• Weil is hiring antitrust heavyweight Ingo Brinker together with rising star antitrust partner Niklas Brueggemann, bringing the total number of new partner hires in Germany to eight in less than six months.
• They will join a team of some of Germany’s most standout lawyers of their generation, including two of the most influential private equity names, Sebastian Pauls and Kamyar Abrar, who recently rejoined Weil as part of a strategy to build a market leading private equity team in Germany, as well as Benjamin Rapp and Florian Dehmel, both of whom add depth to the PE team through their expertise in transactional tax and employment law.
• Germany is the capstone of Weil's pre-eminent European antitrust platform. Pioneered by European antitrust market-leader Jenine Hulsmann who leads the team in London, the platform has undergone rapid growth and comprises a Paris team led by Ning-Ly Seng and a Brussels team led by Niklas Maydell.
• Together with the market-leading antitrust practice in the US, they advise on the largest and most consequential matters globally.
• Other recent hires to Weil's German offices include employment partner Florian Dehmel, tax partner Benjamin Rapp, private equity partners Susanne Decker and Andreas Holzgreve and private equity counsel Julia Schöfer.

MUNICH, 21 APRIL 2026: International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP today announced the continued expansion of its German operation with the addition of antitrust partners Ingo Brinker and Niklas Brueggemann. 

Ingo Brinker is one of antitrust’s most influential lawyers who has been a Tier 1 practitioner for over 20 years. He advises on German and European antitrust law, with a particular focus on merger control proceedings, cartel and criminal investigations, follow-on damages actions and litigation, as well as dominance and unilateral conduct matters. He has led numerous significant cases before the German Federal Cartel Office, the European Commission and other international competition authorities, including in the UK, United States, France, Portugal and Spain, and has represented clients before the European General Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the German antitrust courts. He will join from White & Case.

Niklas Brueggemann is one of the rising stars advising across the full spectrum of competition law, particularly on matters at the intersection of technology and antitrust. Drawing on experience at EU and national levels, in private practice and as a public official, he counsels clients on EU and German antitrust law and tech regulation, merger control, foreign direct investment screening and civil antitrust litigation, and his practice centers on transactional and multi-stakeholder aspects of competition enforcement. Niklas has worked on policy and enforcement matters at the European Commission and the German Federal Government, as well as represented clients in a variety of matters before national and EU competition authorities, sectoral regulators, and courts. He will join from Latham.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ingo and Niklas, whose deep experience across EU and German competition law further strengthens our ability to advise clients on complex, multi-jurisdictional matters. We are seeing significant momentum in Germany, and the continued growth of our practice reflects both strong client demand and the success of our strategy in this market,” said Weil Executive Partner Barry Wolf.

Britta Grauke, Co-Managing Partner of Weil’s German offices said, “Ingo and Niklas are extremely highly regarded partners who advise on bet-the-company matters that require extensive experience and judgment. They bring heavyweight credentials in merger control and European antitrust litigation, at a time when Germany remains one of the most active jurisdictions in Europe for cartel damages claims and follow-on actions.”

Weil’s European Head of Antitrust, Jenine Hulsmann said, “As we continue to advise on the most complex transactions in the AI, technology, industrials and defense sectors, demand for sophisticated, integrated antitrust advice is among our clients’ most pressing needs. Our clients rely on us to manage the ever-changing regulatory environment and provide them with strategic antitrust advice and insights across multiple regimes. With their close connections to the European Commission and German agencies, Ingo and Niklas provide further depth to our top-tier global antitrust practice.”

Ingo Brinker added, “Weil has one of the most dynamic practices in Germany now, and the success of its European antitrust bench is phenomenal. Niklas and I are delighted to be joining.”

Complementing its top-tier US practice, Weil has built a formidable antitrust platform in Europe – expanding eightfold in less than five years through the strategic recruitment of the brightest antitrust lawyers. The global team is at the forefront of AI and technology and advises on the largest and most complex multi-billion-pound global antitrust matters. Recent highlights include successfully advising Boeing as global antitrust counsel on its $4.7 billion acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, ChampionX on its successful $7.8 billion deal with SLB, Microsoft on a range of AI investments and Microsoft as global antitrust counsel in the successful completion of its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc.

About Weil’s German Offices

Weil’s Frankfurt and Munich offices are part of Weil’s global offering providing seamless support to domestic and international clients, handling both sophisticated cross-border transactions and multi-jurisdictional disputes. Our remarkably diverse client base is engaged in various industries and includes some of the world's leading financial institutions as well as many major international corporations. Weil’s German offices have positioned themselves as one of the premier practices in the country, in particular for Private Equity and M&A transactions as well as for Restructuring and Antitrust. Our German team also focus on Dispute Resolution, Finance, Tax and Employment.

About Weil’s Antitrust Practice

Weil’s industry-leading global Antitrust practice is a go-to destination for complex, cross-border transactions and large-scale, high-stakes litigations and government investigations, including cartels. Our commitment to best-in-class service and the depth of our bench make us the firm of choice for many of the largest companies across the globe on their most significant matters. With our deep experience in handling complex cross-border merger review processes and our position at the forefront of shaping antitrust policy, Weil has been trusted to provide effective global strategic counseling, agency representation and litigation defense for many of the most influential antitrust engagements in recent years.

About Weil

Founded in 1931, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has been a preeminent provider of legal services for more than 90 years. With approximately 1,200 lawyers in offices on three continents, Weil has been a pioneer in the marketplace and a first mover in the establishment of many significant practice areas. The Firm’s four departments, Corporate, Litigation, Restructuring, and Tax, Executive Compensation & Benefits, and more than two dozen practice groups are consistently recognized as leaders in their respective fields.