For the sixteenth 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 2024, which had a total prize fund of EUR 5,000 as well as book vouchers kindly provided by Facultas Verlags- und Buchhandels AG – was held on Tuesday 21 January 2025 in the conference rooms of CERHA HEMPEL. This year’s special guest speaker was Dr. Wolfgang Urbantschitsch, LL.M., Member of the Board of E-Control.
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 2024 are: Dr. Felix Artner in the PhD thesis category, Karoline Kurz, LL.M. and Heinrich Depauly, LL.M in the Master's thesis category, and Lena Marie Wöß, LL.B. und Chiara Himberger, LL.B. in the undergraduate dissertation category. "This 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 16 years, in excess of 500 papers have been submitted for the LAWard and in total we have awarded prizes in recognition of 65 submissions. A record we're very proud of", said Managing Partner Dr. Clemens Hasenauer, who heads the Corporate Transactions Department at CERHA HEMPEL.
In his keynote speech, Dr. Wolfgang Urbantschitsch, Member of the Board of E-Control, highlighted some of the future challenges relating to energy policy. During the subsequent panel discussion, current legal issues in this regard were debated before a distinguished audience by a panel consisting of Prof. Dr. Erich Vranes, LL.M., Prof. DDr. Peter Lewisch, Dr. Wolfgang Urbantschitsch and Dr. Clemens Hasenauer, LL.M. Afterwards, the approximately 60 invited guests made good use of the opportunity to network with one another.