Areas of Expertise
Dr. Kutschelis works in the field of criminal law. The main focus is on matters in the field of white-collar crime. Many years of experience in nationally and internationally renowned law firms allow Attorney Dr. Kutschelis to act as defense counsel, advisor and counsel for his clients with special qualifications and experience. These include individuals, for example managing directors, employees as well as other high-end professionals (lawyers, tax consultants, auditors, medical doctors and pharmacists), as well as companies.
White-Collar Criminal Law
The firm’s focus lies in the area of ‘white-collar’ criminal law. This refers to criminal proceedings in connection with the economic activities of companies, businessmen and other high-end professionals. A characteristic feature of white-collar criminal law is that the criminal law provisions are related to areas of law outside of criminal law and a corresponding defense requires in-depth handling of, for example, corporate law, insolvency law, administrative law, labor law, etc.
The range of conceivable criminal charges in the area of white-collar criminal law is wide: the complex of proceedings handled by the firm includes, for example, investigations into allegations of fraud as well as failure to pay social security contributions, corruption offenses, insolvency offenses or environmental offenses, as well as allegations of (negligent) arson, bodily injury or even manslaughter, for example in connection with production related accidents. Another important area in connection with proceedings under white-collar criminal law are seizures and confiscations of assets.
Furthermore, defense matters are taken on in proceedings against medical doctors, tax consultants, auditors or lawyers. The special feature of such proceedings is that, in addition to potential criminal sanctions, consequences under professional law, such as proceedings before the competent professional chambers up to and including a ban on practicing the profession, must be taken into account or, following a criminal defense, defense must also be provided in proceedings under professional laws and rules. The same applies to criminal proceedings against civil servants, who, in the event of a final conviction, may be subject to considerable sanctions under civil service law, such as the loss of pension entitlements. Dr. Kutschelis also handles corresponding defense matters in professional conduct or disciplinary proceedings.
Law of Administrative Offences
In many areas of business life, German administrative offence law plays a significant role alongside criminal law. This is particularly true where sanctions against companies come into consideration. Since there is no corporate criminal law in the narrower sense in Germany to date, sanctions against companies are imposed on the basis of administrative offenses. Special administrative offenses exist in numerous economically significant areas, such as company, commercial and capital market law, customs law, food law, occupational health and safety law and environmental law.
In addition, the sanctioning of individual persons is also possible in administrative offence law. This is known to be the case in the area of traffic offences, but also in the aforementioned economic areas such as occupational health and safety or environmental law.
Dr. Kutschelis defends and advises companies and individuals in connection with administrative offence proceedings.
Compliance and Internal Investigations
Dr. Kutschelis has particular experience in the field of compliance advice. This applies both to preventive compliance advice and to matters in connection with the implementation of internal investigation measures in the event of an existing suspicion of a compliance violation.
Within the scope of preventive compliance consulting, Dr. Kutschelis conducts training courses on selected topics, such as measures to prevent acts of corruption. Furthermore, Dr. Kutschelis advises on the avoidance of specific - criminal - risks, for example in connection with the development and distribution of technically complex products (Product-Compliance).
Internal investigations are often carried out by specialized employees of the company concerned or by law firms with a strong work force and other consulting companies. Attorney Dr. Kutschelis is called in, for example, where specific external expertise in criminal law and criminal procedure law is useful. Accordingly, Attorney Dr. Kutschelis has accompanied internal investigations by specialized corporate departments and international commercial law firms. Furthermore, in connection with compliance consulting, Dr. Kutschelis has taken on matters from individuals who are affected by an internal company investigation and has accompanied them as witness counsel to questioning by internal company investigators (so-called ‘interviews’).
In cases where internal investigations of a manageable scope are sufficient, Dr. Kutschelis also conducts his own investigations on behalf of clients.
Cross-Border Criminal Matters
In the law office of Dr. Kutschelis, matters are handled in the working languages German, English and Spanish. Dr. Kutschelis has extensive international and working experience with legal colleagues from numerous jurisdictions worldwide, in particular the US. Dr. Kutschelis not only handles international matters in a technical manner, but also possesses the necessary intercultural sensitivity required for constructive cooperation with colleagues from other legal systems.
Within the scope of international matters, Dr. Kutschelis will defend or consult clients in complex, cross-border criminal cases. Attorney Dr. Kutschelis has experience as a legal advisor in cross-border internal company investigations due to compliance incidents abroad. In addition, Dr. Kutschelis defends clients in connection with cross-border investigations as well as mutual legal assistance and extradition proceedings, both when German citizens abroad are involved and in the case of extradition requests from foreign states addressed to judicial bodies of the Federal Republic of Germany.
General Criminal Law and Public Defense
In the law office of Dr. Kutschelis, matters of general criminal law are also regularly handled. This applies regardless of whether Attorney Dr. Kutschelis is acting as an elective defense counsel or as a public defender.
The right to be represented by a public defense attorney is an essential achievement of our constitution. The purpose of a public defense is to ensure that in cases in which a person is threatened with serious consequences, a comprehensive defense can take place at all as a counterweight to the state prosecution organs. A public defense must be conducted by defense attorneys with commitment. An essential feature of the public defense is the assumption of the defense costs by the judicial treasury.
Attorney Dr. Kutschelis also acts as a public defense attorney and does not make any difference in terms of his work’s quality between elective and public defense matters.
Pro Bono Practice
In individual cases, the law firm of Dr. Kutschelis also handles matters pro bono. pro bono bearbeitet. The acceptance of a pro bono matter may be considered, for example, if a client would otherwise be denied access to justice and a proper defense due to a lack of funds and if legal issues of fundamental importance arise in the proceedings in question.
Whether a matter may be eligible for pro bono work is to be examined on a case-by-case basis and on the basis of the applicable professional legal regulatory framework.
