External lecturers

is a lawyer in the IPT practice group of the international law firm DLA Piper in Vienna, specialising in the areas of intellectual property (trademark, design and copyright law), unfair competition and food law. She also specialises in advising clients in the field of life sciences with a focus on medical research and development as well as medical devices and pharmaceuticals.
In addition to her work as a lawyer, she is also a lecturer at the University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Applied Sciences of WKW as well as author of relevant publications and speaker at international conferences.

is Head of the Department for Family, Personal and Inheritance Law (Department I 1) at the Federal Ministry of Justice. In his area of responsibility, he most recently prepared the reform of child custody law (2013), reproductive medicine law (2014), inheritance law (2015) and currently guardianship law. He is a senior public prosecutor and an expert in family, personal and inheritance law. He was a judge and is active in the training and further education of judges. He is also the founder, co-editor and editor of the Interdisziplinäre Zeitschrift für Familienrecht (iFamZ) and a member of the executive board of the International Society for Family Law and the scientific advisory board of the Austrian Society for Family and Property Law.

is an independent lawyer in Vienna. She specialises in corporate law, M&A, civil litigation and business mediation. She is a member of the faculty conference and lecturer at the law faculty of the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna. She is particularly interested in methodological issues, legal didactics and new ways of practising the legal profession. She regularly gives lectures on technology and innovation in the field of law and legal design thinking.

Dr Beatrice Blümel, LL.M. (IT-Law) was a university assistant at the Institute for Civil Law at the University of Vienna and completed the postgraduate university course in Information and Media Law at the University of Vienna. In 2018, she worked in the Austrian Council Presidency team at the Ministry of Justice in the field of copyright law. In 2019, she specialised as an associate at a renowned law firm in Vienna in the areas of IT law, intellectual property law and data protection law and then gained valuable experience at the Austrian Data Protection Authority. Since 2022, she has been a lawyer and head of the New Technologies & Digitalisation department at KWR Karasek Wietrzyk Rechtsanwälte GmbH, where she focuses on IT law, intellectual property law, as well as software, e-commerce and data protection law.

has been the interim head of the European Commission Representation in Vienna since 1 September 2019, where he has led the “Political Reporting” team since the beginning of 2016 and works as an advisor for Justice and Home Affairs. Prior to that, he worked for 13 years in Brussels as a legal advisor in the Legal Service of the European Commission, specialising in European criminal law. For 3 years he was a research assistant in the secretariat of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. He worked in the Austrian Ministry of Justice for 8 years in the Criminal Legislation Section, most recently as Head of Section; before that he was a judge at the Vienna Juvenile Court for 2 years.

works at the head office of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund. Since 1991, he has held various positions in the Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions and has also been a member of all Austrian provincial health platforms and the PRIKRAF Fund Commission. Dr Ferdinand Felix is an expert lay judge at the Federal Administrative Court and, in addition to his journalistic activities, lectures at the Academy of Austrian Social Insurance and various universities and universities of applied sciences.

graduated with a degree in business administration and law as well as a doctorate in law from the University of Graz. He gained several years of practical experience in an international public accounting firm specialising in advising and auditing industrial and commercial companies. In 2009, he passed the tax consultant exam and since 2010 he has been working at the Vienna City Court of Audit, specialising in audits of the City of Vienna’s investments and the fields of tax law and accounting. Dr Dietmar Fischl was sworn in as an auditor in 2015.

is Deputy Presidential Director at the Constitutional Court. From 1997 – 1999 he was an assistant at the Institute for Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Vienna, from 1999 – 2006 he worked as a constitutional law clerk at the Constitutional Court. From 2006 to 2011, Dr Frank worked as a legal affairs officer in the Office of the President. Furthermore, he has been a lecturer and examiner in the basic training programme for legally qualified federal civil servants since 2003. Numerous publications in the field of public law. He studied law at the University of Vienna and commercial science at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

worked as a judge at the Regional Court of Korneuburg in almost all divisions until 1998. After being assigned to the Federal Ministry of Justice to work on the non-contentious proceedings reform, he was a judge at the Higher Regional Court of Vienna from 1999 to 2005. Since 2005, he has headed Department I 10 (in particular international civil procedure law, child abduction, foreign maintenance and adoptions) of the Federal Ministry of Justice. Dr Fucik has been active in the training of judicial officers and continues to dedicate himself to the training and further education of judges and lawyers. He teaches civil procedure law at the Universities of Vienna and Graz and is deputy editor-in-chief of the ÖJZ and editor of the iFamZ. His main academic interests are civil procedural law, tort law and family law.

is a lawyer and registered mediator in Vienna, winner of the Austrian Insolvency Law Prize, lecturer at the Academy for Law and Taxes (ars) and author of several specialised books on insolvency law. Dr Fussenegger works as an insolvency administrator and debtor representative. He also represents well-known clients, primarily in commercial and property law matters.

is an independent lawyer in Vienna. She specialises in corporate law, M&A, real estate and inheritance law. Dr Fussenegger-Vanas studied law at the Universities of Graz and Salzburg and Transnational Business Practice in Sacramento. Before becoming a lawyer, she worked as a notary and in the private sector in Austria and abroad.

studied law and communication sciences at the University of Vienna and theatre directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He then worked as an assistant director at the Bochum City Theatre under Claus Peymann and later joined the law firm, which has been run as a family business since 1919 and specialises in real estate and asset management and succession. This was followed by the founding of Fürst & Domberger Rechtsanwälte-Kommanditpartnerschaft and the incorporation of the partnership into the limited company DDr. Fürst Rechtsanwalts-GmbH. He is President of the Lower Austrian House and Apartment Owners’ Association and a lecturer for the Universities of Liechtenstein and Salzburg, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Labour, the Lawyers’ Academy and the Academy for Law and Taxation.

has been a judge at the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters since 2003 (chairman of the jury court, in jury and single judge cases, as well as a member of the appeal and complaints panel and the GOG senate – review of draft legislation, as well as enforcement judge pursuant to Section 16 (3) StVG and judge in cancellation and rehabilitation cases), from 2000-2015 Dr Gerstberger was chairman of the specialist group of juvenile judges of the Austrian Association of Judges and was active in the training of judges in Austria. In 2012, Dr Gerstberger was awarded the professional title “Hoftrat” by the Federal President.

has been a member of the Supreme Court since 2005, where he is a member of Senate 6, responsible in particular for company law and commercial register matters. His academic focus is on civil procedure and family law. He is the editor of the EFSlg (collection of family and inheritance law decisions) and of commentaries on the Non-Contentious Proceedings Act, marriage and partnership law, maintenance law and post-marital distribution law, as well as editor-in-chief of the ef-z Zeitschrift für Familien- und Erbrecht. He is also active in the training and further education of judges, notaries and lawyers.

is managing partner of Gruner & Partner KG and VKT-KG; owner of Dr. Herbert Gruner Managementberatung, certified business and life and social consultant; trainer, NLP trainer, supervisor (member of the WKO’s pool of supervisors and burnout experts), systemic organisational and team developer, personnel developer, coach; long-standing lecturer, speaker and course leader in the Austrian healthcare sector at universities, universities of applied sciences and academies.

is a lawyer and partner at Leitner & Häusler Rechtsanwälte in Vienna. She specialises in tort law, inheritance law and medical law. Dr Häusler studied law at the University of Vienna and medical law at Queen Mary University of London and was a research assistant at the Institute for Civil Law at the University of Vienna.

After studying law, Dr Petra Held gained her professional experience as a trainee lawyer and subsequently as a member of the legal department of the federal company via donau – Österreichische Wasserstraßen-GmbH. In 2010, she took on the role of Compliance Officer at viadonau and independently implemented a compliance management system. She is a member of the Austrian Compliance Officer Association and a lecturer on the subject of compliance. She has been appointed Data Protection Officer at viadonau since 2016.

He is a member of the Administrative Court of Vienna. He studied law and Romance languages/French at the Universities of Graz and Poitiers, was an assistant and later an associate professor at the University of Graz, and holds the venia legendi (authorization to teach) in Austrian constitutional and administrative law as well as comparative public law (University of Graz). He was a constitutional law expert at the Constitutional Court and later a legal advisor in the Federal Chancellery’s Constitutional Service. His teaching and research focus on constitutional law, administrative law (especially school law), and administrative procedure. He is a board member of the Austrian Society for School and Law (ÖGSR) and editor-in-chief of the journal Schule & Recht [S&R].

is a lawyer and partner in the Real Estate and Construction practice group at Wolf Theiss in Vienna and specialises in real estate transactions, (private and commercial) tenancy and property law as well as hospitality. He has several years of experience in advising the hotel and tourism/leisure industry, project development and the acquisition and sale of hotels, office and commercial property and also regularly advises on tenancy, leasehold and residential law. Before joining Wolf Theiss, he worked in the real estate practice group of an international commercial law firm. He then spent four years as a university assistant at the Institute for Civil Law at the University of Vienna, where he also taught civil law. In addition to his work as a lawyer, he is also a lecturer at the Sigmund Freud University, author of relevant publications and regularly gives lectures in his areas of specialisation and at international conferences.

is a legal advisor in the Federal Chancellery, holds a venia for European and international law (WU Vienna) and passed the bar exam in Vienna. He was an APART fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a visiting researcher at the Institute for European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford and the European University Institute in Florence. He has repeatedly represented Austria before the European Court of Justice, was a trainee lawyer at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Vienna and worked for the European Commission in Brussels. Member of the editorial board of EuWZ and referee for OUP, Hart and the EL Rev.

is a lawyer in Vienna. She studied law in Vienna and Poitiers and then worked for four years as a university assistant (prae doc) at the Institute for Civil Law (Chair of Prof Karner) at the University of Vienna. As part of her doctoral studies, she also completed a research stay at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. Her academic and practical specialisations are in general civil law, in particular tort law, and family law.

has been an independent lawyer in Vienna since 2004, specialising in international industrial plant law, technology law and art law, and has been an examiner for the bar exam at the Vienna Higher Regional Court since 2007. Konrad Koloseus has also been a member of the Criminal Senate of the Austrian Football League (Senate 1) since 2013 and a professor (FH) at the Lauder Business School since 2019.

is a partner at the law firm Baker McKenzie in Vienna, a board member of Transparency International Austria and a lecturer at the International Anti Corruption Academy in Laxenburg and the University of Vienna. He was previously head of cabinet in a senior position at the Federal Ministry of Justice and previously worked as a senior public prosecutor and public prosecutor in commercial criminal matters in Vienna. Before that, he worked in the private sector for ten years. Georg Krakow specialises in commercial and corruption criminal law, related civil and arbitration proceedings, compliance issues and regulatory matters. Internal investigations are also a key area of his work.

is an independent lawyer and heads a criminal law firm in Vienna specialising in offences against bodily integrity, sexual offences and drug law. He is one of the leading experts on Austrian drug law and author of the book “Suchtmittelrecht für die Praxis”. Before studying law, he worked in the catering industry and passed the university entrance examination. After study visits to Oslo and Vilnius, he worked at the public prosecutor’s office in Vienna and completed additional training as a mediator.

is a specialist in forensic medicine and a sworn and court-certified expert witness. He received his doctorate from the Medical University of Vienna in 2005, followed by specialist training at Düsseldorf University Hospital and freelance work in Duisburg. Currently working at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.

Born in 1950, studied law in Vienna. 1975 University assistant, publications and teaching assignments in political science, constitutional and administrative law. 1980 Constitutional Service of the Federal Chancellery. 1989 Head of Cabinet at the Ministry of the Interior. 1993 Head of the Passport, Aliens, Asylum and Border Control Section. Publications on migration. 1999 Head of the Presidency in the Federal Chancellery. President of the Austrian Society of Administrative Sciences. Books and publications on administrative issues, outsourcing and historical topics. Retired since the end of 2015. Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bundestheater Holding, Vice President of Austrian Standards, Advisor to the Federal Chancellor in 2019.

specialises in copyright, trademark, competition, design, media, advertising and music law in his own law firm. He worked as an assistant at the Research Institute for European Affairs at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the European Institute of Public Administration in Luxembourg. He gained teaching experience as a university lecturer at various universities, including the Technical University of Prague, the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the Vienna Advertising Academy.

is a judge at the Commercial Court of Vienna. Prior to this, he worked as a law clerk in the civil law section of the Ministry of Justice in the departments for family, personal and inheritance law (I.1) and for property, debt and housing law (I.2). Among other things, he was involved in the reform of child custody law and reproductive medicine law as well as the implementation of the Late Payment Directive. After studying law and before joining the judiciary, he was managing partner of an IT company for eight years.

studied law at the University of Vienna and was appointed judge at the Fünfhaus District Court in 2009. Since then, he has worked continuously as a practitioner at first instance in family law and general civil law, since December 2019 at Liesing District Court.

has been a director of the auditing and tax consulting firm BDO Austria GmbH in Vienna since 2017, prior to which he was Deputy Director General of the Social Insurance Institution for Trade and Industry. His work focuses on tax consulting for social security, payroll tax and labour law issues. He is a member of the editorial team of the Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Sozialrecht (ZAS), editor of the GSVG commentary for tax consultants, member of the KSW’s expert committee for labour and social law, and was a lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the University of Vienna. He regularly gives numerous lectures on social security, labour and wage tax law, has served as Chairman of the Supervisory Assembly of the Pension Insurance Institution, is an expert lay judge at the Supreme Court and, as a social law expert, has been involved in numerous social policy reforms since 2000 (including as an expert in government negotiations).

is a lawyer specialising in public commercial law at the law firm Fellner Wratzfeld und Partner in Vienna, with a focus on public environmental and planning law, construction and regional planning law, constitutional and administrative law and infrastructure law. In addition to his work as a lawyer, he is also a lecturer at specialised seminars and author of relevant publications. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Business Law from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

is an independent lawyer in Vienna. He is a lecturer at the FH Campus Wien and at the law faculty of Sigmund Freud University. He completed his studies at the Juridicum in Vienna, where he also worked as a university assistant at the Institute for Civil Law and completed his doctorate in European Civil Procedure Law. In addition to numerous publications, he regularly gives lectures in his areas of specialisation. He specialises in civil law, procedural law and intellectual property law.

is a judge at the Vienna Regional Court for Civil Matters and is currently assigned to the Federal Ministry of Justice. As a law clerk in the Department for Family, Personal and Inheritance Law, he was involved in the 2015 reform of inheritance law. As a judge at the Liesing District Court, he has also adjudicated in probate matters. Dr Pesendorfer regularly lectures on inheritance law and is the author of relevant publications.

was born in 1962 and graduated in law in 1987. Since 1988, he has worked as a legal officer at the Federal Police Directorate, now the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate. He has been Chief of Police in Vienna since 2008 and Provincial Chief of Police in Vienna since 2012. He is also a long-standing author of the large legal edition of the StVO published by Manz-Verlag and co-author of the SPG, FSG and KFG. As a member of the editorial board of the “Zeitschrift für Verkehrsrecht”, he has published several specialist articles on interesting traffic and constitutional law topics.

studied law at the University of Vienna and also completed two semesters in finance at Jacksonville University in Florida. He joined DORDA as a student in 2005 and has been a partner in the Corporate/M&A department since 2017. Christian Ritschka is an expert in national and cross-border transactions with a focus on distressed M&A and joint ventures. He also deepened his international focus during a secondment at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in New York. In addition to his work as a lawyer, Christian Ritschka is also responsible for the successful student programme at DORDA.

Studied law at the University of Vienna; trained as a mediator and facilitator. Worked as a housing law expert, in community work (neighbourhood management, cultural projects) in various projects in Vienna. Various teaching activities, FH Campus Vienna (scientific work), Sigmund Freud Private University (literature seminar, integrative Gestalt therapy).

is a senior researcher and consultant at the Digital Human Rights Centre – Research Institute AG & Co KG in Vienna. He studied sociology at the University of Vienna, specialising in the sociology of law and crime, and holds a doctorate in “Interdisciplinary Legal Studies” from the Faculty of Law. He previously worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna. Robert Rothmann is the author of numerous studies at the interface of technology, law and society and is also a lecturer in “Research Ethics” at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences as well as a lecturer in the module “Fundamental Rights Protection and Media” on the postgraduate course “Information and Media Law” at the University of Vienna.

is a judge in the Evidence Office of the Supreme Court. Until the end of 2022, she was a lawyer and partner at the law firm KNOETZL HAUGENEDER NETAL Rechtsanwälte GmbH. Prior to that, she was a university assistant at the University of Vienna, where she completed her habilitation in civil law, comparative law and private international law. She spent several years conducting research at various Mexican universities. Her research focusses on tort law, private international law and procedural law as well as methodological questions of conflict of laws and comparative law. Her legal practice has focussed on complex international civil and commercial disputes.

has been General Counsel and Head of Legal and Corporate Affairs at UniCredit Bank Austria since 2017. He already held similar positions at BAWAG P.S.K. until 2016. Prior to that, he was General Secretary at Oberbank. Schall teaches banking and capital markets law at the Institute for Civil Law at the University of Vienna and at the Sigmund Freud Private University. As an experienced corporate lawyer and aspiring psychoanalyst, he gives lectures and specialises in conflict management and transformation processes at the interface of law and psychoanalysis.

Bernhard Scherzer is a lawyer specialising in public law with a focus on public procurement and state aid law as well as construction projects, constitutional and administrative law. In addition to his work as a lawyer, he is also the author of relevant publications.
Bernhard Scherzer studied law at the University of Innsbruck and at the National University of Singapore and then worked as a university assistant at the Institute for European Law, International Law and Comparative Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna.

has been head of the “Smart Cities” department in the General Secretariat of the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns since 2007. In this role, he is responsible for processing and representing the interests and positions of the 257 member cities of the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns in legal matters and all issues relating to services of general interest. In this context, it is essential to monitor the discussion at European level (European urban policy), its repercussions on the discussion within Austria and the corresponding positioning of the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns both nationally and internationally.

Bernd Taucher is Managing Partner of Bernd Taucher Corporate Advisory Rechtsanwalts GmbH and advises clients on international M&A transactions, private equity transactions, and financing. He is the author of the book *Doing Finance in Austria*, co-author of the international standard work *International Business Transactions*, editor and author of the practical handbook *Mergers & Acquisitions*, to be published by Linde Verlag in 2026, and a lecturer in the MBA program at the University of Innsbruck. Dr. Taucher has won the Client Choice Award, presented by the International Law Office (London), five times in the categories of Banking & Finance and General Corporate. Bernd Taucher studied law in Graz and Vienna and international business at Manchester Business School.
www.btca-vienna.at

studied law and then completed his training and appointment as a judge in Linz. After working for the Federal Ministry of Justice, he became a judge at the District Court for Commercial Matters and the Commercial Court of Vienna. Dr Thoma has been a judge at the Administrative Court since 2001. He has been involved in the training and further training of judges and civil servants in the judiciary and at the Federal Academy of Administration as well as judicial experts for many years. He has also been involved in several EU twinning projects in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and in training events for judges at the European University (Florence). He has been a member of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) at the Council of Europe since 2020.

is retired Associate Professor of Fundamental and Human Rights at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna, co-founder and co-director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) from 1992 to 2019, Director of the Straniak Academy for Democracy and Human Rights, as well as head of the module “Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights” in the Studium Generale at the University of Vienna and coordinator of the “Human Rights” course at Danube University Krems. He was also Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights 2007-2012 and Deputy Head of the Human Rights Research Centre at the University of Vienna 2014-2018. Head of numerous scientific projects and EU Twinning projects for EU candidate states; extensive expert work for international organisations, authorities and law firms, legal representation in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights; publications, lectures and presentations at universities, institutions and organisations in Austria and abroad.

has been a family judge at the District Court Innere Stadt Vienna since 1998 and was Chairwoman of the Family Law Section of the Austrian Judges’ Association from 2007-2020. Association of Judges. In this role, she has taken part in numerous working groups at the Federal Ministry of Justice on family law issues (e.g. KindNamRÄG, establishment and standards of family court assistance, curriculum for legal aid workers, standards for parental counselling in accordance with Section 107 (3) of the Austrian Non-Contentious Proceedings Act). Networking with other professional groups who are also involved in family law proceedings (such as child counsellors, experts, etc.) is of great importance to her. Extensive lecturing activities, including for trainee judges.

specialises in Austrian and European antitrust law. He studied at the London School of Economics and holds a doctorate from the University of Salzburg. As a recognised specialist in his field, Dr Urlesberger regularly publishes on competition law topics. He was honoured by the legal publishing house ILO (UK) as ‘Austrian Competition Practitioner’ of the year 2011 and won the ilo Client Choice Award for outstanding achievements in 2016.

was appointed judge in 1984. He was a member of the Supreme Court from 1998 to February 2022, most recently as President of Senate 4 (intellectual property law, unfair competition law) and Senate 16 (Supreme Cartel Court). He also works as a seminar lecturer in the field of unfair competition law as part of lawyer training and as a lecturer in competition law at the Sigmund Freud Private University in Vienna.

researches and publishes in the extensive research areas of state tasks, administrative economics, economics of law and legal consequence analysis and expert reports on, among other things, the outsourcing of public tasks, the regulation of the liberal professions and the standard cost method of debureaucratisation. Dr Weigel is also a frequent commentator on higher education policy and economic policy issues in various media.

studied law in Vienna, London and Salzburg; since March 2015 he has been working at the Department of Public Law, International and European Law at the University of Salzburg and the Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies (SCEUS). His teaching, publishing and lecturing activities focus primarily on European law, but also on international and public law topics.

is a lawyer in Vienna. He studied law at the University of Vienna and then worked as a research assistant and university assistant for public law at the SFU Vienna.

is an employee in the Department of Income and Corporate Tax at the Federal Ministry of Finance and a lecturer at several educational institutions. She was previously a university assistant at the Institute for Financial Law at the University of Vienna. She is also a specialist author and lecturer in the field of group and reorganisation tax law and the taxation of capital assets.

has been a legal employee of the Vienna Care and Patient Ombudsman’s Office since 1995, deputy of the Vienna Care and Patient Ombudsman, head of the ELGA ombudsman’s office in Vienna. Her work and research focuses on Medical law, in particular patients’ rights, medical liability law, out-of-court settlement of claims for damages in the event of medical injuries.

He studied law in Vienna and is currently a trainee lawyer at Rautner Rechtsanwälte. The firm primarily advises companies and banks on national and cross-border financing transactions and on matters of financial regulatory law. This includes, in particular, project financing in the renewable energy sector. In addition to his work as a trainee lawyer, he has published on energy law issues.