Skip to content
Schneider & Andre Schneider & Andre International Commercial Litigation
London · Lincoln's Inn Fields Frankfurt am Main Zürich Twenty-three years restoring justice across 31 jurisdictions.
Schneider & Andre — Our People No. 04 / People

A bench of thirty-eight.
A tenure measured in decades.

Every matter at Schneider & Andre is led by a partner — from the first procedural letter to the final appellate submission. No associate argues a hearing. No client is handed off after intake. The result is a firm of 38 professionals with an average partner tenure of 14.3 years, ranked Tier 1 in Commercial Litigation seven years running.

Founded 2001, London & Frankfurt
Partners 11 — all equity, all practising
Bar admissions England & Wales · Germany · France · Switzerland · Italy
Request a Case Review The stone entrance of Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.

§ I. The Ledger

Continuity is not a slogan. It is a roster.

14.3 years

Average partner tenure — among the lowest attrition rates in the Magic Circle-adjacent tier.

38 professionals

Eleven partners, fourteen senior associates, nine paralegals, four in-house forensic specialists.

11 partners

All equity, all still practising. No retired-name equity, no Of Counsel vanity roster.

87% partner involvement

Of every matter over the last 412 cases — no associate-led hearings in the firm's recent record.

Forty-one of the FTSE 350 and twenty-eight of the DAX 40 retain the firm as standing disputes counsel — a continuity measured in retainers renewed, not in marketing copy.

§ II. The Founders

Two lawyers. Two cities. One firm, founded in 2001.

The firm takes its name from the two partners who opened its doors on Lincoln's Inn Fields and am Main within the same spring of 2001. Twenty-three years on, both still practise — and still lead its largest matters.

No. 01

Dr. Heinrich Schneider

Frankfurt am Main · Rechtsanwalt

Doctorate in private international law, Universität Heidelberg (1994). Admitted to the Frankfurt Bar in 1996. Co-founded the firm in 2001 after seven years at a Magic Circle practice in Frankfurt, the last three as equity partner. Has argued more than sixty cases before the Bundesgerichtshof, the Oberlandesgerichte of Frankfurt and Munich, and the CJEU. Co-author of the leading German practitioner text on the Brussels Ia Regulation (4th ed., 2022). Languages: German, English, French.

Doctorat en droit (Heidelberg) · Solicitor (England & Wales, non-practising) · Member, Deutsche Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit

No. 02

Charles Andre

London · Solicitor of England & Wales

LL.M. International Business Law, University College London (1993). Admitted 1996. Began practice at a leading London commercial chambers; co-founded the firm in 2001 with Dr. Schneider after representing a German industrial claimant in a precedent-setting English enforcement action. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Has appeared before the UK Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the CJEU on five occasions since 2017. Languages: English, French, German.

LL.M. (UCL) · FCIArb · CEDR Accredited Mediator · Member, London Court of International Arbitration

The partnership deed remains unchanged in structure since 2001: equity is reserved to practising partners, and capital is held in a single class. There are no non-lawyer owners, no private-equity sponsorship, and no lateral partners hired from outside the firm in the past five years.

§ III. The Partners

Eleven partners. Five jurisdictions. One courtroom standard.

Listed by seniority. Every name below leads hearings personally; no partner delegates oral advocacy. The roster has expanded by lateral hire on no occasion in the last five years — every equity partner was promoted from within the firm.

  1. 03

    Dr. Heinrich Schneider

    Founding Partner · Cross-Border Enforcement, Arbitration

    Frankfurt Bar (1996) · Solicitor (E&W, non-practising)

    DE · EN · FR

  2. 04

    Charles Andre

    Founding Partner · Commercial Litigation, Arbitration

    England & Wales (1996)

    EN · FR · DE

  3. 05

    Dr. Margit Vollmer

    Partner · Post-M&A Disputes, Shareholder Actions

    Frankfurt Bar (2002) · Munich (2003)

    DE · EN · IT

  4. 06

    James Halliwell KC

    Partner · Banking Litigation, Sanctions

    England & Wales (1998) · Called 1995

    EN · FR

  5. 07

    Dr. Catherine Bühler

    Partner · Competition Litigation, EU Enforcement

    Zurich & Geneva Bar (2004)

    DE · FR · EN · IT

  6. 08

    Tomás Renaud

    Partner · Energy & Infrastructure Arbitration

    Paris Bar (2003) · Bruxelles (E-List)

    FR · EN · ES · DE

  7. 09

    Dr. Anika Brandt

    Partner · White-Collar Defence, Asset Tracing

    Frankfurt Bar (2007)

    DE · EN · PL

  8. 10

    Edward Cartwright

    Partner · Insurance & Reinsurance Disputes

    England & Wales (2005)

    EN

  9. 11

    Dr. Lorenzo Ferrari

    Partner · Italian-Forum Disputes, Recognition of Awards

    Milan Bar (2006) · Rome (2009)

    IT · EN · FR

  10. 12

    Saskia Meier

    Partner · Restructuring Litigation, Insolvency

    Zurich Bar (2008) · St. Gallen (2011)

    DE · FR · EN

  11. 13

    Daniel Whitcombe

    Partner · Cryptoasset & Tech Disputes

    England & Wales (2009)

    EN · DE

§ IV. Senior Associates

The second chair is the bench.

Fourteen senior associates serve as second chair on every partner-led matter. Average tenure: nine years and four months at the firm. Not a single senior associate is in their first five years of practice; not a single hearing brief is signed by an associate alone.

London

  • Priya RamanathanE&W (2014) · joined 2017 · Tamil, EN, HI
  • Henry MortimerE&W (2013) · joined 2018 · EN
  • Aoife KellyE&W & Ireland (2015) · joined 2019 · EN, GA
  • Marcus LindqvistE&W (2016) · joined 2020 · EN, SV

Frankfurt am Main

  • Dr. Stefan AlbrechtFrankfurt (2012) · joined 2015 · DE, EN, FR
  • Nina KowalskiFrankfurt (2014) · joined 2017 · DE, PL, EN
  • Dr. Felix RothFrankfurt (2013) · joined 2018 · DE, EN
  • Lara BeckerFrankfurt (2016) · joined 2019 · DE, EN, IT
  • Jonas WagnerFrankfurt (2017) · joined 2020 · DE, EN

Zurich

  • Dr. Elena MoserZurich (2012) · joined 2014 · DE, FR, EN
  • Matteo BonomiZurich (2015) · joined 2018 · IT, FR, DE
  • Hannah FreiZurich (2016) · joined 2019 · DE, FR

Paris (visiting)

  • Camille DuchêneParis (2013) · joined 2017 · FR, EN, ES
  • Yann BertillonParis (2014) · joined 2018 · FR, EN, DE

§ V. The Forensic Bench

Four investigators. In-house. From the start.

Most disputes boutiques outsource forensic evidence to external vendors, and then lose months to coordination. Schneider & Andre maintains a permanent in-house team of fourteen — wait. A permanent in-house forensic team of four specialists, supported by nine paralegals with investigative backgrounds — built around former police officers, banking compliance officers, and Big Four forensic accountants.

Evidence is preserved within days of engagement, chain-of-custody is logged from intake, and cross-border discovery is conducted under one roof across London, Frankfurt, and Zurich. The team has supported every precedent-setting matter the firm has run since 2009.

Read our methodology in the Cross-Border Enforcement Index
  • F·01

    DCI Margaret Hale (ret.)

    Director of Investigations

    Twenty-two years with the Metropolitan Police Service, latterly as Detective Chief Inspector in the Specialist Crime Command. Joined 2014. Leads asset-tracing and coordinated search operations across the firm's three offices.

  • F·02

    Dr. Klaus-Dieter Hoffmann

    Forensic Accounting Lead

    Former Senior Manager, Financial Advisory, KPMG Frankfurt (2003–2011). PhD in auditing, Goethe-Universität. Joined 2012. Handles quantum reconstruction and expert coordination in matters exceeding €50 million.

  • F·03

    Sophie Adebayo

    e-Discovery & Digital Forensics

    Ex-Deutsche Bank EMEA Financial Crime Unit; EnCase Certified Examiner. Joined 2016. Manages cross-border e-discovery production under the Brussels Ia and Hague 2019 frameworks.

  • F·04

    Dr. Thomas Aeby

    Banking & Sanctions Forensics

    Former Head of Compliance Investigations, Bank Vontobel Zurich. PhD, Universität Bern. Joined 2019. Specialises in tracing through correspondent-banking chains and post-sanctions asset recovery.

A matter that may need this bench.

Engagements are scoped only after a 45-minute confidential conversation with a senior partner. There is no intake form, no junior triage, and no obligation to instruct.

Or write directly to [email protected] →