CMS (law firm)

CMS Legal Services EEIG
HeadquartersFrankfurt, Germany
No. of officesApprox. 80
No. of attorneysIncrease 5800
No. of employeesIncrease 9000
Major practice areas
  • Banking and finance
  • Capital markets
  • Fintech
  • Corporate and M&A
  • Litigation & dispute resolution
  • Real estate
  • Tax, pensions and employment
Key people
  • Pierre-Sébastien Thill
    (Chairman)
  • Stephan Miller
    (Executive Partner)[1]
RevenueIncrease $ 2.065 billions [2]
Date founded20 December 1999 (1999-12-20)
Company typePrivate (european economic interest grouping) with 18 member firms
Websitecms.law

CMS is an international law firm that offers legal and tax advisory services. CMS coordinates the activities of its members through CMS Legal Services EEIG, a european economic interest grouping.[3] It consists of 18 independent law firms, with about 80 offices worldwide.

History

In 1999, six European law firms with 1,400+ lawyers and roughly DM 500 million in joint revenues came together to form CMS.[4] The CMS brand combined the names of two founding law firms, Cameron McKenna (UK) and Hasche Sigle (Germany).[5] Under the CMS brand, which initially drew criticism,[6] a "partnership of partnerships" emerged.[7][8] The member law firms retained their established names.[9]

Initially, CMS included law firms from Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and the United Kingdom, among others.[10] Over the course of the 2000s, additional law firms joined from other countries.[11][12][13][14][15]

In 2008, the law firm opened its first joint office in Russia.[16] It merged with Nabarro and Olswang in 2016.[17]

CMS is part of the Society of Media Lawyers, an industry group of law firms that specialize in libel lawsuits and which lobbied against anti-SLAPP ( Strategic lawsuit against public participation) legislation.[18]

Russia

CMS was involved in legal action against Financial Times journalist Catherine Belton and her publisher HarperCollins over her book Putin's People.[19]

In April 2022, CMS law firm was named alongside Harbour Litigation Funding by Kevin Hollinrake MP, in a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak MP, as two professional services firms acting for the benefit of Russian state entities during the invasion of Ukraine. The letter highlighted that both Harbour and CMS are working on behalf of the Russian state-owned DIA to bypass sanction regimes and obtain funds and assets from abroad in order to fund the invasion of Ukraine.[20]

CMS was named by U.S. congressman Steve Cohen as doing "unscrupulous" work for Russia that undermined democratic values and strengthened the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia. CMS rejected allegations of impropriety and said the firm had not accepted new instructions from individuals associated with the Putin regime.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "CMS Executive Partner Role Changes Hands in Leadership Shake Up". Law.com. 23 February 2026. Retrieved 1 March 2026. "Duncan Weston is stepping aside after 10 years as executive partner... Before his appointment as managing partner, Millar was manager of the energy projects and construction team... Millar will join the CMS executive team...alongside... Vice Chairman Hubertus Kolster.
  2. ↑ ""The 2022 Global 200 Ranked by Revenue". Law.Com. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  3. ↑ "CMS Legal Services". Unternehmensregister (in German). Bundesanzeiger Verlag. 6 July 2001. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  4. ↑ "Wirtschaftskanzleien fusionieren". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 30 April 1999. p. 21.
  5. ↑ "FAQs". cms.law. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  6. ↑ Tödtmann, Claudia (9 September 1999). "Anwälte: Versteckspielen gilt nicht". Wirtschaftswoche (in German). p. 120.
  7. ↑ "Neue Vereinigung von Anwälten". Börsen-Zeitung (in German). 4 May 1999. p. 26.
  8. ↑ Pfeffer, Alexander (22 June 1999). "Europäische Union der Anwälte". WirtschaftsBlatt (in German). p. 6.
  9. ↑ "Integration Push Sparks CMS Name-Dropping Row". The Lawyer. 19 November 2007. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  10. ↑ "Sechs europäische Spitzen-Kanzleien arbeiten zusammen". Die Welt (in German). 29 April 1999. p. 2.
  11. ↑ "Francis Lefebvre Joins the CMS Global Alliance". The Lawyer. 12 February 2001. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  12. ↑ Wicke, Vera (1 March 2002). "CMS steuert nach Italien" (in German). Juve Verlag. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  13. ↑ Ward, Anna (10 July 2017). "CMS Moves into Monaco Market via Tie-Up with Local Firm". Legalweek. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  14. ↑ Brenner, Beat (15 May 2000). "Schweizerisch-britische Anwaltsfusion: Erlach Klainguti Stettler Wille zieht es nach London". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). p. 20.
  15. ↑ Albert, Christine (4 November 2004). "Nun auch in Spanien: CMS erweitert Netzwerk" (in German). Juve Verlag. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  16. ↑ Becker, Walther (3 December 2008). "CMS-Kanzleien in Moskau zusammen". Börsen-Zeitung (in German). p. 10.
  17. ↑ Hyde, John (10 October 2016). "It's a Deal: CMS Confirms Merger with Olswang and Nabarro". The Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  18. ↑ "Libel lawyers cast clients as underdogs in bid to halt anti-SLAPP law". TBIJ. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
  19. 1 2 "US congressman urges Biden to ban six UK lawyers for 'enabling' oligarchs". the Guardian. 19 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  20. ↑ "Tory backbencher calls on government to close 'loopholes' letting London firms work for the Kremlin". CityAM. 11 April 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.

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