The Vienna University of Economics and Business and CERHA HEMPEL present the "LAWard" for the eleventh time

For the eleventh consecutive year, CERHA HEMPEL has – in cooperation with the business law programme at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) – awarded prizes to those students who have written the best dissertations on the subjects of law and commercial law.

The official award ceremony for the CERHA HEMPEL Best Thesis Award – the LAWard 2019, which has a total prize fund of EUR 3,500 – was held on Tuesday 21 January 2020 in the conference rooms of CERHA HEMPEL. CERHA HEMPEL had the pleasure of welcoming special guest speaker Hon.-Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Lovrek, President of the Supreme Court.

As an international corporate law firm, CERHA HEMPEL aims to support high-quality education and practical legal training and to support those students and graduates who have shown themselves to be particularly gifted and talented individuals. The winners of this year's LAWard were selected by a panel of judges headed by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Kodek, LL.M. (Civil and Civil Procedural Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business) and Dr. Clemens Hasenauer, LL.M./MBA (CERHA HEMPEL Managing Partner) together with Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erich Vranes, LL.M. and Univ.-Prof. DDr. Peter Lewisch (attorney at CERHA HEMPEL).

The winners of the LAWard 2019 are: Dr. Julius Ecker, LL.M. for his PhD thesis, Maximilian Schmidl, LL.M., MSc. in the Master's thesis category, and Alexandra Enzinger, LL.B. (WU), BSc (WU) for her undergraduate dissertation. "This year, the jury was once again very impressed by the broad range of subjects tackled by the papers submitted. Also of considerable note was the high quality of all the entries and the way in which the subjects were treated. Over the past 11 years, in excess of 400 papers have been submitted for the LAWard and in total we have awarded prizes in recognition of 40 submissions. A record we're very proud of", said Managing Partner Dr. Clemens Hasenauer who heads the Corporate Transactions Department at CERHA HEMPEL.

The evening got under way with a keynote speech given by Hon.-Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Lovrek on the subject of "Between Efficiency and Pathology. The Privatisation of the Dispensation of Justice as an Opportunity and a Risk".

During the subsequent panel discussion, current legal issues in this regard were debated before a distinguished audience by a panel consisting of Hon.-Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Lovrek, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Kodek, LL.M. (Honorary Counsellor of the Supreme Court) and Univ.-Prof. DDr. Peter Lewisch, moderated by Hon.-Prof. Dr. Irene Welser (partner at CERHA HEMPEL).

The evening culminated in the award ceremony at which the prizes were presented to the winners of the LAWard 2019, after which guests enjoyed a buffet and an evening of networking.