Carsten is a partner in the German Litigation & Regulatory Group of DLA Piper and is based in the Hamburg office. His practice specialises in advising corporations and individuals in white collar and corporate defence issues, in particular:

• fraud
• anti-corruption, in particular FCPA driven investigations
• money laundering
• compliance
• insolvency-related offences
• breach of fiduciary duties ("Untreue")
• infringement of foreign trade regulations
• customs offences
• environmental offences
• European warrant of arrest
• tax fraud
• balance sheet manipulation
• breach of financial services regulations
• asset recovery
• corporate manslaughter

His significant courtroom experience also comprises numerous commercial litigations (including advocacy) in the ECJ (European Court of Justice), CFI (Court of First Instance of the European Communities), BGH (Federal German Supreme Court), BVerwG (Federal German Administrative Court), various OLGs (High Courts) and LGs (Commercial Courts) all over Germany and local administrative and tax courts. Carsten has acted as counsel in FIFA, CAS and GMAA arbitrations.

Apart from his corporate defence and white collar practice, Carsten traditionally has a broad client base in the marine, shipping and offshore sector. He advises in national and international commercial and civil law, in particular shipping, transport and logistics law. He acts for German and international clients in contentious and non-contentious matters of marine insurance (P & I, hull & machinery, FD & D), maritime arbitration (LMAA, GMAA), charter party disputes (voyage, time, bareboat), deadfreight and demurrage claims, carriage of goods by sea (B/L, sea waybill), cargo claims, shipbuilding and repair contracts, collisions, ship and aircraft arrest, sale and purchase of new and second-hand tonnage, ship brokerage, ship finance, ship registration and re-flagging, general average, towage & salvage, multimodal transport, public maritime law and marine-related criminal matters.

In Chambers Europe 2009, it says about Carsten: "An academically strong adviser who is a patient listener and is really plugged into the industry”.

He is member of the German Maritime Arbitration Association (GMAA) and elected member of the central committee (“Zentralausschuß”) of German Maritime Law Association (Deutscher Verein für Internationales Seerecht e. V. – DVIS). Carsten lectures in International Logistics Law in the MBA-programme of Hamburg School of Logistics at Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg and has been appointed to the list of arbitrators of Deutsches Schiedsgericht Logistik e. V. – the German logistics arbitration association and the arbitrators’ list of Chinese European Arbitration Centre (CEAC) which has been inaugurated recently in Hamburg. In the Heidelberg spring conference 2010, Carsten has been elected into the Kuratorium of Deutsch-Britische Juristenvereinigung e. V. Carsten is also qualified as a Solicitor (England and Wales).

 Publication

• Carsten and associate Vanessa Blechschmidt comment on a recent German Supreme Court (BGH) decision ruling whereas a Compliance Officer in a company shall face criminal liability if he has positive knowledge of a criminal wrongdoing in the company but fails to intervene (BGH DB 2009, 2143ff.) - October 2009

"partner" refers to a member of DLA Piper UK LLP