Michael Kern is a senior attorney based in the Frankfurt office.
Mr. Kern’s practice focuses on insolvency, real estate, banking and capital markets law. He regularly advises banks in connection with banking and bank-regulatory matters.
In 2011, Mr. Kern was counsel to American Express in its acquisition of Loyalty Partner, a leading marketing services company, from Palamon Capital Partners. In 2010, Mr. Kern advised Goldman Sachs as a lender in the restructuring of the original €3.6 billion Karstadt real estate financing from 2006 in connection with the sale of the insolvent Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH to investor Nicolas Berggruen. Mr. Kern had previously advised Goldman Sachs in 2006 and 2008 on the disbursement and restructuring of this financing.
In 2009, Mr. Kern advised an ad hoc group of buy-side and sell-side market participants on cross-jurisdictional insolvency issues related to customer access to central CDS clearing platforms, which included the participation and support of ISDA, SIFMA, AMG and MFA.
In 2008, Mr. Kern acted as counsel to The Clearing Corporation (together with IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and a consortium of derivates dealers) in the introduction of ICE Trust US, the first clearing and settlement platform for Credit Default Swaps. Also in 2008, Mr. Kern represented Deutsche Post in its €1 billion sale of around 1,300 real estate properties to U.S. investor Lone Star.
Furthermore, he provided advice concerning Deutsche Postbank’s approximately €1.8 billion takeover of BHW Holding and represented the lead arrangers, including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, in a €1.15 billion credit facility agreement with iesy Hessen, which was used to finance iesy Hessen’s acquisition of the Kabelnetz NRW group.
Mr. Kern also represented several German banks, including Citigroup’s German banking subsidiary, in the issuance of loan participation notes for the purpose of financing loans to various Russian and Kazakhstan borrowers, including TNK, Severstal and Gazprom.
Finally, Mr. Kern regularly advises banks in regard to supervisory law issues, including the outsourcing of banking activities.
Mr. Kern joined the firm in 2000 and became a senior attorney in 2006. He passed the second state examination in the State of Hesse in 1998 and the first state examination at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1996. From 1999 to 2000 Mr. Kern worked as a judge at the Local Court of Hochheim am Main, and from 1998 to 1999 he was an associate at Hengeler Mueller in Frankfurt am Main.
Mr. Kern is a member of the Bar in Frankfurt am Main. His native language is German, and he is fluent in English.