wkklaw has specialized in this legal field for many years and has been among Austria’s top law firms in all areas of commercial and corruption criminal law. Our services cover traditional criminal defence across all areas of criminal law relating to offences against property and corruption, including financial criminal proceedings, where we provide legal advice and support particularly to current or former executives of well-known companies in Austria. The lawyers of wkklaw also represent Austrian companies that are being prosecuted or held liable by the law enforcement authorities in relation to the Criminal Responsibility of Legal Entities Act (Verbandsverantwortlichkeitsgesetz) or as potentially liable parties in criminal proceedings. 

However, our firm also regularly represents companies and individuals involved in judicial criminal proceedings as private parties joining criminal proceedings as civil claimants. In this capacity, civil claims are asserted by means of ancillary proceedings as early as in the criminal proceedings, where they are considered on their merits and (ideally) also granted. This allows the relevant injured party to save a significant amount of costs and time, as lengthy civil litigation can be avoided.

The law firm’s size, our technical infrastructure and our expertise accumulated over the years enable us to handle even complex, high-profile and exceptionally large-scale proceedings to our clients’ fullest satisfaction. 

One of our partners is the (co-)editor of the Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Finanzstrafrecht (Journal for Commercial and Financial Criminal Law). We regularly publish specialist articles in this field and give presentations at professional events.

Contact persons: Norbert Wess, Bernhard Kispert, Felix Ruhmannseder