Christian Brendel has been living and working in Viet Nam since 2005. He regularly advises and supports foreign diplomatic missions (the Embassy and the Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the Embassy and the Consulate of the Swiss Confederation). Mr Brendel also works for the Delegation of the German Industry and Commerce in Viet Nam (AHK) and supports the Austrian Trade Delegation. As an active participant, he is also strongly involved in the German-Vietnamese Dialogue on the Rule of Law.

In addition to his legal and consulting activities, he was chosen by various clients to act in interim management positions (Illies & Co (GmbH & Co.) KG., Glatz Finepaper Co., Ltd., R&M Ship Technologies Viet Nam Co., Ltd. as well as Emsa Viet Nam Co., Ltd.).

Rainer Burkardt has been working and living in China since 1997. He is one of the few foreign lawyers with long-term on-site experience counseling and working in China. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Burkardt was a member of the Board of Directors of the German Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. In 2009 he was appointed as Trusted Attorney of the Consulate General of Austria in Shanghai.

He mainly supports clients from Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the fields of automotive, machine and plant engineering as well as the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries, with their entry into the Chinese market and their subsequent business activities in China. Burkardt & Partner publishes the most extensive China investment guide written in the German language.

Michael A. Mueller had already lived in Japan starting at the age of 19 for almost three years. After having gained knowledge of the Japanese language, he studied law in Germany and then worked as interpreter for Japanese/German in Berlin for several years with numerous business-related stays in Japan. Starting in 2000, he practiced as a lawyer in Germany with a focus on German-Japanese legal relations. He moved together with his Japanese wife to Japan in 2006 and founded his own law firm. In January 2007 he was registered as Foreign Lawyer with the Japanese Ministry of Justice.

Mueller focusses on the entire bandwidth of legal questions regarding trade between Germany and Japan, the support of investment projects in both target countries as well as litigation.

Prior to coming to Korea to work for Kim, Shin & Yu as the first German-licensed lawyer in 1997, he held a variety of elected governmental positions in the German city of Überlingen am Bodensee from 1989 to 1998. During that time, he also completed a banker apprenticeship at the Bezirkssparkasse Überlingen am Bodensee and studied law at the University of Constance, and thereafter served as a Rechtsreferendar (a person receiving practical training in judicial or other legal work after having passed the first state examination).

He currently manages European clients for the Hwang Mok Park law firm and serves as an arbitrator at the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board. He is also managing director of Nowak & Partner Co., Ltd., an advisory firm which offers German-speaking businesses in Korea services such as recruitment, crisis management, project management, and the business side of mergers & acquisitions (www.nowak-partner.com). In several of its niche markets Nowak & Partner is the Korean market leader. Mr. Nowak also publishes a German language company guide on Korea (third edition is currently being developed) and other publications.

Dr. Respondek is a German lawyer, an American Attorney at Law, a Chartered Arbitrator (FCIArb) and has academic degrees from four countries.

Dr. Repondek regularly publishes articles in the following law journals: Aktuell China, Aktuell Thailand, American Review of International Arbitration, BddW, Bioforum Europe, Business Minds Singapore, Clyde & Co. Newsletter, Fruchthandel, Handbook for International Civil and Commercial Legal Matters, Journal of International Arbitration, Juriste International, JuS, RIW, SIArb Newsletter, Singapore Law Gazette, Transskript etc. He is also the author of the “Asia Arbitration Guide” covering 21 Asian countries, of a Singapore investment guide as well as a Thai investment guide.