Livonius | van Rienen
THE LAW FIRM FOR WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL DEFENSE
Livonius | van Rienen Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB emerged from the law firm Livonius Rechtsanwälte which was founded in 2004. Our practice focuses on advising and defending clients in all areas of white collar criminal law, but includes general criminal defense as well. We advise and defend individuals and businesses in all stages of (German or international) investigations conducted by public authorities, prosecutions or internal investigations as well as parliamentary investigation committees.
Particularly in a corporate context, white collar defense often requires close coordination with other criminal defense attorneys, colleagues specializing in other areas of the law (in particular tax law, corporate law, civil law and capital markets law), legal departments and corporate counsel. In such cases, we rely on an extensive network of proven colleagues, locally and abroad.
We are regularly mentioned as one of the leading white collar defense law firms in Germany.
WHO WE ARE
Dr. Barbara Livonius
Dr. Barbara Livonius – born 1966 in Frankfurt am Main – studied in Munich, where she also received her doctorate degree. In 1993, she joined the central legal department of Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt as an in-house counsel to work in the field of credit and insolvency law. In 1999, she was promoted to head of the legal department of Deutsche Bank 24 – later Deutsche Bank Privat- und Geschäftskunden AG.
At the beginning of 2004, she founded the law firm LIVONIUS Rechtsanwälte, focusing on white collar criminal defense. Since then, she has been involved in the following proceedings, among others: Deutsche Bank – CO2 emission trading (VAT evasion) and Kirch (litigation fraud), Porsche – takeover of VW (market manipulation), collapse of Cologne City Archive (involuntary manslaughter), Sal. Oppenheim (embezzlement), SachsenLB (embezzlement), „Cum/Ex“ (tax evasion), Diesel (fraud), parliamentary enquiry committees (Cum/Ex, Wirecard).
Dr. Rafael van Rienen
Dr. Rafael van Rienen – born 1983 in Bonn – studied in Bonn, where he also received his doctorate degree. After his second state exam at the beginning of 2010 and a subsequent employment as legal assistant in the Cologne office of the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, he began his LL.M. studies at the University of Chicago. After completing his LL.M. studies in the summer of 2011, he passed the Bar Exam in New York State and was admitted to the bar in January 2012. In October 2011, he began his legal career in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP in the White Collar & Investigations practice group until he moved to the firm’s Frankfurt office in 2012. He continued to work in the white collar area until he joined Ufer Knauer as a salary partner in August 2017. Since June 2020, he has been working for LIVONIUS Rechtsanwälte and is founding partner of Livonius | van Rienen Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB. Since 2023, he is also qualified as a bar-certified specialist lawyer for criminal law (Fachanwalt für Strafrecht).
In recent years, his main practice areas included the defense in Cum/Ex-proceedings, counsel in internal investigations regarding international corruption allegations, defense in fraud-cases related to Diesel-cars, representation in the context of proceedings regarding Wirecard, defense of an individual employee of a multinational construction corporation against allegations of bribing foreign officials as well as defense in various complex proceedings regarding allegations of tax evasion. Previously, Dr. van Rienen has also gained extensive experience in U.S. investigations of corporations and individuals in German-speaking countries (financial and economic sanctions, FATCA).
OUR COMPETENCIES
We advise and defend in all stages of criminal investigations and prosecutions, internal investigations as well as administrative fine proceedings and parliamentary investigation committees. Our core competencies and experience include in particular