For the fifteenth consecutive year, CERHA HEMPEL – in cooperation with the business law programme at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) – has 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 2023, which had a total prize fund of EUR 5,000 – was held on Tuesday 23 January 2023 in the conference rooms of CERHA HEMPEL.
One of the highlights of the 15th anniversary of the LAWard was the keynote speech by the newly appointed President of the Supreme Court, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Kodek, LL.M, who spoke on the subject of "Class actions – Masses of proceedings. Challenges for civil procedural law in the 21st century". During the subsequent panel discussion, current legal issues in this regard were debated before a distinguished audience by a panel consisting of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Georg Kodek, LL.M., CERHA HEMPEL Senior Partner Hon.-Prof. Dr. Irene Welser, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erich Vranes, LL.M., Univ.-Prof. DDr. Peter Lewisch and Dr. Clemens Hasenauer, LL.M./MBA.
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 2023 are: Dr. Tobias Weidinger in the PhD thesis category, Lukas Hofmann, LL.M. and Lukas Mössler, LL.M. in the Master's thesis category, and Mag. Nina Neumaier, LL.B. and Elisabeth Schlagenhaufen, LL.B. in the undergraduate dissertation category.
"In this anniversary year, the jury was once again extremely 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 15 years, in excess of 500 papers have been submitted for the LAWard and in total we have awarded prizes in recognition of 60 submissions. A record we're very proud of", said Managing Partner Dr. Clemens Hasenauer, who heads the Corporate Transactions Department at CERHA HEMPEL.
The 15th anniversary of the LAWard was celebrated in style, with guests making good use of the opportunity to network with one another.