The world of work 4.0 presents new challenges

The world is changing rapidly – and the world of work with it. Likewise, the requirements for labour law advice of boards, executives in HR and legal counsels have changed significantly in recent years. These changes will not only continue but also increase exponentially in quantity and quality. New, complex challenges will be faced by employers and their human capital management. Global matrix structures, whistleblowing, transformation projects, artificial intelligence and crowd funding are just a few of the topics that are increasingly being highlighted – and cannot be adequately tackled with classic labour law advice.

Digitalisierung, Restrukturierungen, Compliance, Whistleblowing, Datenschutz, Ai & Big Data, New Work, Mitbestimmung, HR.Law by ARQIS

HR.Law by ARQIS – a new approach to HR advice

All questions about HR answered. From one source. Efficient. Innovative. Strategic. A new concept of labour law advice. That is HR.Law by ARQIS. With a market-leading and effective team of lawyers and experts from various specialties, we find legally secure and sustainable solutions for the challenges in HR.

Focus on goals

focuses on the client’s goals and creates immediately implementable and value-oriented solutions.

Analysis & Concepts

provides holistic evaluations, risk assessments and implementation concepts for executives in HR.

Change & Transformation

supports clients cooperatively and responsibly in situations of change management, transformation processes and restructurings.

Legal skills

combines expert legal skills with business thinking, technical expertise and the use of legal technology.

The minds behind HR.Law by ARQIS

More than 40 years of experience

Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier and Tobias Neufeld have been in charge of developing an innovative consulting approach at ARQIS which solves the increasingly complex challenges in HR in a focused, efficient and interdisciplinary way. Together with their team, they combine the expertise necessary for HR.Law in the areas Labour Law, Company Pension Schemes, Compensation & Benefits, HR Compliance, Data Law/Data Privacy, M&A/Corporate; both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier and Tobias Neufeld

  • consult with strategic foresight and provide entirely new approaches directly implementable by companies.
  • develop legal solutions based on the client’s definition of goals.
  • have extensive practical experience in change and project management (national and international).
  • solve questions with new approaches (Legal Design Thinking, Project Management/PMO, Alternative Delivery Models & Solutions, Provider Management).

Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier

is founding and managing partner at ARQIS and has decades of experience in HR advice for national and international companies.

The JUVE Handbuch regularly lists her among the “Leading Advisors in Labour Law”. Competitors are quoted with “she is practice-oriented, professionally very competent and uncomplicated”, “professionally outstanding and pragmatic”.

According to Chambers Europe, Andrea Panzer-Heemeier is focused and results-oriented. They emphasise that she has experience in dealing with matters of individual and collective labour law and representing clients during broad restructurings.

Legal 500 Deutschland lists Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier regularly as a recommended lawyer in labour law. Competitors and clients are cited to have said she “knows every trick in the book and is excellent on all subject areas”.

Best Lawyers/Handelsblatt named Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier “Lawyer of the Year” for labor & employment Law in 2013 and includes her for years, as one of the best business lawyers in this area.

Andrea Panzer-Heemeier was awarded as “Most Influential Woman in Labour Law 2018” by the magazine Acquisition Intl. Global Excellence.

Tobias Neufeld, LL.M.

has been a partner at ARQIS since 2020 and has decades of experience in HR advice for national and international companies. He is a leading name in the design of company pension schemes (JUVE- Handbuch 2019/2020).

According to Chambers Europe, he offers “outstanding expertise”, “communicates very well and is extremely responsive and client-oriented”, in addition to being “the pensions expert”.

Who’s Who Legal Germany states: “Tobias Neufeld stands out for his impressive work in advising clients on the labour law aspects of major restructurings and mergers”. In 2021 he was part of “Who’s Who Legal Thought Leaders – Labour & Employment”, the editorial selection of the world’s best legal experts in labour law.

The JUVE Handbook lists him among the “Leading Advisors for Labour Law”, “Leading Advisors for Occupational Pension Plans” and “Leading Advisors for Employee Data Protection”. JUVE emphasises that he stands for a legal advice approach “that goes beyond pure labour law and covers HR topics as a whole and is increasingly expected by clients”.

Legal 500 Deutschland describes his work as “efficient”, “clear and concise” and references his “broad expert knowledge”. Previously, Legal 500 described his labour law expertise as follows: Tobias Neufeld is “great on international, complex issues” and “great on company pension schemes”.

He is regularly among the “Best Lawyers“ for Labor & Employment (Handelsblatt).

The entire HR.Law team

Successful in operation: HR.Law by ARQIS in action

HR.Law by ARQIS is new. But we have already successfully used the method and mindset behind it in several projects.
Here, you can see which cases we already worked on in four case studies – and more importantly: how we solved them.

Case Study 1

Strategic labour law and support on change processes

Successful advice for a financial services provider on the simplification of the corporate structure and reduction of its German legal entities (Legal Entity Consolidation), as well as the resulting change in its works council structure. Thereby, efficiency was increased and expenses were decreased significantly.

  • Project preparation and management by means of White Book and Schedule/Process tracking
  • Assessment of works council bodies and works agreements on the impact of mergers (in particular framework agreements)
  • Drafting of documentation for merger, transfer of undertakings, transition (works agreement/framework agreement) and alterations (Section 111 Works Constitution Act)
  • Negotiation of balance of interests and social plan
  • Implementation of transfer of undertakings (Section 613a German Civil Code)

Case Study 2

Company pension schemes and the handling of pension liabilities

Replacement of a chemicals company’s expensive defined benefit pension fund and creation of a modern company pension scheme (Future Service) through a works agreement in combination with a compensation programme for present pensions and outsourcing of past service liabilities. As a result, high cost savings were realised.

  • Seamless collaboration with actuary and insurance broker of the company
  • Legal assessment of feasibility and creation of works agreements for the company pension scheme, as well as the agreements with pension trust and pension fund.
  • Drafting of documentation for compensation programme and logistics
  • Conduct of negotiations with works council and trade union in the conciliation committee

Case Study 3

High Impact Industrial Relations – increase of efficiency in cooperation with works council

Advice for a US digital company on the efficiency of the cooperation with its German works councils on change projects pursuant to German, French and Italian labour law. Compliance assessment of the works constitution and efficiency of processes and project structure with benchmarking and implementation. Consequently, an increase of effectiveness and efficiency in the cooperation with the works council was realised.

  • Analysis of works council (bodies and agreements) and identification of to-dos for compliance pursuant to the German Works Constitution Act
  • Marking of reorganisation potential for a new, legal works constitution
  • Legal Design of the new HR department and impactful HR processes with an interface to the works councils

Case Study 4

Data protection and operating processes compliant to the GDPR

Advice on data protection for over 90 companies (national/international) on the implementation of the GDPR during the past year. Creation of data protection concepts as well as special consultation on individual questions subject to sanctions:

  • Use of WhatsApp, Facebook fan pages, website tracking, e‑mail services in companies
  • Indemnification of managing directors and boards against the risks of personal liability resulting from data protection breaches
  • Creation of complex PTAs and Data Privacy Impact Assessments including automated risk analysis
  • Introduction of Workday and other HR software including assessment for data protection officers and negotiation of works agreements with works councils from one source.
  • Internal Investigations: Ensuring legal permissibility regarding data protection
  • Response to data requests from foreign authorities, in particular the US authorities OFAC and SEC
  • Creation of structures for concern-wide consistent data protection officers

News 4.0

You are interested in the solutions of HR.Law by ARQIS for your company?

Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier and Tobias Neufeld look forward to your call.

Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier
Managing Partnerin, Specialist lawyer in labour law
T +49 211 13069 145
andrea.panzer-heemeier@arqis.com

Tobias Neufeld, LL.M.
Partner, Specialist lawyer in labour law
T +49 211 13069 -2040
tobias.neufeld@arqis.com

HR.Law by ARQIS is an innovative advisory service of ARQIS, an independent business law firm operating in Germany and Japan. For more information on ARQIS, visit: www.arqis.com