360° Services

Being accused of having committed a criminal offence may be both psychologically burdensome and damaging to one's reputation. Whether faced with a criminal summons, search, arrest or court proceedings: We are available to defend you at any stage of the proceedings, before any authority and in front of every court. If you are accused of having committed a criminal offence, you should always contact a criminal defence attorney to get expert advice. Wrong decisions or even just inexperienced behaviour will lead to avoidable consequences. Contacting an attorney is not an admission of guilt, but rather a proof of leading your life professionally: You take the allegations, which have been made against you, seriously, and, therefore, decide to get expert advice from a specialized law firm. You don’t just have a right to do so. It is also a smart thing to do.

We see the bigger picture that extends beyond just the criminal proceedings. Criminal proceedings have the potential to harm you both privately and professionally. Therefore, our defence work is designed to protect both.

Our legal consultation stands out through its equally practically oriented and scientifically sound nature. In some situations, it may be necessary to have the legal risks of transactions or other decisions evaluated in advance by a legal expert opinion. The same is true in going criminal proceedings, where it may be advisable to summarize one's own legal opinion by providing a scientific legal opinion. Our advisors, among them three university professors who assist us as Of-Counsel, have considerable expertise in the field of policy consultation and provide legal opinions on planned legislative amendments in which they evaluate them in respect of their adherence to existing European Law, Criminal Law and Constitutional Law provisions.

Dawn raids are an everyday part of Commercial Criminal Law proceedings. For the individuals and companies affected they are unpleasant at the very least – in many instances they may also be damaging to their reputation. We are here to ascertain that all your rights are protected. We intervene immediately if illegitimate actions are taken and will not allow for an illegal obtaining of evidence. Our Tsambikakis App now offers mobile services and information on dawn raids.

Crises can develop into endangering endurance tests for companies. The way out of the crisis is better if the consulting is managed from one source. Comprehensive crisis management means fast implementation with high impact. We help you to remain active and capable of action even during the crisis. Our crisis management combines legal advice, representation before authorities and institutions, comprehensive investigation and legal review of facts. We support you with all instruments of professional communication both internally and externally. An essential component of this is the handling of press law issues. We stand by your side, regardless of whether it is a matter of preventive press work, support with current inquiries from the media or defense against unfavorable media publications. In downstream crisis management, we consistently pursue your claims against insurers and third parties in order to limit the economic damage of the crisis.

Every person is obliged to tell the truth when they are called as a witness in criminal proceedings. False testimony of a witness is punished severely – but the witness must not answer all questions. It does not need to put itself at risk of criminal prosecution. It is therefore advisable for witnesses in many situations to seek the assistance of legal counsel for the criminal proceedings. The presence of legal counsel appears positive and ensures a lawful and fair examination of the witness. The legal counsel may intervene when the witness is faced with impermissible questions and may itself initiate additional questions. The assistance of legal counsel for the witness thereby helps and protects the witness and can assist with the process of finding the objective truth.

We review your compliance system as a whole or in relation to specific situations. You can choose from either a broad inspection or our Compliance-EasyCheck. Our Compliance Management System combines existing capacities and avoids unnecessary dual structures. We are available to coach your compliance officer in order to achieve full functioning of the CMS from the very beginning. We check existing CMS for their effectiveness and suggest complementation tailored to your specific needs. If necessary, we can conduct internal investigations in your company in order to determine whether and where legal offences may have been committed. In a next step, we assist you with taking the correct measures to ascertain that any previous mistakes are not repeated. Drawing from the experience collected by implementing numerous compliance systems over the years, we will show you the perfect solutions made especially for you.

Managers must make decisions every day. In doing this, they must live with the risk that they may be made liable for the ensuing damages which their company might face from an error made by them. The questions of liability become especially pivotal when criminal offences have been committed in or from within the company and a duty of care or duty to inspect may have been violated by management. This is where the compliance obligations of the management come full circle. It is crucial that the representation of boards members or directors at risk begins as early as possible, preferably before or during ongoing investigative proceedings. We are here to listen to you and to find a compliance solution which fits your company’s specific needs.

In many cases, companies will be lacking sufficient personnel resources to take over compliance-related tasks early on. We can provide you with an external compliance officer to implement a functioning compliance structure. This gives you sufficient time to find and train your own compliance officer. Once you have found the right person, our compliance officer will hand over affairs to them. Our external compliance officers give you the opportunity to have a working compliance-structure in place from day one, which can be taken over by your own employees once they are ready.

An external ombudsperson is the first contact for informants among your employees, customers or partners. The external ombudsperson will collect information, direct queries to the informants and evaluate the information legally. When faced with well-founded indications, the ombudsperson will contact management immediately and suggest necessary measures. If the information does not warrant further actions, the ombudsperson will explain the reasons for this to the informant. Our external ombudsperson makes sure that you learn of legal violations at the earliest possibility in order to give you sufficient time to take the necessary actions. They will also give your informants a direct point of contact. This can help avoid situations, in which important topics are first discussed in public or social media. Our qualified compliance experts are just who you need, to evaluate the provided information and provide it to you in a way that facilitates further decisions.

White-collar crime causes significant damage – estimated at several billion euros per year in Germany alone. Managers and supervisory bodies of affected companies are increasingly legally obligated to clarify facts, pursue claims and, if necessary, cooperate with law enforcement authorities. As quickly as possible after discovering a violation, the underlying facts must be investigated in a way that can be used in court and relevant evidence must be found and secured. This raises a number of interlocking legal questions, which stem from criminal and civil procedural law, company law, labour law, data protection law and, coming soon, the law governing the sanctions for associations, which expressly provides for internal investigations and regulates these in more detail. In addition, clear processes are needed to ensure that internal investigations are conducted both smoothly and legally sound, and that the insights gained from them are employed correctly. We use our expertise to support you in legally compliant and purposeful internal investigations.

We are available for the training of your employees in all our fields of expertise. You decide how we train: classic lecture accompanied by an illustrating presentation, workshop, webinar, etc. We know how to cover only those essentials relevant to your daily work, because it is the only way how important information can be grasped and memorized easily.

The Tsambikakis App offers all-around care in all emergencies: With it, you are comprehensively advised during searches, arrests and other situations of crisis. The mobile application supplies you with information on the correct way to behave and answers the most urgent questions. In case of an emergency you can simply use the emergency function of the application, which will immediately connect you with a competent advisor. You can also use the app to contact the attorneys at all of our four sites to make an appointment for a legal consultation. With our app, you are securely equipped for any exceptional situation.

The Tsambikakis App can be downloaded free of charge for iOS and Android devices in the respective app stores.

If you hold a manager-level position at a hospital, you are in the front lines of responsibility concerning compliance-related questions. You are aware of the importance of the proper rendering and the smooth and reliable operation of all services, including the correct invoicing of those services. If mistakes are made in the process, the implications are manifold – reaching from monetary loss to the risk of criminal prosecution. A quick and reliable overview of the possible compliance risks is necessary in order to avoid expansive consequences. Our EasyCheck provides this overview of the fundamental risks in as little as a day – we will explain the results to you directly on site. We are here to shape uncertainty into a clear risk assessment, which you can take to guide your future actions.

The EasyCheck will illuminate the fundamental compliance risks related to compliance structures, the risk of corruption, rendering of medical services and their invoicing or human ressources. Contact us for a non-binding information and briefing on this topic.

We provide helpdesks for specific topics: Your employees can contact us in case they need a prompt reply to question concerning a certain topic. We can provide you with, i.e., a Compliance Helpdesk, or a helpdesk for questions on medical liability, the prevention of money laundering etc. We are also happy to provide a helpdesk on current legal questions (concerning, for example, the corona pandemic). Our helpdesks provide your employees with qualified help when necessary – at the same time you will be unburdened from some challenging questions. The raised questions will also give you an immediate indication as to where certain processes or procedures may need fine-tuning.

Since July 2, 2023, the Whistleblower Protection Act has already been in force for companies with 250 or more employees. The law requires companies to set up and operate an internal reporting point to receive tips from employees about criminal offenses, numerous administrative offenses, and against various other violations at federal and state level. The catalog of reportable violations is extensive. Now, on Dec. 17, 2023, the second stage of the Whistleblower Protection Act will come into force: then even smaller companies with 50 to 249 employees will have to set up and operate a reporting office. And as of December 1, 2023, it will already be an administrative offense if obligated companies have not set up and operate a reporting office. A violation can be punished with a fine of up to EUR 20,000.

The alternative is to outsource the internal reporting office to an external service provider. For this purpose, we have developed the Tsambikakis whistleblower system, which we have been operating successfully since 2021. Our clients include both large and small companies, charities, federal ministries and supreme federal authorities. These characteristics make the Tsambikakis whistleblower system successful:

• We operate a stand-alone web portal through which we can communicate with whistleblowers, even anonymously.
• No software is implemented in our clients' IT systems. Therefore, the setup and operation of the Tsambikakis whistleblower system is free of co-determination. This means that the Tsambikakis whistleblower system can also be set up at short notice.
• In corporate groups and other groups, we appoint ourselves in parallel for all associated companies. This frees the companies from the obligation to maintain separate whistleblowing units.
• We document all tips and how they are handled in our electronic lawyer file. Sensitive information is therefore stored outside your company.
• With us, there is no contractual obligation. The mandate to Tsambikakis Whistleblower Systems can be terminated at any time.

Every outflow of data puts a company at risk. Together with our cooperation partner Bernstein Group, we offer communicative and legal support for companies to prepare them for a cyber attack, especially by ransomware, and to support them in the crisis. We implement custom-fit emergency concepts that prepare for a quick restoration of operations and successful crisis communication internally and externally. In the event of a cyber attack, we advise affected companies on criminal and regulatory proceedings and on dealing with their insurance company. The interaction of legal and communications experts makes us your one-stop store.