Hye-Knudsen and Santelmann are the new managing partners at Dentons Germany
The partnership of Dentons Germany has elected Dr. Matthias Santelmann and Dr. Rebekka Hye-Knudsen (BOTH PICTURED) as new country managing partners. The dual leadership assumes office on January 1, 2025. In their new role, they will be jointly responsible for managing and strategically directing the law firm, supported by practice group leaders and office heads in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Munich.
Rebekka Hye-Knudsen has been a partner at Dentons since 2016 and co-head of the Corporate/M&A practice group in Germany since 2021. She has been working as an M&A lawyer for 18 years, primarily representing international investors in cross-border transactions. Beyond her M&A expertise, she stands for innovation and digitalization. She is a member of the legal advisory board of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK).
Matthias Santelmann joined Dentons as a partner for corporate law and M&A in 2015. For nearly 25 years, he has been advising clients primarily on corporate and real estate transactions and has supported numerous strategic and financial investors in M&A deals and venture capital transactions. He has also been admitted as a notary since 2012.
As a dual leadership team, Rebekka Hye-Knudsen and Matthias Santelmann are succeeding Andreas Ziegenhagen, who has held the position of country managing partner since Dentons’ founding in 2013. Under his leadership, Dentons experienced extraordinary growth in Germany: after establishing offices in Berlin and Frankfurt, the firm opened additional offices in Munich and Düsseldorf and tripled the number of legal professionals to 260 lawyers. From a “newcomer” in 2013, Dentons has developed over the past eleven years into an established player in the German legal market, now ranking among the Top 20 leading business law firms in Germany with an annual revenue of over €110 million.
What they said
Rebekka Hye-Knudsen commented: “I am delighted about the trust our partnership places in Matthias and me for this important role. With courage and fresh drive, we are taking over the responsibility from Andreas Ziegenhagen, to whom we express our utmost respect and great gratitude for his long-standing commitment in building and developing our law firm across four German locations.”
Matthias Santelmann added: “Dentons has made an incredible leap in its first ten years in Germany and gained a remarkable market reputation. We owe this to the clear and consistent leadership of Andreas Ziegenhagen, but also to all partners and employees of Dentons. Our clients appreciate our combination of local roots and global networking. Our goal is to position Dentons as the preferred law firm for international business for even more companies with European or global operations.”
Wendela Raas, Europe CEO of Dentons, stated: “Germany is one of the central markets for clients in Europe and worldwide. Our offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Munich are therefore among the growth drivers of the firm. I look forward to working with Rebekka and Matthias on our shared vision of developing Dentons into the first address for our clients in the region – as well as in the more than 80 countries worldwide where Dentons is represented.”
