Dr Johannes Knop

Dr Johannes Knop provides his assistance to domestic and international clients, advising both listed and non-listed companies and their managing directors, board members and shareholders or partners comprehensively on complex economic issues, including in a cross-border context. Johannes Knop advises his clients in and out of court on matters pertaining to corporate, group and capital markets law.

One of his focus areas is providing assistance with private equity/M&A transactions, corporate restructurings and general meetings. In the area of M&A, his services thus include acting as an advisor throughout the transaction process, carrying out due diligence reviews and comprehensively preparing, and negotiating, all relevant contracts.

In the field of capital markets law, Johannes Knop helps his clients organise general meetings and implement the measures resolved at such meetings.

His judicial services cover the entire range of corporate litigation, in particular, shareholder disputes, post-M&A disputes, liability claims against managing directors/board members, and representation in actions to set aside shareholder resolutions and so-called status proceedings to determine the correct composition of the supervisory board in terms of co-determination.

Corporate/M&A
Litigation

Dr Johannes Knop studied law at the University of Kiel (Germany) with an emphasis on civil procedural law and was also awarded his doctorate there for a thesis on an insolvency law topic. He carried out his legal training at the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). Johannes Knop was admitted to the German Bar in 2015. He initially worked for Luther and then for a boutique law firm in the area of private equity/M&A before moving back to Luther in December 2018.

Johannes Knop has been a certified specialist in commercial and corporate law since 2018. In addition, in 2021, he successfully completed the training course in tax law designed for lawyers as a step towards becoming a certified specialist in tax law.

• Advice on corporate actions of listed companies, in particular a capital increase within the limits of the authorised capital by private placement using the book-building procedure (2020) and a warrant bond issue (2020)
• Judicial representation of a listed company in actions to set aside shareholder resolutions and in a dispute with a special representative appointed by the general meeting
• Advice to a listed company on delisting from the regulated market and termination of inclusion in trading in the open market (2021)
• Advice to the management board and supervisory board of a listed company in connection with a joint reasoned statement pursuant to Section 27 German Securities Acquisition and Takeover Act (WpÜG) (2021)
• Representation of companies in “status proceedings” to determine the correct composition of the supervisory board in terms of co-determination (2018/2019, 2020)
• Representation of a former minority shareholder in post-M&A proceedings in advertising/online marketing pursuant to the DIS Arbitration Rules (2020/2021)
• Representation of a company from the food industry in “conciliation judge” proceedings before the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg (Germany) in a dispute with a plant construction company regarding comprehensive warranty claims (2018)
• Advice to a group of companies on the options available for the removal of control within the group, taking into account a not-for-profit foundation as the group’s parent (2020)
• On a regular basis, corporate restructurings in accordance with the German Transformation Act (UmwG)
• On a regular basis, mergers and acquisitions, buy-side and sell-side, e.g. in the online marketing (2021), e-commerce (2020), software (2018, 2019, 2021) and nursing care service industries (2019, 2020, 2021)
• Structuring, negotiation and implementation of numerous start-up formations, including shareholder agreements and (virtual) employee participation