With her enthusiasm for technology-driven issues, Patricia Ernst has built a recognized practice at the interface of compliance and technology. National and international clients rely on her advice on cross-border investigations, global compliance programs, and crisis situations.

Patricia represents listed and unlisted companies as well as their boards navigating multi-layered compliance requirements in technology and innovation. She advises clients in a wide range of industries, including technology in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), e-mobility, and autonomous driving, as well as financial institutions, media and digital companies, and companies in the product manufacturing and transportation sectors. She examines and improves risk and control mechanisms in internationally operating companies and provides strategic support to companies in crisis situations. Often called upon for risk management solutions, she identifies future risks and delivers customized improvements to compliance programs, e.g., regarding AI and digital regulation, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), and workplace harassment issues.

Patricia has extensive experience representing corporations, boards, and c-suite executives in government-facing investigative and regulatory matters, cross-border criminal investigations, and corporate internal investigations. Her advice focuses on providing clients with strategic and practical support in pursuing and defending claims for damages arising from breaches of compliance requirements and in communicating with authorities, D&O insurers, and other third parties.

Patricia is regularly recognized by various legal directories including Best Lawyers in Germany as ”Ones to Watch” for compliance, internal investigations, and corporate law by, as well as by The Legal 500 Germany EMEA.

Patricia is admitted to practice in Berlin and holds an LL.M. in Intellectual Property and Media Law from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She is a lecturer on media and digital law at University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf (a master’s program at EPI Institute) and has extensively published articles about aspects of digital compliance with a focus on AI.

Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, she worked for the corporate law practice group of another international law firm in Berlin. She studied law at Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Connecticut, School of Law, Hartford. As part of her Ph.D. studies in international corporate law, Patricia has been a research fellow with U.C. Hastings, College of the Law, San Francisco, and the Institute of International Private Law, International Civil Procedure Law, and Comparative Law in Berlin. In 2023, Patricia passed the notary exam in Germany with distinction. She has been awarded scholarships by, among others, the German Academic Exchange Service and the University of Connecticut, School of Law.

Patricia Ernst is partner at Morrison Foerster’s German office in Berlin and a member of the Corporate Compliance and Investigations team.

Representative Experience        

• Advising the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz Group AG in connection with the regulatory, criminal, and civil proceedings in Germany and other countries regarding diesel exhaust emissions as well as the maintenance and further development of the technical compliance management system
• Advising a listed company in the mobility sector on technological compliance issues and further development of its risk management system
• Advising Deutsche Bahn on compliance with the Artificial Intelligence Act
• Advising an international technology company on the applicability and scope of the provisions of the draft AI Regulation
• Advising an international financial services company in connection with the operational management of a highly complex financial instrument, including the risk and control mechanisms used for this purpose
• Advising a U.S. software company working in the fields of engineering, automotives, and transportation on the collection of data using web-scraping/TDM, the use of such data for training machine learning models, and the subsequent use of the AI models in commercial products
• A major German trade company with regard to its directors and officers and special audit matters
• A major German trade company on damage claims against former directors
• A telecommunications network in the context of launching an Internet-based Protocol Television (IPTV) platform