DLA Piper in Germany has hired Intellectual Property & Technology of counsel Prof Dr Jürgen Taeger, who joined the firm's Cologne office with effect from 1 February 2019.

Prof Taeger is a leading commercial and information lawyer specializing in data protection, e-commerce and Internet law. Since 1996 he has been a university professor and held the Chair for Civil Law, Trade and Commercial Law and Legal Informatics at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. Prof Taeger is Director of the University of Oldenburg's interdisciplinary academic Centre for Law of the Information Society (ZRI), and has held the position of Director of the Institute of Law there since 2002. In 2007 he set up the successful "Informationsrecht LL.M" Master’s programme, which he still heads.

Alongside his research and teaching activities, Prof Taeger is a member of numerous organizations and advisory boards, including the German Foundation for Law and Information Technology (DSRI) which he has chaired since 2005, Deutsche Bahn's data protection advisory council, and the German Association for Data Protection and Data Security's (GDD) advisory council. He also sits on the editorial boards of numerous specialist journals (Zeitschrift für Datenschutz, Datenschutz-Berater, Datenschutz und Datensicherheit, Recht der Datenverarbeitung, Kommunikation & Recht), and has co-published the latest edition of a major commentary on the GDPR and the new German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), which appeared in 2019.

"The recruitment of Prof. Taeger marks another success for us in the further expansion of our data protection practice, which is already established amongst the leaders on the German market. His many years of experience will significantly strengthen our team", said Dr Benjamin Parameswaran and Dr Konrad Rohde, Co-Managing Partners of DLA Piper in Germany.

Jan Pohle and Dr Jan Geert Meents, who as partners are currently responsible for the area of data protection law in Germany added: "We have one of the largest and most well-known data protection practices both in Germany and internationally. We also have a highly developed international network that generates cross-border counselling. This is an outstanding platform to offer our clients, which now, with Prof Dr Jürgen Taeger, is complemented by one of Germany's leading data protection lawyers. We welcome him warmly to the firm, and are looking forward to a successful working relationship."

"I am very much looking forward to being part of the outstanding DLA Piper team and contributing my expertise in data protection law", added Prof Dr Jürgen Taeger.