Standard Terms and Conditions (AGBs)

Standard Mandate Conditions

1. Area of application

These standard mandate conditions apply to all contracts dealing with the handling of legal affairs by the Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB, including any agency business and litigation.They also apply to subsequent contracts with the clients. Deviating terms and conditions of the clients apply only if this was agreed in writing.

2. Subject-matter of the contract

Subject of the mandate is the agreed advocacy. A certain legal or economic success is not due. German law is the exclusive basis of each mandate processing, the taking in consideration of a foreign law requires a written agreement. The Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB is entitled to base the facts mentioned by the client as correct.

3. Duty of discretion

Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB, including all the staff members, is obliged to maintain absolute silence and discretion on all the information, as well as business and trade secrets of the client, that they got to know in connection with the mandate.

4. Correspondence

The Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB is entitled, in case of communication of an e-mail-address to a client without safeguards (encryption), to transmit information to this e-mail address, unless the circumstances cause directly a discernible threat to the interests of the client or the client objects or revokes his consent to this procedure or else announces a change in the communications data.

5. Data protection

Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB is empowered, in the context of the intended purpose of the mandate, to collect, to store and to process the entrusted personal data of the client in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

6. Remuneration

The remuneration is determined by the fee for lawyers act (RVG), if no remuneration agreement has been completed. The calculation according to the fee for lawyers act is based on the subject value of the mandate.

7. Security Assignment

The client will assign all claims for reimbursement which may be caused by mandate relation to the amount of the fee claims to the Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB with the authorization to impart this assignment to the payment obligor.The Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB will not collect the claim for reimbursement, as long as the client properly fulfills his payment obligations, in particular, does not refuse the payment, does not get into delay in payment, and no application for insolvency is set on his assets.

8. Charging

The Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB is entitled to charge the sums to be refunded and any other to her incoming payments, which are due to the client, together with open fee claims or payments for outstanding services according to the relevant billing, as far as a settlement is legally admissible.

9. Terms of payment

All fee claims fall due with a billing and are immediately to pay without deduction. This also applies to advance payment bills.

10. Retention, set-off

The client is entitled to right to retain, to right to refuse performance or to right to set off only with claims that are undisputed or have been declared final and absolute.

11. Duties to cooperate

The client will lend support to the Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB in the implementation of his mandate and procure all the information required to ensure the proper mandate processing.He will verify the documents and e-mails of the Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB, whether the facts of the case specified there are reproduced correctly and completely and in the event of deviations he will inform the Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB. Any address changes (including telephone, fax and e-mail) he will make known in time and in writing.

12. Limitation of liability

The liability of the Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB which issues from the contractual relationship existing between her and the client is limited to EUR 2.5 million in conformity with the legal regulations, provided that no individual agreement for the limitation of liability was concluded.

13. Termination

The contractual relationship can be terminated by the client at any time.The Pfaff-Hofmann & Lee Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB is also entitled to the right of termination, but a termination of the mandate may not happen at an inopportune moment, unless the necessary trust for the mandate processing is strongly disturbed.

14. Choice of law, place of performance, place of jurisdiction

For the mandate relation applies the right of the Federal Republic of Germany. Place of performance and place of jurisdiction, as far as agreements about this are admissible, is Berlin or Frankfurt a.M..

15. Final terms

In case of discrepancies between the English version and the German version of the Standard Mandate Conditions the German version should have priority.

16. Severability Clause

Should be a provision of these Standard Terms and Conditions ineffective, the effectiveness of the remaining provisions is not affected. The parties undertake, instead of an ineffective provision, to meet an effective regulation which should be as equal as possible to this provision.


Berlin, in June 2012