Dr. Thomas Lappe
Thomas Lappe is a partner focusing on mergers and acquisitions. He has 30 years of experience in advising corporate clients and private equity firms on international M&A transactions including carve-out and buyout transactions. Thomas also frequently handles international joint ventures, corporate reorganizations, and venture capital transactions. He focuses on the sectors automotive and technology.
Thomas is recognized as a leading practitioner in legal directories such as JUVE, The Legal 500, Chambers Europe, IFLR1000, and Leaders League. JUVE 2015/16 refers to him as “one of the most successful M&A lawyers in Germany's capital Berlin.” Clients praise him as “particularly outstanding, [he] convinces with comprehensive transaction experience and confident, calm negotiation” (The Legal 500 Germany, Corporate and M&A, 2023), he provides “excellent advice, response time and quality, good knowledge of the automotive sector” (JUVE 2024/25).
Thomas joined the firm in January 2007. From 2005 through 2006 he was partner with an international law firm. From 2001 through 2005 he worked for an international law firm in their Hamburg office and before as a transactional in-house counsel for a DAX 30 company.
- Recognized by The Legal 500 EMEA as a Recommended Lawyer in Germany
- M&A: mid-sized deals (sub-500m), 2024-2025
- Corporate, 2024-2025
- International Bar Association (IBA)
- German Bar Association (Deutscher Anwaltsverein)
- Scientific Association for Corporate and Business Law (Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung für Unternehmens- und Gesellschaftsrecht)
As a thought leader on corporate and transactional topics, Thomas frequently publishes on corporate law and M&A and is a regular speaker on these topics.
- Ausgewählte rechtliche Themen bei Carve-out-Transaktionen (Selected legal aspects of carve-out transactions), Annual Meeting of M&A Alumni Deutschland e.V., Berlin 2015.
- Kaufpreisanpassungsklauseln (Purchase price adjustment clauses), series of seminars by Beck-Akademie, 2013-2015.
- Transatlantic trends in M&A, K&L Gates Client Event, Pittsburgh 2013.
- International M&A transactions (Internationale M&A-Transaktionen), series of Management Circle seminars, 2012
- Market Intelligence M&A 2022 Global Interview Panel, Lexology, October 2023
- Market Intelligence M&A 2021 Global Interview Panel, Lexology, January 2022
- Market Intelligence M&A 2020 Global Interview Panel, Lexology, January 2021
- Carve-out-Transaktionen – Recht, Steuern und Bilanzen bei Ausgliederung und Verkauf von Unternehmensteilen (Carve-out transactions – legal, tax and accounting aspects of the drop-down and divestiture of business units), C.H. Beck, Munich, second edition, 2021, (Ed. Dr. Thomas Lappe, Volker Gattringer)
- Die Fairness Opinion im Transaktionsgeschäft (The Fairness opinion in M&A transactions), in: Corporate Finance Law, p. 312 et seq., 2010, together with Axel Stafflage
- Kommentar zur Haftung des Aufsichtsrats wegen unterlassenen Hinwirkens auf Insolvenzantrag (Commentary on the liability of supervisory boards as a result of the failure to cause an insolvency filing), in: Betriebs-Berater 2009, p.1207 et seq., together with Alexander Hartmann
- SPACs, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 2008, together with Alexander Hartmann
- Risikoverteilung beim Unternehmenskauf (Risk allocation in M&A transactions), in: Der Betrieb, p. 153 et seq., 2007, together with Alexander Schmitt
- Verdeckte Sacheinlagen und IPR (Hidden contributions in kind and Private International Law), in: GmbH-Rundschau, p. 584 et seq., 2005, together with Andrea Schefold
- Das Heimatrecht im Gepäck - Wenn Kapitalgesellschaften ihren Sitz ins Ausland verlegen, droht künftig auch in Europa das Delaware-Syndrom (Home Country Law in the Baggage - When Corporations Relocate Their Headquarters Abroad, the Delaware Syndrome Threatens in the Future in Europe as Well), in: Financial Times Deutschland, March 2003, together with Axel Stafflage
- Freie Rechtsformwahl (Free choice of legal form), in: Unternehmermagazin, p. 36 et seq., 2003, together with Axel Stafflage
- Unternehmensbewertungen nach dem Wertpapiererwerbs- und Übernahmegesetz (Valuations under the German Takeover Act), in: Betriebs-Berater, p. 2185 et seq., 2002 together with Axel Stafflage
- Gemischte Kapitalerhöhung und Bezugsrechtsausschluss in Restrukturierungsfällen (Mixed capital increase and the exclusion of the subscription right in restructuring cases), in: Betriebs-Berater, p. 313 et seq., 2000
- Die wettbewerbsrechtliche Beurteilung der Umweltwerbung (The assessment of environmental advertisement from a competition law perspective), R. v. Decker's Verlag, Heidelberg 1995
- Zur ökologischen Instrumentalisierbarkeit des Wettbewerbsrechts (On the ecological exploitability of the competition law), in: Wettbewerb in Recht und Praxis, p. 170 et seq., 1993
- Grenzüberschreitender Umweltrechtsschutz (Cross-border environmental law protection), in: Natur und Recht, p. 213 et seq., 1993
- Lauterkeitsrechtliche Aspekte der Kennzeichnung von Produkten mit Hilfe des "Grünen Punktes“ (Competition law aspects of marking products with the ”Green Point“), in: Betriebs-Berater, p. 1661 et seq., 1992
- Zum Begriff der konkreten Gefahr bei der Trunkenheitsfahrt (On the term of the concrete danger in connection with drunken driving), in: Juristische Schulung, p. 133 et seq., 1990, together with Johann Wilhelm Knollmann
