over many years, and have helped them to successfully manage and resolve those challenges to the significant advantage of our clients’ business and operations.
UNSERE ANWÄLTE ERZIELEN IN WIRTSCHAFTSSTRAFSACHEN MIT LANGJÄHRIGER ERFAHRUNG UND HOHEM FACHLICHEN KNOW-HOW OPTIMALE ERGEBNISSE FÜR SIE. WIR VERTRETEN BESCHULDIGTE UNTERNEHMEN UND DEREN REPRÄSENTANTEN IN STRAFRECHTLICHEN ERMITTLUNGEN DER STAATSANWALTSCHAFT/WKStA UND AUCH IN DER HAUPTVERHANDLUNG VOR DEN STRAFGERICHTEN. VON KRISENMANAGEMENT ÜBER INTERNE ERMITTLUNGEN BIS HIN ZUR MEDIALEN STRATEGIE – DAS TEAM VON KNOETZL BIETET ALLE LEISTUNGEN AUS EINER HAND. WIR VERFOLGEN FÜR GESCHÄDIGTE ZIVILRECHTLICHE ANSPRÜCHE DURCH STRAFANZEIGE UND RESTITUIEREN VERLORENES VERMÖGEN.
Strafrecht kann eine wirksame Waffe bei der Verfolgung von Schadenersatzansprüchen sein. Die gestiegene Bereitschaft von Opfern, zur Waffe des Strafrechts zu greifen, bringt Opfer wie mutmaßliche Täter von Wirtschaftsdelikten – zuweilen auch vorschnell – in Kontakt mit den Strafbehörden. Eine kompetente, erfahrene Vertretung im Verfahren ist von Tag 1 angeboten. Bettina Knötzl hat im Jahr 2005 das erste White Collar Crime Team in einer führenden österreichischen Wirtschaftskanzlei gegründet und seit damals viele Erfolge für ihre Mandanten erzielt. Unsere Wirtschaftsstrafrechtsexperten beraten im Vorfeld, bei der Hausdurchsuchung, bis hin zur Verfahrenseinstellung bzw zum Freispruch; dies mit besonderen Erfolgen bei komplexen Wirtschaftsdelikten, wie zB Insiderhandel oder Untreue, und bei grenzüberschreitenden Sachverhalten.
Das Strafrechtsteam von KNOETZL vertritt sowohl Unternehmen als auch Einzelpersonen, die aufgrund von Betrug, Untreue, kridaträchtigem Handeln, Geldwäsche, Korruption, Verletzungen von Vorschriften des Kapitalmarkt-, Kartell-, Finanzstraf-, Datenschutz-, Korruptionsstrafrechts etc. Schaden erlitten haben oder auch dieser Delikte beschuldigt werden. Der Umgang mit Selbstanzeige, Kronzeugenregelungen und Whistleblower-Meldungen ist uns geläufig.
Zusätzlich zur Vertretung im Strafverfahren, decken wir sämtliche rechtlichen Leistungen im Bereich der nationalen und internationalen Wirtschaftskriminalität ab:
