Dr. Gerlind Wisskirchen

Dr. Gerlind Wisskirchen Partner, Labor and Employment Law, CMS Germany

Dr. Gerlind Wisskirchen is a partner and lawyer specializing in Labor, Employment & Pensions at the international law firm CMS in Germany and advises multinational corporations in particular on restructuring, national and international employment law and compliance issues.

Gerlind Wisskirchen specializes in advising international groups, providing added value through analytical expertise as well as precise and strategic recommendations. Her endeavors extend beyond simply providing legal advice. She and her team are performance-driven and creative and strive to forge workable and strategic client-focused solutions so that businesses can achieve their business objectives. Part of this advice is project management, thus understanding the relevant factors, defining the goals, selecting the best methods and tools, and precisely implementing the set objectives. Gerlind advises multinational groups with a focus on restructurings, national and international labor and employment law and compliance issues. Acting as a strategic advisor to the management or serving as advisory board member, she assists with the development of business plans and strategies from an HR and labor and employment law perspective. As an expert for the digitalization of the workplace, she has published the "Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Their Impact on the Workplace" report for the Global Employment Institute and testified as expert before the German and European parliament.

In a globalized world in which national borders are increasingly diminishing and corporations are facing global challenges, she has particular expertise in cross-border projects like business reorganizations (outsourcing, off-shoring), compliance issues, cross-border compensation programs, cross-border audits and internal investigations, board level codetermination, matrix structures of multinational corporations, the European works council, the implementation of codes of conduct, whistleblowing systems and IT-systems, and data privacy protection issues. She developed the "EU Labor & Employment Law Navigator", a comparative analysis of the labor and employment law systems in Europe.

Gerlind is member of the CMS Global Executive Committee and board member of the CMS Employment & Pension Group.

Gerlind is a regular moderator and panelist at national and international conferences on the legal issues of international HR management and on issues of cross-border labor and employment law, such as the International Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the American Employment Law Council. She is a lecturer for the MBA program "International Human Resources Management" at Cranfield University, UK, one of Europe’s leading Business Schools, and has published numerous articles in German and in English.

From 1991 to 1995, Gerlind worked for two US law firms before joining the international department of the German Federal Ministry of Finance. She joined CMS in 1998 and was made partner in 2003.

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