Dr. Nicola Meier is an associate of Willkie’s Restructuring Group. She practices in Hamburg and is based in the firm’s Frankfurt office.
Nicola represents clients in complex cross-border and domestic restructurings inside and outside of court proceedings and on acquisitions and disposals of distressed businesses. She advises companies, creditors, investors, management, shareholders and insolvency administrators in connection with:
- Financial restructurings (in-court and out-of-court)
- Implementation of restructuring solutions through German scheme proceedings (StaRUG)
- Operational corporate restructurings
- Distressed M&A
- Refinancing transactions
Prior to Willkie, Nicola was with another international law firm in Hamburg.
Experience
- "Sanierungsverantwortung und Kompetenzgefüge bei der Einleitung von StaRUG-Verfahren“ (Restructuring responsibility and competence structure for initiating StaRUG proceedings), ZRI 2024, pp. 1089-1098, 2024, co-author
- NZI 2024, pp. 832-840: Comment on the decision by the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart dated 21 August 2024 - case no. 20 U 30/24, jointly with Prof. Dr. Stephan Madaus and Dr. Ulrich Klockenbrink
- ZBB 2024, pp. 295-306: German Secondary Credit Market Act – Regulatory Analysis and Challenges for the Restructuring Practice (“Kreditzweitmarktgesetz – Aufsichtsrechtliche Analyse und Herausforderungen für die Restrukturierungspraxis“), jointly with Dr. Elisabeth-Larissa Schemmer
- Doctoral thesis: Cognitive Strategy of Systemic Regulation (“Kognitive Strategie der Systemregulierung”), Mohr Siebeck (2023)
- Commentary on Art. 135 of the German Basic Code (Grundgesetz), in: Bonner Kommentar GG, Vol. 23 (2023), jointly with Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hufeld
- Leibnitz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, Policy Letter No. 97, July 2022: BigTech Cryptocurrencies – European regulatory solutions in sight, jointly with Dr. Anastasia Kotovskaia
- Commentary on Art. 137 TFEU, in: Siekmann (ed.) The European Monetary Union, Hart Pub. (2022), jointly with Prof. Dr. Roland Broemel
- BKR 2021, pp. 348-354: The potential power of Cryptocurrencies by BigTechs (“Das Machtpotenzial der Kryptowährungen von BigTechs”), jointly with Dr. Anastasia Kotovskaia
- JuS 2018, pp. 851-855: Fundamental Knowledge – Criminal Law: Putative Consent (“Grundwissen - Strafrecht: Mutmaßliche Einwilligung”), jointly with Prof. Dr. Thomas Rönnau
- ZInsO 2016, pp. 851-855: Criminal liability for an abuse of the protective procedure under para. 270b of the German Insolvency Code („Zur Strafbarkeit des Missbrauchs des Schutzschirmverfahrens nach § 270b InsO“)
Nicola’s experience includes advising:
- EMAG Group on its restructuring
- Bank consortium in the insolvency of TriStyle
- Leoni Group on its restructuring including the first large-scale German restructuring scheme (StaRUG)
- Vice AquiCo GmbH on its restructuring
- Temda 2 GmbH on its restructuring
*Nicola advised on some of these matters prior to joining Willkie
Credentials
Education
Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, Second State Exam, 2024 Goethe University of Frankfurt, Dr. iur., 2023 Bucerius Law School, First State Exam, 2018