Patrick has more than 15 years of experience advising clients on compliance and corporate governance and on internal investigations. His practice has a particular emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related topics.

Patrick focuses his advisory work on internal investigations, setting up compliance management systems and adapting them to a broad range of new risks, such as those relevant for global value chains. This includes, for example, supply chain risk management for Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act and related human rights-motivated complaints and litigation; prevention and investigation of white-collar crime (e.g., bribery, fraud, corruption, embezzlement, and U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) matters); avoidance of economic sanctions; and fulfillment of tax and environmental law requirements. He also advises clients on ESG requirements derived from the laws of the European Union (CSRD, NFDR, CSDDD). He is a member Morrison Foerster’s global ESG Steering Committee.

His practice specifically covers internal investigations to detect misdemeanors and assessments of compliance management systems. He conducts due diligence on sales intermediaries, on joint venture partners, and during M&A transactions in Germany and abroad. He also develops compliance training programs. He is a member of the Morrison Foerster’s Corporate, Compliance and Investigations team, which was shortlisted by JUVE for the award for Compliance Firm of the Year in 2023.

Patrick represents clients in litigation proceedings and has advised them in the context of German and international arbitration proceedings (ICC, VIAC, and ad hoc), on complaints and procedures about alleged human rights violations, and on stock corporation law disputes. He also handles cases where clients are pursuing and defending damages claims arising out of compliance failures and advises on related directors and officers (D&O) insurance coverage.

Patrick is a member of the Committee for Corporate Social Responsibility and Compliance of the German Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and webinars and is a lecturer at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he presents and teaches on compliance, internal investigations, and ESG. Patrick regularly publishes articles relating to compliance and ESG issues, international and European civil litigation, and alternative dispute resolution in academic and professional journals and in the daily press. He is the co-editor of the Berlin Commentary on the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2024).

Representative Experience

• Counseling a German multinational company with regard to criminal allegations about the use of forced labor in its international supply chain
• Advising a German multinational company regarding alleged human rights violations in its supply chain
• Conducting an investigation on behalf of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen regarding equity trades around dividend date
• Advising Mercedes-Benz Group AG regarding diesel emissions
• Carrying out an internal investigation on behalf of the Supervisory Board of MAN SE with regard to bribery allegations and providing advice on the setup of MAN SE’s compliance organization
• Assisting a German multinational company in complying with Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act
• Advising various multinational companies on their CSRD-related reporting obligations
• Advising investors on SFDR requirements
• Representing a German bank in court proceedings to pursue damages arising out of noncompliance with tax obligations
• Advising a German bank in relation to D&O insurance coverage
• Defending a listed German biomedical company against rescissory actions by shareholders
• Investigating tax structured transactions on behalf of a German bank
• Representing a German bank in arbitral proceedings against a former director
• Carrying out several internal investigations for an engineering group regarding business decisions relating to international infrastructure projects and joint ventures
• Advising a German bank on pursuing damages claims against several former directors and related D&O insurance topics
• Representing MAN SE in pursuing damages claims against former directors arising out of their responsibility for setting up a compliance organization and related D&O insurance topics
• Advising Deutsche Bahn AG with regard to its damages claims arising out of a cartel among its railway track suppliers
• Providing advice to, and conducting an investigation on behalf of, a German public listed company regarding its listing as a specially designated national by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control
• Advising a U.S.-German multinational company with regard to an internal investigation of its Eastern European, Russian, and Central Asian sales network
• Conducting an internal investigation on behalf of Hamburg Commercial Bank AG (previously HSH Nordbank AG) concerning the dismissal of managers
• Completing several investigations of kickback payments and breach of trust in outsourcing projects