Webinar
Webinar Spotlight on the legal aspects of scaling your start-up
Growing your business means being on a constant path of evolving towards the future. Sometimes you may face challenges with your business and staff which need to be addressed quickly, sometimes it is about taking the time to find and implement the right solutions. With our webinar series we provide our members and the interested public a regular stream of inspiring and deep expert insights on topics challenging technology businesses these days.
For upcoming dates, please check out our calendar.
On this site you will find selected recordings of all previously held webinars. In most webinars we welcome experts, such as lawyers or investor relations specialists from the Capital Market Partner Network. But we also have C-Level peers from our network community on stage.
Enjoy re-watching the sessions.
Previous sessions to watch:
Expert Session: How to win the war for tech talents
The War for Tech Talent remains a major challenge. The conventional recruiting process becomes a serious bottleneck while sustaining or scaling tech teams. Hence, HR Managers look for new ways of recruiting sought-after talents. In these webinar, Expertlead’s Chief People Officer Tuba Vogel will give an overview of the current market situation and explain how companies can overcome this challenge by optimizing their recruiting processes. She’ll deep dive into the topic “Peer to Peer Evaluation” - a highly effective tech recruiting method to speed up the hiring process and allows even non-tech companies to evaluate their candidates’ technical skills while guaranteeing applicants a positive candidate experience at the same time. More than before we are aware: A positive candidate experience is one of the main focuses to ensure companies succeed in positioning themselves as attractive employers towards tech talents and ultimately convert the talent at the end of the process by setting the right expectations.
Tuba will spill her tips to confidently assess tech talent effectively and efficiently. Don't miss the chance to gain some key insights on this topic and to learn how to optimize your recruiting processes by including top tech experts, benefiting from the collective intelligence of a global community.
Expert Session: ESG in Start-ups and Venture Capital Funds
Having an awareness for and applying environmental, social and governance criteria in the business context is an increasing need - also in the start-up and venture ecosystem. We are delighted to invite you to our next online panel discussion on 10 November which will address this topic in depth with leading experts in this field. On stage we will be welcoming:
• Anna Alex (Founder and CCO, Planetly)
• Danijel Visevic (Founding Partner, World Fund)
• Christian Schulte (Managing Director, Coparion)
Moderated by Robin Eyben (Partner M&A and Venture Capital, Osborne Clarke) we will exchange on which role ESG criteria play in venture capital transactions and VC backed start-ups. What are the most important ESG topics? What do venture capital funds require from start-ups regarding ESG? How do start-ups implement such requirements?
ESG for VC funds and founders (German only)
The role of VC funds in addressing the climate crisis is often discussed under the labels of ESG and impact. In our webinar, we look at the regulatory situation, what fund managers will have to face, and what impact this will have on startups from both a fund and a deal perspective.
Three experts from YPOG delve into the following questions in a practice-oriented manner:
- ESG vs. impact - what is it and what is driving the market?
- Regulatory issues for fund managers - what does the law require of VCs?
- Outlook for startups - how does regulation affect startups?
Startups in times of COVID-19 – a 2020 recap and 2021 preview with focus on legislative changes (German only)
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused numerous changes of the law. In the area of tax law, measures were taken to support businesses during the crisis. What changes are particularly relevant for startups? What are the options when a financially precarious situation challenges the business model and restructuring measures become necessary? What are the plans of the German legislator to give the startup scene a boost? What new tax advantages are currently being discussed for employee participation schemes?
The tax experts Dr Jens-Uwe Hinder and Dr Jenny Broekmann from Morrison & Foerster LLP give you an insight on those questions and share hands-on experience with you in our webinar.
Restructuring measures - effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on tax resolutions and corporate law implications (German only)
In this one-hour webinar, we deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on various restructuring measures of enterprises subject to taxation in Germany. Besides the tax law consequences, we also point out the attendant corporate law implications.
The following topics are presented:
- Practice-oriented reorganization measures – an overview
- Debt waiver and subordination – tax particularities
- Tax treatment of reorganization profits
- Loss of shareholder loans – tax allowance for losses at the shareholder level
- Acquisition of shareholdings as well as conversions for the purpose of reorganization – the use and the continuation of tax losses carried forward
The tax law aspects are presented by Morrison & Foerster Partner Dr Jens-Uwe Hinder (right); and Corporate Partner Dr Jörg Meißner (left) discusses the corporate law implications.
How does the COVID-19 pandemic impact the enforceability of contracts? (German only)
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic with a risk level “very high” on 11 March 2020. The German government as well as governments of other countries around the world have imposed quarantine measures on their citizens and businesses as well as severe travel restrictions. In addition, such measures as well as actual infections of employees or the high risk of infection with COVID-19 have led to the shut-down of production sites (for example in the automobile industries) and are interrupting local and global supply and delivery chains.
This webinar discusses the circumstances that may allow suppliers, providers or customers to suspend or terminate the performance of their contracts or to request an adjustment of the contract terms as result of the pandemic. Such rights may arise under contract from force majeure and material adverse change clauses or under statutory German law.
Kristina Ehle is an attorney at law in the Berlin office of Morrison & Foerster advising German and international clients at the intersection of technology and law.
"COVID-19 – labour and tax law consequences" (German only)
The following topics are covered in this episode:
Employment law:
- Short-time work, especially new regulations starting from April 2020
- Introduction of company holidays
- Reduction of overtime accounts
- Home office
Tax law:
- Taxation of short-time work benefits
- Taxation of payments under the Infection Protection Act
- Tax aid measures to ensure the liquidity of the company
With Dr Jens-Uwe Hinder and Hanno Timner, both partner at Morrison & Foerster.
Cloud-and app-based software services – business models and contract issues (German only)
What you will learn:
- the most relevant types of business models for cloud-based services
- the business and legal problems you need to deal with in the cloud services contract
- the regulatory requirements for use of cloud services by financial services providers and insurers
- the new EU wide legal framework for consumer contracts on apps and cloud services
With Kristina Ehle, partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP
Employee participation programmes (German only)
What you will learn:
- most relevant types of programmes for emerging companies
- options for the legal structure
- tax and structuring alternatives to mitigate a tax exposure
- aspects of employment law
With Dominik Moser, Lukas Kawka, Hanno Timner, lawyers at Morrison & Foerster LLP
SE as legal form of later stage start-ups (German only)
What you will learn:
- certain key specifics of the SE as a legal form
- what possibilities there are to become an SE
- how to avoid pitfalls when dealing with the employee representatives (in Germany and elsewhere)
- employees’ rights within an SE structure
- how long it takes to switch into the SE form
With Dirk Besse and Hanno Timner, partners at Morrison & Foerster LLP
Intellectual property rights (German only)
What you will learn:
- how to legally protect intelligent systems
- what possibilities there are to protect the results obtained by ML/KI from a legal point of view
- what has to be taken into account from the provider's and user's point of view regarding the use and granting of rights to data or results when drafting contracts
With Kristina Ehle and Wolfgang Schönig, partners at Morrison & Foerster LLP