Founded in 1976, Dorda is a leading Austrian firm based in Vienna that is strong in financial and corporate transactional work.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm is active and strong in all areas of work covered by Austria’s ranking categories and is among the leading advisers in the country for public M&A and equity capital markets work. It is also active in banking and finance, debt capital markets, structure finance and securitisation, project development, and restructuring and insolvency.
Key clients
Key clients of the firm include Kreisel Electric, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Greiner, Sandoz, Novartis Pharma Austria, Apeiron Biologics, and Attestor Capital.
Client feedback: 33rd edition (2023/2024)
Banking and finance
We deal exclusively with Patricia Backhausen and were extremely happy with her work. She was not only very knowledgeable and professional but was also able to provide a fast turnaround.
Capital markets
Fast, responsive, to the point, results-orientated, successful.
Financial services regulatory
Super-responsive and detail-orientated.
M&A
“Very detail-orientated team and strong negotiators that helped us get the terms we want in the SPA. Patricia Backhausen in particular was someone that spearheaded our deal, and she was very on top of drafting every document in time and ensuring we were always well positioned when it comes to negotiating the SPA terms.”
“Leading Austrian firm with excellent M&A practice and broad general practice capabilities.”
“Very professional, pragmatic and service-orientated.”
“Great expertise in M&A, constructive negotiators, profound knowledge of M&A process.”
“Responsive with clear and practical advice.”
“Very high organisational skills, very experienced in the field, high level of accessibility.”
“Service approach, responsiveness, industry knowledge, advice to the point.”
“Extremely great client service, completed all legal workstreams in a timely manner. Provided great guidance on the carve-out as well as related employment matters. Very skilled in navigating cross-border deals and working with North American clients, able to communicate with us effectively and work through the time differences in a productive manner. In particular, our lead counsel on the deal was Patricia Backhausen and she was amazing to work with. She was always available to guide us and holds a wealth of knowledge in the technology space. For future deals, I would definitely request to work with her again! Legal diligence report was very clear and concise, one of the best I have received from a law firm in terms of layout and summaries of red/yellow flags with subsequent detail.”
“Quick, pragmatic and business-orientated.”
“Understands the customer, offers business solutions, offers pragmatic solutions, not overcautious.
“Very fast, precise and competent.”
Private equity
“Dorda is up to date and has a unique approach to obtaining the best deal.”
Project development
“Covering a wide scope of legal sectors.”
“Quick and reliable answers; down-to-earth-approach, with implementable solutions; sparring partners in the search of viable solution of ECJ decisions; fine tuning of privacy policies, contracts etc.”
“Fast, precise, competent.”
“Their legal expertise is excellent. They are a pleasure to work with, happy to tackle challenging issues and they are extremely client-orientated.”
Restructuring
“The Dorda team is very proactive and diligent in their legal advice. Always to the point even in complex matters and unchartered territory.”
Axel Anderl
“Axel has extensive industry knowledge and is a very passionate and tough negotiator. This is a huge benefit, especially when you are a client in the highly regulated industry and have to deal with major international IT providers. He is super-smart, attentive and extremely responsive. Axelʼs drive and dedication make a real difference.”
Patricia Backhausen
“Ms Backhausen delivered the required work very quickly. She was also able to explain everything in a way that allowed those of us not well-versed in legal terminology to understand what was going on. This is a skill that many other lawyers lack.”
“Strong negotiator, very detail-orientated and works very quickly/hard on all deliverables. These are key attributes we look for in a great legal counsel as the basis of our work/deal process in ensuring it: i) closes on time and stays on the timeline we originally proposed; and ii) we get the terms we're comfortable with for the SPA. She never hesitated to jump on a call to discuss any issues even if it was very late at night (was a common theme given we're in North America), and that made it easy for us to progress forward throughout the deal.”
“Very responsive, clear and positive.”
“Strong communication skills and very knowledgeable in her field. Took the time to understand our expectations as a client and also our business so legal diligence was more effective. Timely diligence without delays. Really appreciate her ability to summarise legal issues in a way that is easy for non-lawyers to understand without all the legal jargon. Puts all her time and effort into serving us as a client, especially having to work through cross-border time differences. Very productive and efficient at delivering results. Patricia definitely stepped up on our file and acted like a partner (we barely had direct communication with her partner). That shows how experienced she is and how capable she is at running a deal with clients - all in all, Patricia is great!”
“Patricia Backhausen works with a 'hands-on' mentality and is a great partner in developing and documenting new solutions.”
Martin Brodey
“Pragmatic; hands-on; business-orientated; easily accessible.”
“Very high organisational skills, very experienced in the field of M&A, high level of accessibility, fun to work with, high level of problem-solving.”
“Friendly, competent, customer-orientated, flexible.”
Alexandra Ciarnau
“Alexandra's key strength is being able to understand her client's needs right away. Thus, she gives spot-on legal advice considering the practical technical requirements of her clients and always sees the bigger picture. This makes working with her really easy and effective.”
Lukas Herrmann
Jürgen Kittel
“Excellent corporate/M&A lawyer, has all necessary attributes - knowledgeable, experienced, responsive, quick thinking, pragmatic.”
“Fast thinker, excellent communication, business-minded.”
Heinrich Kühnert
“Competent, friendly, can explain complex antitrust issues understandably, gives pragmatic solutions.”
Andreas Mayr
“Approachable, responsive, knowledgeable, focused.”
“Strong negotiator, 24/7 availability.”
“Very supportive and knowledgeable.”
“Brilliant capital markets and transaction lawyer.”
Magdalena Nitsche
“Very competent, precise and reliable: especially good communication.”
Veit Öhlberger
“Open, direct, courageous, competent, good person.”
Christian Richter-Schöller
“Super-responsive, deep knowledge.”
“Super-professional, team player, smart and very good in negotiations, super-responsive and deep business understanding.”
“Very competent, precise and reliable.”
Nino Tlapak
“Extremely quick responses; clear answers; sharp and apt explanations; short meetings, even on short notice.”
“I worked with Nino on major cloud projects and complex data protection topics and was more than happy. He has excellent market knowledge, provides superior service and is always willing to go the extra mile. Nino has extensive legal knowledge of the subject matter as well as the required technical knowledge. This combination helped a lot in our recent negotiations.”
Andreas Zahradnik
“Know-how. Network. Reliability. Experience.”
