About us

Barbara Grunewald is Professor Emerita of Civil Law, Commercial and Corporate Law at the University of Cologne. Her research focuses on civil law, corporate law and the law governing the legal profession.

Alexander Bornemann is head of the insolvency law division at the German Federal Ministry of Justice. His work focuses on insolvency and restructuring law and on corporate law.

Nikolaos Vervessos is Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a lawyer at the Bank of Greece. He studied law at the University of Athens (LL.B.), the University of Hamburg (LL.M.) and the University of Zurich (Erasmus programme). He received his doctorate from the University of Cologne with a thesis on the law of shareholder loans replacing equity. His teaching and research focus on corporate law, capital markets law, insolvency law and commercial contract law. Nikolaos Vervessos is a member of the commissions for the reform of Greek stock corporation law and of the law on corporate conversions, and for the transposition of the EU directive on cross-border conversions into Greek law. Together with Tim Florstedt, he organised a German-Greek conference on business law in 2023.

Antonios G. Karampatzos is Professor of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a practising lawyer. Between 2000 and 2004 he completed his doctorate at the University of Tübingen, where he also obtained an LL.M. He subsequently undertook several research stays abroad. His interests include private law, legal theory, jurisprudence, the economic analysis of law, and behavioural law and economics. A native Greek speaker, he is fluent in English, German and French.

Vicky Athanassoglou is managing partner of VAP Law Offices, the law firm she founded in 2012. She is admitted to the bar at the Supreme Court in Athens and to the Düsseldorf Bar Association. She studied law at the universities of Cologne, Thessaloniki and Würzburg and later specialised in international business law (Munich) and commercial mediation. Her practice focuses on commercial and corporate law, international business law, banking and finance, capital markets law, energy law and cross-border transactions, particularly between Greece and Germany. Her German-Greek ties are reflected not only in her dual admission in Athens and Düsseldorf but also in her active role in the German-Greek Lawyers’ Association, the German-Hellenic Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and the Chamber’s arbitration and mediation centre.

Alexandros Rokas is Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He graduated with distinction from the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens and holds a master’s degree and a doctorate from Humboldt University of Berlin as well as a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School. He has also served on the Greek legislative committees for the reform of corporate law and insolvency law. He is a board member of the Association of Greek Commercialists and a member of international academic associations such as ECGI, CERIL, III and IEEI.

Kanellos Klamaris studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He then obtained an LL.M. from the University of Cologne, where he also received his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Dr. Barbara Grunewald. He completed a further LL.M. at New York University. Some years later he returned to the University of Cologne for a further research stay. His academic and professional work focuses on corporate, capital markets, banking and finance law. He was a scholar of the DAAD and the Onassis Foundation. Since 2019 he has been practising as a lawyer in Athens.

Rigas Giovannopoulos is Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a practising lawyer and a certified mediator. He received his doctorate from the Faculty of Law of Goethe University Frankfurt and also holds a master’s degree (LL.M.) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Hanover. His teaching and research (at bachelor’s and master’s level) focus on corporate law, banking law, consumer law, e-commerce law, intellectual property law, insolvency law and commercial contract law. He has spoken at academic conferences in Greece and abroad and has served on several legislative committees, among others on commercial publicity and corporate law.

Georgios Psaroudakis is Professor of Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He studied at the universities of Athens (LL.B., LL.M.) and Oxford (MJur) and received his doctorate from the University of Hamburg with a thesis on takeover law. He has since published three further monographs and numerous contributions to commentaries and edited volumes in Greek, English and German, and has edited or co-edited two volumes. His research focuses on corporate, insolvency, banking and competition law. He has chaired the Greek insolvency administration committee and is chair of the committee transposing the BRRD II directive into Greek law; he has also served on the committees for the transposition of the BRRD directive, for the new Greek law on corporate conversions and for the transposition of the directive on cross-border conversions.