Baker & McKenzie Strengthens Austrian Team with the Addition of Georg Krakow
Firm News
18 October 2011
Vienna, Austria, October 18, 2011 – The international law firm Baker & McKenzie has recruited the renowned Austrian public prosecutor Georg Krakow as Senior Counsel for its Vienna office. This new hire will strengthen and further expand the Compliance Team and the Internal Investigations Group headed by Dr. Alexander Petsche.
“We are proud to have attracted such a recognized expert for white-collar crimes and warmly welcome Georg Krakow to our team,” comments Dr. Alexander Petsche.
After working in the private sector for ten years, Georg Krakow, now 45 years old, changed to the judiciary as a late starter in 1998. Starting in the civil service as a candidate judge, he joined the white-collar crime group (Wirtschaftsgruppe) of the Vienna public prosecutor’s office in 2003, where he handled a large number of well-known cases, such as the white-collar crime cases Parmalat (Austrian branch), Amis (for investment fraud) as well as BBAG (for inside trading) and, ultimately, BAWAG.
In March 2008, Krakow, at that time 42 years old, joined the Vienna chief public prosecutor’s office - a noteworthy move indeed in light of the fact that, only senior legal experts succeed in making such a career step. The next career move followed in January 2009, when Krakow was appointed head of cabinet of the Austrian Minister of Justice.
In the area of white-collar crime, Georg Krakow ranks among the most experienced legal experts in Austria, taking a decisive role in the amendments of the Austrian criminal code as implemented in the past few years, such as, for example, the introduction of the leniency program.
Georg Krakow noted, “In the area of Compliance, I have perceived Baker & McKenzie and Dr. Petsche as particularly innovative and strong. I decided to join Baker & McKenzie for this reason and because I see it as an opportunity to contribute and use my knowledge in the best way possible in the frame of a global network both on a national and an international basis. Moreover, the chemistry with my future colleagues is absolutely right and I really look forward to rising to the new challenge. Compliance is not only a catchword. It will be our job to develop - and implement – models in enterprises, which bring about practical economic benefits and can be used as control tools. In this context, minimizing the criminal law and regulatory risks for entrepreneurs and employees counts among one of the most prominent issues. Compliance constitutes a prevention campaign for strong and successful enterprises.”