TRAINING FOR STARUG

• Licensed mediator and trainer of the Federal Mediation Association (BM, 2015)
• Certified transaction analyst (EATA, 2017) + system design (university certificate, 2016)
• Member of the external mediator pool of the Fraunhofer Society
• Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History in Frankfurt am Main in the field of "extrajudicial and judicial conflict resolution", 2012.
• Attorney-at-law, since 2010.
• Doctorate on the topic of "Conflict management in public administration using mediation and transactional analysis", 2011.
• Mediates in challenging organisational and workplace conflicts in companies of all sizes, with a focus on industrial companies and scientific organisations as well as in the healthcare sector.

• Uwe Kassing began his work in the field of insolvency law, at that time still in bankruptcy law (bankruptcy code), in the renowned administrator's office JNP, Hamburg, during his training in the 1990s.
• When the Insolvency Code came into force, Uwe Kassing joined the multidisciplinary law firm Haarmann Hemmelrath and subsequently worked for many years as an independent insolvency administrator (specialised lawyer for insolvency law).
• Following his training as a mediator and the entry into force of the ESUG and the Mediation Act in 2012, he has dedicated himself exclusively to supporting self-administration proceedings in small and medium-sized companies as a restructuring mediator. The focus of his work is on out-of-court restructuring mediation and the reorganisation of companies by means of an insolvency plan. In his view, mediation skills and the support of consensual solutions to conflicts through transparent communication between all parties involved in the proceedings are a key success factor, particularly in self-administration proceedings.
• His many years of experience and the development of a changed insolvency and restructuring culture characterise his professional contributions, including since the first edition in the Handbook of Mediation (ed. Haft/ von Schlieffen, 3rd edition 2016; chapter "Mediation in Insolvency Law").
• In his opinion, the implementation of the European Directive on pre-insolvency restructuring proceedings paves the way for the StaRUG to be used to work out appropriate restructuring solutions between the companies concerned and the creditors in critical situations that are in line with their interests without the dreaded stigma of insolvency.

Research assistant to Prof Dr Lucas F. Flöther at the law firm FLÖTHER & WISSING Insolvenzverwaltung GbR since 2018. In the same year, she completed the postgraduate Master of Business Law and Economic Law programme. She has been a trainee lawyer at the Higher Regional Court of Naumburg since March 2020.

In addition to her doctorate on the restructuring of municipalities, which she completed in 2020 under Prof. Dr Stephan Madaus in Halle, she has written numerous publications in the field of restructuring and insolvency law and comments on the StaRUG in Beck'sche Kurzkommentar and Beck'scher Onlinekommentar.

• Prof Dr Stephan Madaus has held the Chair of Law at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg since April 2014, where he was Head of the Law Department from 2016 to 2018. He teaches property and credit security law, insolvency and civil procedure law as well as contract and tort law and methodology, particularly in exam preparation.
• His research interest is in dealing with debt burdens and consequently focuses on insolvency and restructuring law, with a particular focus on the comparative analysis of regulatory approaches in legal systems worldwide and in the soft law of international organisations. Together with Prof Bob Wessels (Leiden University), he led the "European Law Institute's Project on Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law" from 2013 to 2017. He was a member of the research team that conducted the "ESUG Evaluation" research project for the BMJV in 2017/2018. As a member of an international research team, he co-developed the "Modular Approach for MSME Insolvencies" (OUP 2018). Prof Madaus is Co-Chair of the Academic Committee of the International Insolvency Institute and Founding Member of the Conference of European Restructuring and Insolvency Law (CERIL).
• Prof Madaus is co-editor of NZI and "Schriften zur Restrukturierung" at NOMOS Verlag. He has published specialised articles in renowned legal journals in Germany and Europe. His habilitation thesis "Der Insolvenzplan - von seiner dogmatischen Deutung als Vertrag und seiner Fortentwicklung in eine Bestätigungsinsolvenz" (Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2011, Jus Privatum Vol. 157) is based on an analysis of German procedural and contract law as well as U.S. reorganisation law (Chapter 11); he was able to research the latter as a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School, Stanford, Ca., U.S.A. (2008/2009).

• He has been one of the leading reorganisation and restructuring experts and insolvency administrators in Germany for many years. Lucas Flöther is a founding and name partner of the law firm FLÖTHER & WISSING. The aim of the law firm is a new reorganisation culture: in a change process or in an entrepreneurial crisis, the focus is not on defeat, but on a new beginning.Since 1999, he has been regularly instructed by both companies and courts in various reorganisation and restructuring constellations. He publishes on various aspects of restructuring, reorganisation and insolvency law and is the editor of the handbooks on group insolvency law and reorganisation law, both published by C.H. Beck-Verlag.Lucas Flöther sees himself as a mediator, team player, arbitrator, always in close dialogue with all the relevant parties involved - advisory, reliable and assertive.

Authorised signatory and director at Euler Hermes Deutschland NL of Euler Hermes S.A. Hamburg.

After working for two years in a medium-sized law firm, he began his career at Euler Hermes in 1997 as an in-house lawyer. He was initially responsible for the legal handling of claims in the surety insurance division for several years and, after setting up a risk credit unit in 2004, for specialised credit management. Since 1 July 2012, he has been responsible for the external management of critical risks and major claims in the area of trade credit insurance - both at national and international level.

Mr Harbrecht regularly represents the interests of Euler Hermes in bank pool meetings and creditors' meetings and is a member of various creditors' committees in major insolvency proceedings. He is also active as an advisor in several professional associations and organisations.

He regularly speaks at congresses and conferences on insolvency law topics.

Michael Hermanns is the founder and partner of Buth & Hermanns Partnerschaft mbB Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft. He is both an auditor and a tax consultant.

After studying economics and business administration at the universities of Karlsruhe and Münster, Michael Hermanns began his professional career as an auditor at Treuarbeit (now pwc) in Düsseldorf. He then worked as a commercial manager for medium-sized trading companies before spending five years as a freelance tax consultant for pwc and KPMG, among others. From 1992 to 1995, he was head of the advisory group in the management committee of the Treuhandanstalt / BvS, where he examined around 150 company and reorganisation concepts. In 1996, Michael Hermanns founded the law firm Buth & Hermanns together with Andrea Buth, from which the auditing firm Steuerberatungsgesellschaft in Wuppertal emerged.

Michael Hermanns has many years of in-depth expertise in the areas of restructuring and reorganisation of companies (in particular in accordance with IDW S6), the preparation of insolvency plans, due diligence reports and assistance with the acquisition and sale of companies (M&A), the auditing and preparation of annual financial statements for small, medium-sized and large companies, comprehensive tax advice for companies and entrepreneurs and tax structuring for corporate transactions.

Michael Hermanns is also active in the following areas:

• Since 1996 lecturer for the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (IDW) e. V. in the field of auditing annual financial statements
• From 2005 to 2014, member of the working group "Working aids for auditing SMEs" in the IDW's main expert committee
• Member of the "Reorganisation and Insolvency" expert committee of the IDW since 2009

As a journalist and lawyer, Mr Wohlrabe is an expert in public crisis communication and has been advising companies and individuals on all strategic communication issues for many years. This includes white-collar criminal proceedings, patent disputes, international arbitration proceedings, cyber attacks on companies, as well as insolvency proceedings that have attracted nationwide attention.

Mr Wohlrabe holds a permanent lectureship in "Strategic Legal Communication" at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and is a member of the working group "Crisis Communication / Issues Management" of the Professional Association of Public Relations Experts (DPRG e.V.).

As part of our training programme, Mr Wohlrabe will talk about the challenges and opportunities of the Communication in the reorganisation and restructuring process and give us a professional insight into what is important in times of the Straumann crisis.

Dr Benjamin Webel joined the judicial service of the state of Baden-Württemberg in 2006. After holding various positions in the judiciary in the Higher Regional Court district of Stuttgart, he has been Judge at Ulm Local Court and there Head of the insolvency departmentwhere he is responsible for major proceedings such as  "Schlecker" and "Centrotherm" was responsible.

In 2008, he completed his doctorate on the subject of "The liability of the insolvency administrator pursuant to Section 61 InsO". Dr Webel teaches at the Geislingen University of Applied Sciences in the Master's programme "Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency Management", at the "German Judicial Academy" and has published specialist articles on insolvency law. He has also appeared at numerous insolvency law conferences. He deals intensively with restructuring law issues relating to the StaRUG.

He is also co-author of the commentary on the InsO "Graf-Schlicker", the major commentary Küberl/Bork/Prütting, the work "Kommunale Forderungen in der Insolvenz" and the "Handbuch zum Insolvenzplan" by Brünkmanns/Thole.