Schoenherr is a corporate law firm with a strong base in Central Europe. From offices in Belgrade, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Ljubljana, Kyiv, Prague, Sofia, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb more than 300 professionals provide legal services to national and international clients.

History

The firm started off as a small Austrian law firm founded by Fritz Schönherr in 1950. As the firm grew, its name changed to reflect the steady addition of new partners. Now called simply “Schoenherr”, the firm has steadily grown to become a Central European firm with offices throughout the region.
The firm’s first move outside of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 was into Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, where it opened an office in 1996. In the meantime the firm’s Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

  office has grown to include more than 50 lawyers, making it the firm’s second largest office after Vienna]]. Schoenherr has steadily moved into other jurisdictions, as follows: Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 /EU (1996), Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

  (2001)*, Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

  (2001)*, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

  (2002)*, Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

  (2004), Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

  (2006) and Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

  (2008). In its latest drive for expansion in 2009 the firm acquired offices in Prague and Warsaw, while starting a green field operation in Bratislava

Bratislava

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

. (*cooperation offices).

In addition to the jurisdictions already mentioned, Schoenherr covers a number of other countries in Central Europe through its so-called country desks. These include: Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

, Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

, Montenegro

Montenegro

Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

  and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Schönherr/Schoenherr

The firm’s brand name can be found spelled as both “Schönherr” and “Schoenherr”. Although Schönherr was the official surname of the firm’s founder, in many of the jurisdictions where the firm is active people are not familiar with the German letter Ö, which in many languages is thus transcribed as OE. With the advance of the internet and the in-ability to use Ö in a URL, the OE spelling has become more common.

The Schoenherr Roadmap

In 2007, Schoenherr’s Intellectual Property partner and art enthusiast Guido Kucsko came up with the idea of the “roadmap”, an annual publication covering all of Schoenherr’s core practice areas with topical articles on legal developments throughout Central Europe.

Each year an artist is selected to illustrate the roadmap. More than simply expressing the firm’s daily work through art, the roadmap becomes a new piece of art in its own right.
The fourth edition of the roadmap appeared in January 2010.

Roadmap artists:

2007 – Esther Stocker

2008 – Berenice Darrer

2009 – Josef Schwaiger

2010 – Maria Dalpra

Recent Awards and Rankings

• Austrian Client Service Award (Chambers Europe Award for Excellence 2010)
• Central European Law Firm of the Year (Mitteleuropäische Anwaltskanzlei des Jahres) (The Lawyer 2009)
• Eastern European Law Firm of the Year (Osteuropäische Anwaltskanzlei des Jahres) (Acq Award 2009)
• Best law firm in Austria for M&A law (Beste Anwaltskanzlei Österreichs für Übernahmerecht) (corporate INTL 2009)
• Most Prominent Retail Transaction in 2009 (Romania) (Ziarul Financiar 2010)
• Most Prominent Insurance Transaction in 2009 (Romania) (Ziarul Financiar 2010)

According The Lawyer and Top Legal International Schoenherr is one of the top 100 European law firms with the highest income.

External links

• Schönherr