Dr. Garten has been a legal practitioner in German and international commercial law for many years. He is admitted to the bar in Germany and in New York. He began his career as a lawyer in a reputable U.S. law firm, and held executive positions in a bank and a bad bank. Dr. Garten’s work focuses on transaction business, acting as advisor to the board and the steering of U.S lawsuits in the financial services area in New York courts and other federal courts. As general counsel of the Bad Bank of former WestLB he found himself confronted (from one day to the other) with the responsibility to defend numerous U.S. lawsuits brought against WestLB, which he had to take on in various procedural phases and –together with his team- bring them to a successful solution. In doing so, he learned that litigation forms a significant part of “doing business” in the U.S. Consequently, thenceforward he focused himself on successfully bringing claims in the U.S.

Dr. Garten studied law in Freiburg, Genf and Bonn and obtained a Master of Laws degree from New York University School of Law.