Members

Margarida Costa Andrade is a Property Law Professor at the Faculty of Law (University of Coimbra) and a member of the University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research (UCILeR). Her research covers all rights in rem with a special focus on security rights She has written and co-authored several articles and books on different themes related to rights in rem and commercial law and participated in various national and international conferences, workshops and seminars.

Balázs Bodzási graduated from the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences (ELTE, Budapest) in 2001.
He has been working as a notary in Budapest since 2018.
He has been Research Director since 2021 and Head of the Private Law Department at the Hungarian Lawyers' Association since 2024.
Since 2022, he has been a lecturer at the Chair of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law of Károli Gáspár Reformed University.
He is the editor-in-chief of the legal journal “Hungarian Law” (Magyar Jog).

Martin Boric is a lawyer at the internationally oriented law firm Klein Rechtsanwälte AG in Zurich, where he focuses on financing, foreign trade law, aviation, and insolvency. Before returning to the legal profession, he worked for several years in the legal department of a major Swiss bank, where he dealt primarily with mortgage business, corporate finance, ECA-covered export finance, and LIBOR replacement.

Bertrand Christmann has been a lawyer (Avocat à la Cour) in Luxembourg since 2002, specializing in asset structuring and family office services. He is the founder of the law firm Avocats associés ChristmannSchmitt S.A.S. He represents the Luxembourg Bar Association at the Fédération des Barreaux Européens (FBE) (Federation of European Bars) and the Conseil des Barreaux Européens (CCBE) (Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe). Over the past twenty years, he has taught various subjects in civil and commercial law at both the University of Luxembourg and the University of Strasbourg.

Hannah Fadinger is a lawyer in Vienna, specializing in banking, corporate, and insolvency law, as well as restructurings. In addition to her law degree, with a specialization in private international law and comparative law, she also studied Romance languages (Italian). Hannah Fadinger has overseen numerous financing transactions, particularly in the Italian market. She is also the author of several professional publications in the fields of banking, insolvency, and real estate law.

Duncan Grehan MA, LLB, Solicitor (1980) After graduating from Trinity College Dublin with two university degrees [one in History and Political Science and the other in Law] and subsequently being admitted as a solicitor, he worked for two years in academia in Hamburg [at the Institute for Integration Research of the Europa Foundation and at the Max Planck Institute]. He then worked as a solicitor at McCann FitzGerald before founding his own law firm at the end of 1984. In addition to his work as a company director, he was a member of the board of Depfa Bank for four years [2009-2013] and has been acting as a trusted lawyer in Ireland for the embassies of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland for several years.

Philipp Häming is a notary assessor and has been a member of the management board of the Federal Chamber of Notaries since 2024. There he is in charge of the department for debt and real estate law. Before joining the board, he was a notary assessor at the Rhineland Chamber of Notaries.

Jane Havergal was admitted as a solicitor in 1987 after completing her PhD in German Studies. She worked at Clifford Chance LLP from 1989 to 1997. From 1998 to 2013, she was a partner and later head of the real estate department at Pritchard Englefield (now Irwin Mitchell LLP). From 2017 to 2023, she served as a solicitor at the City of London Corporation. She currently works as a consultant solicitor at Paddle & Cocks LLP. As a solicitor, she has been involved in domestic and cross-border transactions, real estate projects, and financings. She is also the author of various professional publications in the real estate and banking sectors. Additionally, she is a certified translator from German to English (Diploma and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, London).

Martin Holler is a German lawyer and partner at the law firm Giese & Partner in Prague. In his practice, he advises international real estate banks on financing in Central Eastern Europe. He regularly publishes on the topics of cross-border financing, transactions, and real estate projects.

Prof. Dr. Tatjana Josipović is a full professor at the Chair of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb. She lectures in the areas of law of obligations, property law, inheritance law, and land registry law. She was a member of working groups involved in drafting the Croatian Law on Ownership and Other Real Rights, the Land Registry Act, and the Inheritance Act. She is the author of several books, monographs, scientific and professional articles in the field of property law, land registry, and securing claims under property law.

Y. S. Kaan Kalkan is a lawyer and partner in the Stuttgart office of HEUSSEN Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbh. His practice focuses on construction and real estate law. As a specialist lawyer for construction and architectural law, he provides advice and conducts litigation in construction and real estate law matters. He also heads the law firm's Turkish Desk and advises German and other foreign companies that have business relationships with Turkey, as well as those that are present or wish to establish a presence there. He is also the contact person for Turkish companies operating in Germany.

Dr. Sebastian Kaufmann is a partner in the Frankfurt and New York offices of the international law firm King & Spalding. Dr. Kaufmann specializes in financing, particularly commercial real estate and other project-related transactions in the US, Europe, and worldwide. With more than 20 years of experience, he represents both lenders and investors in a wide range of complex debt transactions across all asset classes, including acquisition and construction financing, mezzanine financing, preferred equity, structured loans, distressed loans, and restructurings, and advises private equity and institutional investors on the development, acquisition, sale, structuring, and financing of real estate and other projects. A key focus of his advisory practice is advising on all aspects of Pfandbrief law.

Christoph A. Kern is Professor of Civil Law and Procedural Law at Heidelberg University and Program Director of the LL.M. program “Legum Magister in Corporate Restructuring (LL.M. corp. restruc.)” at the same university. From 2017 to 2020, he was co-rapporteur for two working groups within the ELI/Unidroit project “From Transnational Principles to European Rules of Civil Procedure.” In 2019, he was general rapporteur at the World Congress of the International Association of Procedural Law on the topic of “Multinational Rules and Systems of Dispute Resolution in the Era of Global Economy” and was elected to the Council of the Association. Abroad, he has taught at Georgetown University, the Università degli Studi di Brescia, Radzyner Law School, IDC, Herzliya, and the universities USP, UFRGS, and PUC-SP in Brazil, among others. He comments on mortgage law in sections 1113-1130 of the German Civil Code (BGB) for BeckOGK, on insolvency law, including separation rights (sections 165-173 InsO) and self-administration (sections 270-276, 277-285 InsO) in the Münchener Kommentar, acceptance and confirmation of the insolvency plan in the InsO-Kommentar Jaeger, and the insolvency estate (§§ 35, 36 InsO) in the Kölner Kommentar.

Dr. Tim Lassen has been working in the vdp office in the department “Cover Assets” (Pfandbrief Act, real estate liens, ships and aircraft, cover assets, public financing, legal issues) since April 2023, and has been head of the department since June 2024.

He has also been a member of the vdp management board since June 2024.

Prior to this, Tim worked as a lawyer at the office of the Association of German Mortgage Banks (Berlin, since 2005 Association of German Pfandbrief Banks, vdp) from March 1998 to September 2005.

In October 2005, he joined Eurohypo AG (Eschborn, 2012 to 2016 “Hypothekenbank Frankfurt”) as a senior manager in the “Corporate and Investment Banking International - CEE” division, and has been deputy head of the Moscow representative office since 2007.

From February 2014 to April 2023, Dr. Lassen held various management positions in Moscow at an international financial and industrial holding company in the areas of international legal issues, M&A, corporate and real estate financing, and commercial real estate management.

He is the author of numerous publications on mortgage bank and covered bond law in Europe.

Moritz Leo has been a manager at the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks since 2018, specializing in insolvency law and German and international real estate law. Prior to this, he worked for more than 10 years as a lawyer in a leading German insolvency law firm.

Dennis Lievens is a partner in Fieldfisher Belgium's Banking & Finance team. His practice focuses on project development, project financing, public-private partnerships, and real estate financing. He advises national and international construction companies, infrastructure investors, real estate funds, developers, and financial institutions on Belgian and international real estate and infrastructure projects and financing. He has been a member of the Brussels Bar Association since 2012.

Dr. John MacLeod is a Senior Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Edinburgh. He teaches on courses covering the law of property and delict. He is an examiner for the Law Society of Scotland in Conveyancing (having previously been an examiner in Commerical Law). His research focusses on property, delict and the general part of private law. He was a member of the Scottish Law Commission’s Advisory Group for its project on security over moveable property and is now a member of its advisory group for its project on heritable (immoveable) security.

Antonio Marimón is a partner at the Spanish law firm Marimón Abogados. His practice focuses on real estate transactions and real estate financing, among other areas. His experience, particularly in the field of banking and finance, has been regularly recognized by Chambers & Partners and Best Lawyers®.

Dr. Hans Fredrik Marthinussen is a professor of law at the University of Bergen, where he is also the leader of the faculty research group for property law and the law of obligations. His PhD is a comparative analysis of the accessoriness of mortgages in selected European legal systems, and he has written a number of books in the field of Property law. He participates in international research projects within mortgage law, and has taught Nordic private law in several European countries. In 2018, he won the Meltzer Award for Excellence in the Dissemination of Research.

Prof. Tomomi Nakayama has been a full professor of civil law at Meiji University Law School in Tokyo since 2007 and has been teaching at the Graduate School of Global Business since 2018. After studying in Kyoto, he was a DAAD scholarship holder at LMU in Munich from 1986 to 1987 under the supervision of Prof. Medicus. From 1987, he worked as a lecturer, associate professor, and full professor of civil law at Yamaguchi Prefectural University. From 1999 to 2007, he taught as a full professor at Toin University of Yokohama.

Kristian Ingemann Petersen is First Vice President at Nykredit Realkredit A/S in Copenhagen and had worked with security rights and mortgage lending since 2006. He is responsibile for the legal department servicing the Nykredit Group on legal issues in relation to lending, security rights, covered bond issuance and capital regulatory affairs. He is also member of the working group Roundtable Covered Bond Legislation.

Anna Pogrebna, attorney-at-law, partner at CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz in Kyiv, Ukraine, since April 2012. Ms. Pogrebna is an expert in banking and finance, tax, real estate, and construction law. She has advised on numerous real estate, corporate, and project financing transactions, restructurings, real estate development and construction projects, M&A transactions, and private equity projects. Ms. Pogrebna primarily advises banks and clients in the financial services sector, as well as large medium-sized companies and SMEs from various industries. Her experience, particularly in the areas of banking and finance and real estate, has been regularly recognized by Legal500 and Chambers & Partners.

Prof. Dr. Meliha Povlakić is a full professor and chair of civil law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo, where she lectures on general civil law, property law, inheritance law, land registry law, notarial law, credit security law, and European private law. She was a member of working groups on the drafting of property law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the land registry, notary, and insolvency laws for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is the author of several books and academic papers in the aforementioned areas of law. She is a member of the Academia Europea (London) and an associate member of the International Academy for Comparative Law (Paris). Since 2015, she has been a member of the Council of the European Law Institute.

Adrian-Stefan Sacalschi has been Managing Director of TakarekBank's Frankfurt branch since 2009, where he is responsible for refinancing transactions in the Eurosystem. He is also responsible for real estate financing in Central and Eastern Europe and was involved in the legislative process for covered bonds in Romania, where he is a partner at FININVENT.

Thomas Seeber is a lawyer and partner in Vienna specializing in banking, real estate, and civil law, Italian Desk, and new technologies. He is also the founder and CEO of the start-up Realest8 Technologies, as well as the author of numerous specialist publications on real estate, banking, and civil law issues.

Dimitar Stoimenov is a Bulgarian lawyer and founding partner of the law firm Punev & Stoimenov in Sofia. His practice focuses on real estate development, credit securities, and insolvency law. In numerous monographs and specialist articles, such as “Real Estate and Collateral in Bulgaria” (together with Boris Ivanov), ed. VDP, and National Reports on the Transfer of Movables in Europe (National Report: Bulgaria), B. 4, he actively addresses the issues of property law and credit security. Since 2010, he has been teaching law of obligations at Sofia University “Sv. Kliment Ohridski.” Since 2021, he has been a lecturer on Bulgarian law and legal expert at the Institute for Eastern European Law in Regensburg.

Prof. Dr. Dres.h.c. Rolf Stürner, Professor Emeritus at the University of Freiburg, former Director of the Institute for German and Foreign Civil Procedure Law, Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School (International Civil Litigation 2001, 2003, 2005), NYU (2010 Comparative Civil Procedure) and various universities in China and Japan, co-author of the textbooks Baur/Stürner, Sachenrecht (Property Law), and Baur/Stürner/Bruns, Zwangsvollstreckungsrecht (Enforcement Law) (both textbooks also available in Chinese), co-editor of the Munich Commentary on the InsO (Insolvency Code) and author of numerous articles and expert opinions on Pfandbrief law, property law, international enforcement and insolvency law, and German and European notarial law (in particular Murray/Stürner, German Notaries in Real Estate and Corporate Law Matters, Preventative and Restorative Justice in Germany and the US, Verlag Beck 2020 and The Civil Law Notary – Neutral Lawyer for the Situation, Verlag Beck 2010). For many years, he was chairman of the Association of German, Swiss, and Austrian Civil Procedure Law Teachers and a member of the Permanent Deputation of the German Jurists' Forum. He is a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Arts and a member of the American Law Institute, as well as a corresponding member of UNIDROIT, Rome. He was a reporter for the creation of the ALI/UNIDROIT Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure (Cambridge University Press 2006) and a member of the Steering Committee.

Tord Svensson heads the real estate finance group at the Stockholm office of global law firm Eversheds Sutherland. For over 20 years Tord has advised both banks and borrowers on all relevant topics of Swedish and international real estate financing transactions. Prior to becoming a banking and finance lawyer in Sweden, Tord trained and worked for a number of years as a banker in the German mortgage banking industry, with both the Aareal and the Deutsche Bank groups. Tord holds LL.M. degrees from Regia Academia Carolina (Lund, Sweden) and from Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis (Germany).

Jitka Sytařová is a Czech lawyer and partner at the law firm Giese & Partner in Prague. She specializes in banking law, real estate projects, and loan collateral. At the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks, she is responsible for all matters relating to mortgage loans in the Czech Republic. In her practice, she advises leading international real estate banks and investors on projects and investments in Czechia and throughout the Central and Eastern European region.

Kian Tawadjoh is a senior counsel at the Lasaygues law firm, which he joined in 2017. He studied law at the Universities of Paris X and Potsdam and is a qualified lawyer (Avocat à la Cour). He previously worked in real estate law and real estate financing for the Paris office of the German law firm GGV. He specializes in the acquisition, transfer, and financing of real estate assets as well as project financing in the field of renewable energies.

After working for several years at the Research Institute for Central and Eastern European Economic Law (FOWI) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Mario Thurner was managing director of the CLC association from 1999 to 2011. Since early 2011, he has been managing partner of Center of Legal Competence (CLC) – Forschung & Consulting GmbH and advises the Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ). Mario Thurner has worked abroad as a long-term expert and pre-accession advisor in an insolvency law project in Bulgaria and has numerous publications and lectures to his name, mainly on insolvency and credit security law in Central and Eastern European reform states. he is also co-author of a textbook on Austrian insolvency law. In 2016, together with Andreas Luckow and Tim Lassen, he published the book “Grundpfandrechte in Europa und darüber hinaus” (Real Estate Liens in Europe and Beyond) (Berlin 2016, vdp-Schriftenreihe Vol. 54) for the Round Table on Real Estate Liens.

Prof. Dr. Rein Tiivel has been a chair holder at the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences (Estonian: Sisekaitseakadeemia) since 2000 and a professor since 2003. He has been a professor emeritus since 2014. His main areas of expertise are property and land registry law. He has published books in Estonian for students and lawyers on property law (“Asjaõigus” – 2003, 2007), land registry law (‘Kinnistusraamatuõigus’ – 2005), general civil law (“Tsiviilõiguse üldosa” – 2009) and introduction to civil law (“Sissejuhatus tsiviilõigusesse” – 2011) in Estonian for students and lawyers, as well as many articles in journals and conference proceedings.

Prof. Dr. Matjaž Tratnik studied law at the law faculties of Ljubljana and Maastricht, where he also obtained his LLM and doctoral degrees. He has taught at the law faculties of Maastricht, Aruba, and Graz. Since 2001, he has been a full professor at the Faculty of Law in Maribor. He was a member of the working group for the drafting of the Slovenian Property Code and is the (co-)author of numerous scientific and technical monographs, commentaries, and articles in the field of property and land registry law.

Dr. Agnieszka Tułodziecka: Doctor of Law, career specialization: covered bond law, mortgage finance, banking and real estate collateral. After 5 year legislative experience in Polish Ministry of Finance, since 1995 till 2021 as the President of the Polish Mortgage Credit Foundation; initiated many legal reforms for developing the mortgage credit and housing financing in Poland. In that time lecturer and representative of the Polish mortgage market in Brussels, including at the European Mortgage Federation ; the European Covered Bond Council and international expert groups of VdP.
Head of substantive and financial research, comparative law, organized several international conferences and over 90 specialized seminars, workshops, certification for 200 real estate appraisers with mortgage banking specialization in Poland. In 20 years of legislative envolvement contributed to: Bank Guarantee Fund Act, Act on Mortgage Bonds and Mortgage Banks, Law on developers financing, the concept of land debt and numerous amendments of mortgage law.
Author and co-author of scientific and practical publications, including: “Commentary on the Law on Mortgage Bonds and Mortgage Banks” and ongoing “Commentary of the Law on Land Register and Mortgage”; C.H Beck.

Dr. Dimitrios-Panagiotis Tzakas has been a lawyer (dikigoros) admitted to the Athens Bar Association before the Supreme Courts since 2003. He is also a corporate lawyer for the Bank of Greece and an associate of the Hellenic Institute of International and Foreign Law. After completing his main studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Hamburg in the field of international antitrust law (summa cum laude). From 2009 to 2010, he was a research fellow at the Chair of European Law at the Université Catholique de Louvain. During his studies, he was a scholarship holder of the “Maria Stai” legacy, the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and the University of Hamburg (merit scholarship). He is also the author of monographs, articles, and essays in German, English, and Greek in the fields of private international law, insolvency law, unfair competition law, antitrust law, banking law, corporate law, and capital market law.

Eduards Virko has been an independent notary in Riga since 1999.
University of Latvia, Faculty of Law, graduated in 1993, postgraduate studies at the University of Bonn, Faculty of Law, graduated in 1997 (Magister iuris comparativi). After completing his studies, he worked as a notary assessor and was a member of the board of the Latvian Chamber of Notaries from 2006 to 2021 and representative of the Latvian notarial profession at the CNUE (Conseil des Notariats de l’Union Européenne).

Mr. V.M. (Vincent) van Werkhoven (LLM) is a notary assessor in the Netherlands. After completing his studies at Leiden University, he joined Schaap Advocaten Notarissen in Rotterdam as a notary assessor. There, he deals with all aspects of real estate law in his daily practice, including the transfer of real estate and related rights (such as hereditary building rights and development rights) as well as the creation of mortgages in favor of (domestic and foreign) financiers and the associated advice.

Prof. Dr. Miloš Živković is a full professor of civil law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, where he has been teaching subjects including Introduction to Civil Law and Property Law since 1998. His research focuses on security interests (particularly in real estate) and the registration of real estate, which makes him the ideal candidate for membership of the Round Table on Real Estate Liens for Serbia. He has also been following the practical development of the relevant areas of law in Serbia through his collaboration with the Belgrade law firm Živković Samardžić since 1998.