People

Dr. Johannes Rüberg, EMBA Partner

Monaco

This includes venture and growth financings in all stages and general corporate counseling. His practice further focuses on advising strategic and financial investors on mergers and acquisitions.

Germany's leading legal directory JUVE lists Johannes as frequently recommended for both corporate law and venture capital, including a competitor's testimonial "very good expertise, pleasant cooperation" (2024/2025). Legal 500 Deutschland lists Johannes as a "recommended lawyer" for venture capital (2024), including the testimonials "very supportive and a pleasure to work with", "extremely conscientious", and "quick response time" in its 2022 edition. Since 2021, he has been recognized by Germany's leading business daily Handelsblatt as a "Ones to Watch" lawyer for corporate law.

In addition to his work as a lawyer, Johannes has completed the joint Executive MBA program by U.S.-based Kellogg University and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany’s leading startup university.

Damien Simonot Partner

Monaco

He has many years of experience advising private equity investors, established companies and family offices as well as startups and scale-ups. He counsels clients on complex and often cross-border transactions, restructurings, joint ventures and buy-outs and other partnerships and investments in the tech sector and beyond.

Before joining Orrick, Damien worked for an international law firm in Munich and Frankfurt for more than eight years.

Maria Teodorescu Associate

Monaco

She acts on corporate transactions including leveraged buy-outs, management buy-outs, minority participations and expansion or growth financings as well as M&A transactions, often with cross-border aspects.

Before joining Orrick, she had been an associate in the private equity group of a U.S. headquartered law firm. As part of her legal clerkship, Maria worked for another U.S. law firm and a leading German law firm, among others.

Tobias von Gostomski Counsel

Monaco

From bilateral loans up to complex, multi-jurisdictional financing transactions, Tobias provides his clients with innovative advice tailored to their most sophisticated needs, including those clients who have little or no experience in financing deals.

His clients include banks, sponsors, investment funds and corporates looking for fast, reliable and high-quality advice. 

Tobias also advises his clients on regulatory law, capital markets and money laundering issues.

He has over 20 years of experience and worked for various big law firms as well as for Commerzbank before joining Orrick.

Dr. André Zimmermann, LL.M. Partner

Düsseldorf; Monaco

André advises companies of all stages, pre-IPO startups, scaleups, unicorns and international corporations on a wide range of matters, having handled everything from day-to-day practical advice tailored to his clients’ needs, to complex multi-jurisdictional transactions from strategic planning through post-merger integration. Having long-standing experience in negotiating with works councils and unions in restructuring measures of all kind, a special focus of André's practice is on restructurings and headcount reductions.

He has advised on the employment law aspects in over 300 M&A transactions and financing rounds across various industries. Transactional advice includes employment law advice in complex, international technology transactions, M&A projects as well as private equity and venture capital investments, from due diligence to post-closing integration.

André has thorough knowledge of and a genuine passion for the tech industry. Over the last years, André has become the go-to-advisor of several Bay Area tech-companies, leaders in their market and high-growth tech companies. Most recently, he has advised leading global technology companies such as GoPro, Pinterest, GitHub, Nvidia, Sabre, Snap and Splunk on various employment matters.

André has received several awards for his work, inter alia:

• Germany's leading lawyer ranking JUVE recognizes André as "frequently recommended" employment law expert since 2017;
• Best Lawyers and Handelsblatt have listed André as one of Germany's best lawyers in employment law since 2020;
• Germany's leading business weekly WirtschaftsWoche ranked André as one of the top employment lawyers in Germany in 2019;
• IEL Elite, an in-house guide to the world’s leading employment and labour teams, recognized André as a "Key Lawyer" in 2022.

Clients recommend André to JUVE as “straight shooter" and "always refreshingly honest". Our clients praise his "creative and efficient style of working" and "a very practical and efficient style of providing advice", referring to him as "extremely responsive and always accessible" and as "an excellent advocate in court hearings". Clients appreciate André's "clear, sound and pragmatic real-world advice" and his "in-depth knowledge of the tech employment world".