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Dr Thomas Wilk

Lawyer │ Partner, Managing Director | Public Services

Essen

+49 201 9220 20217

thomas.wilk@luther-lawfirm.com

Areas of practice

Advising the public sector / Public services / Real estate and construction law / Real estate and infrastructure As a solicitor and former district president, head of the supreme building authority in North Rhine-Westphalia, district director and deputy, Dr Wilk is ideally suited to advising the public sector at both municipal and state level. He specialises in administrative law, in particular building planning and building regulations law.

Vita

Dr Thomas Wilk first completed a dual training programme for senior civil service at the City of Bochum, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (then known as a Diplom-Verwaltungswirt).
After studying law at the Ruhr University Bochum and completing his legal clerkship, he became a legal advisor in the City of Bochum's legal department in 2003. At the same time, he completed his doctorate in 2005 on the medical law topic ‘Legal relationships in the contract medical system with special consideration of the legal status of affiliated doctors’ with a book publication.
Dr. Wilk then became legal department head at the Arnsberg district government until 2010, where he was responsible for planning approval procedures for roads and headed the contracting authority. From 2010 to 2013, he was Deputy Mayor of the City of Gladbeck and headed the Department of Law, Order and Culture. From 2013 to 2018, he held the position of District Director and General Representative in the District of Unna, with responsibilities including treasury, human resources and organisation, investments, IT and culture.
This was followed from 2018 to 2022 by his position as head of the Supreme Building Supervisory Authority and the BIM Competence Centre at the Ministry of Construction in North Rhine-Westphalia. There, his focus was on reforming building regulations and promoting the digitalisation of the construction industry. During this time, he was a member of the BIM Germany advisory board for all federal states.
From September 2022, Dr Wilk was District President in the Cologne administrative district, where his responsibilities included regional planning, hospital planning, reconstruction after the 2021 floods, refugee accommodation and structural change in the Rhineland mining area. To this day, one of his key areas of focus is the implementation of reforms within the administration and the acceleration of planning and approval processes. To this end, he has presented to the National Regulatory Control Council and advised the initiative for an effective state, including former Federal Ministers Steinbrück and de Maizière.
Dr Wilk has been teaching public construction law and digital construction at TU Dortmund University for many years.
He has been a partner at Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft and Managing Director of Luther Public Services since 2026.