Gleiss Lutz Rechtsanwälte : History

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History

Alfred Gleiss (1904-1997)

The law firm was founded by Alfred Gleiss, who after returning from emigration opened an office in Stuttgart in the year 1949. At first, he worked exclusively in the area of decartelisation and competition law. One of the firm’s first clients was Mercedes-Benz AG, whose legal successor, DaimlerChrysler AG, remains one of the office’s important clients until today. In subsequent years, Helmuth Lutz, Christian Hootz and Martin Hirsch joined the firm, which carried the name "Gleiss Lutz Hootz Hirsch" from the year 1962 – a name which it has officially retained until today, although the firm is commonly referred to as "Gleiss Lutz". The four former name partners remained loyal to the firm up till retirement: Alfred Gleiss ended his work on 31 December 1979, Helmut Lutz left on 31 December 1998, Christian Hootz one year later, and finally Martin Hirsch on 31 December 2003.

The very first office building in Urbanstraße

As early as 1963, the law firm opened an office in Brussels, in order to be present at the seat of the EC Commission as a law firm still specialised largely in antitrust law at the time. The decades since then have been shaped by continuous growth. In 1990, offices in Frankfurt and Berlin were opened. At the same time, the scope of the firm’s activity expanded to all areas of business law. Responding to the increasing economic importance of central and eastern Europe in the post Cold War era, further offices were opened in Prague in 1992 and in Warsaw in 1997. Most recently, an office was established in 2001 in Munich.

Current office building in Stuttgart

In order to ensure delivery of seamless international legal services, Gleiss Lutz joined together in 2000 with the English law firm Herbert Smith to form an alliance, to which the Dutch/Belgian law firm Stibbe entered in 2002. Moreover, Gleiss Lutz works together closely with the leading New York law firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Simpson, Thacher & Barlett; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In addition, the firm has a cooperation agreement with the Hungarian law firm Bán, S. Szabó & Partners.

Today Gleiss Lutz has more than 240 lawyers in seven locations in Europe and offers worldwide together with its cooperation partners legal advising of the highest calibre. The law firm is shaped – as it has been from the very beginning – by tradition-consciousness and innovative energy, personal freedom, a culture of partnership, and – above all – by the highest demands for quality and client oriented service.