About
Winston Taylor is a transatlantic law firm built for the businesses, people, and markets driving capital and innovation. The firm is present in the major commercial centers that matter to global clients: the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. With a team of over 1,400 lawyers, Winston Taylor brings deep experience in major litigation, critical transactions, strategic IP, and private wealth; and four focus sectors: Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Financial Services, and Projects, Energy & Infrastructure. Whatever the challenge, Winston Taylor is in the room with its clients, shoulder to shoulder in the everyday moments, and the ones that change everything. ### Defining Capabilities - Major litigation From managing risk to fighting in court and arbitral tribunals to navigating investigations, we protect and advance your interests as you safeguard your core assets and competitive advantage. We handle business-critical and often groundbreaking disputes from their start through to resolution. We find the issues that decide the case early. We build the arguments. We prepare you for trial, and appeals—across U.S. federal and state courts, U.K. and European courts, international tribunals, and arbitral forums. Multinationals, leading public and private companies, financial institutions, professional services firms, boards and special committees, executives, public figures, and other individuals turn to us for their most challenging matters—those involving significant financial and reputational risk, intense media and public scrutiny, and the need for innovative, decisive strategies and advocacy. We are built for this. Whatever the issue. Whatever the forum. - Strategic IP Working with IP-rich businesses, we protect, scale, and defend ideas with a holistic IP offering. Whether it's patent, copyright, or trademark protection, or serving as lead trial counsel in all-or-nothing cases, we are ready to tackle any IP issue head-on. Our Intellectual Property Practice is one of the largest and most active in the world—combining a market-leading U.S. IP litigation capability with one of Europe’s most highly regarded IP teams, creating a genuinely integrated transatlantic practice spanning patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, brand, advertising, and trade secrets across the U.S., U.K., Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. We offer a multidimensional IP service—featuring litigation, prosecution, and transactional and strategic counsel—enabling you to develop a coherent, globally coordinated IP strategy managed from a single platform. We are particularly active in life sciences, technology, semiconductors, media and entertainment, and luxury goods. A single trusted IP partner. For every issue. Across your entire portfolio. - Critical transactions We help you grow—at the speed and scale of your ambition, across markets and sectors. As you grow domestically and across borders, we will go where your ambition leads. For your most significant transactions, we bring deep local knowledge paired with seamless global execution. From early-stage venture funding to significant growth investments, private equity, M&A, finance, real estate, and capital markets, we are where our clients need us, when they need us. When the transaction defines the future of your business, you need a firm that moves when you do. All-in, plugged into your world, and with you in your breakthrough moments. That is exactly what we deliver. Critical transactions define businesses. They're the moments that set the direction of travel—and determine how far, how fast, and on whose terms you grow. Your ambition drives the deal. We make sure it closes. - Private wealth We are a single, fully integrated Private Wealth Practice built for the world's most complex wealth challenges. From founders and family offices to multi-generational dynastic estates, we act as a trusted, discreet partner across the entire wealth life cycle—creation, structuring, preservation, and transition. We also provide strategic advice on the deployment of wealth. For many of our international clients, we serve as a de facto outsourced legal family office. Our credentials speak for themselves: we have advised more than 155 families with wealth exceeding USD1B, eight royal families, and approximately 350 individuals and families worth over USD100M—with total combined client assets estimated at over USD2T. We have navigated asset planning across more than 90 jurisdictions worldwide. Multi-jurisdictional complexity is our baseline. We proactively anticipate shifts in geopolitics, tax regimes, and regulation— keeping our clients ahead of change and opening doors they didn't know were there. No jurisdiction too complex. No generation too distant. No challenge beyond our reach.
Practice areas
Lawyers in this office
Christoph Hezel
Christoph is a German national who has lived and worked in China for almost 20 years. Christoph is a corporate partner who specialises in working with pharmaceutical, medical device, medical institution and renewable energy clients in mainland China. Christoph supports multinational and mid-size companies on their business operations and investments in mainland China. He expertly guides the clients through foreign direct investment, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and the PRC tax regime. Christoph speaks Chinese, English, French and German and is fluent in the business culture of Europe and China, making him an excellent adviser and negotiator on any transaction. · Corporate / M&A
Johnny Zhao
Partner Johnny is a corporate lawyer with expertise in the automotive industry and 15 years of experience in the manufacturing & industrials, pharmaceuticals and retail sectors. As an M&A and restructuring specialist, clients come directly to Johnny for help with their most complex domestic and crossborder deals. He further is an expert in merger control, competition compliance, corporate governance, trade issues and securitisation of Chinese state-owned enterprises by means of overseas IPO and China outbound investments. Johnny works with both OEMs and suppliers in the automotive industry. · M&A
Kai Kim
Partner Kai advises on a broad scope of corporate and commercial law matters, ranging from the incorporation and operation of companies to cross-border M&A transactions. His practice has a particular focus on China-related projects, such as M&A transactions of Chinese investors abroad and foreign investors in China, as well as joint ventures involving Chinese parties. Prior to joining Taylor Wessing, he worked in the Corporate / Mergers & Acquisitions practice group of a leading international law firm in their Berlin, Frankfurt and Shanghai offices. Kai is a visiting lecturer at Humboldt University of Berlin, where he regularly teaches Chinese law and economics. · Corporate and Commercial
Michael Tan
Partner Michael has more than 20 years of experience advising international companies’ operation in and with China. He heads the firm's TMC practice for China. Besides his expertise regarding the general corporate and IT regulatory matters, he has profound experience in consumer related business. Michael holds CIPP/E certification as granted by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). At the same time, he quite often publishes articles and frequently comments on IT, data/privacy protection and consumer related legal topics. Michael further has profound experience advising industrial clients in various sectors on corporate matters, covering all legal aspects of a typical investment deal like market entry and joint ventures, M&A restructuring and exit. Michael is National Vice Chair of the Legal & Competition Working Group under the European Chamber of Commerce. He also serves as an arbitrator of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center. · Corporate
Mike Goldammer
Partner With over 20 years of experience as a lawyer in both Germany and China and as an internationally recognised expert in the fields of compliance and corporate/M&A, Mike heads the Shanghai office and primarily advises medium-sized companies and globally-operating groups in their activities in the People’s Republic of China. He focuses his practice on advising subsidiaries or joint ventures on all phases of the development and localisation of compliance-management systems both in a preventive and investigative manner in the context of internal investigations, mainly concerning business activities between Germany/Europe and China. Mike combines legal expertise with extensive knowledge of the country with a broad intercultural understanding, which is essential in dealing with sensitive issues relating to compliance such as anti-corruption, conflicts of interest, fraud, or breach of trust. · Compliance
Qun Huang
Partner Qun heads up the China Outbound Team at Taylor Wessing Germany. As a German lawyer, he primarily advises Chinese investors in detail on M&A transactions, Greenfield projects, and crisis situations. Qun’s expertise extends to post merger integration as well as to advising clients on matters relating to compliance in German subsidiaries of Chinese group companies. He is one of the most experienced Chinese-speaking lawyers in this field in Germany. His clients include numerous Chinese state-owned enterprises, as well as large listed companies and high-tech companies. The combination of his extensive expertise, many years of experience, linguistic competence, and extensive understanding of Chinese culture make him an extremely sought-after legal advisor. · M&A
Thomas Pattloch
Partner Thomas heads the IP department of the China Group at Taylor Wessing and assists European and American companies in all aspects of intellectual property rights in China. Licensing law, technology and data transfer and R&D are as much a part of his practice as the dialogue with political decision makers. Furthermore, Thomas advises Chinese companies on market entry and litigation in Germany and the EU. These services and the strategically experienced representation in arbitration proceedings in and outside China illustrate the breadth of his expertise in IP and IT law. · Intellectual Property