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Dr Matthias Sartorius

Lawyer, Specialist lawyer for criminal law

Partner

Profile

Dr Matthias Sartorius has been representing corporates, management boards and executives in all matters of commercial and tax criminal law for over ten years. His focus areas include criminal employment law, capital markets criminal law, tax and environmental criminal law as well as medical criminal law. He is a member of the DICO (Deutsches Institut für Compliance e.V.) working group on internal investigations, regularly lectures in the Economic Crime Investigation course for the Federal Criminal Police Office, and is responsible for the subject area of the main criminal trial in the certification course in Commercial Criminal Law (DAA).


He is considered a “strong negotiator” (JUVE) who, thanks to his “professional excellence” (Legal 500) and “outstanding tactical instincts” always “finds a way” (JUVE), even in difficult situations. The editors of JUVE have repeatedly honoured him as a “rising star in commercial and criminal tax law”. Handelsblatt (Germany’s best lawyers in the fields of commercial and tax criminal law as well as corporate governance & compliance), WirtschaftsWoche (best lawyers in the field of individual defence briefs) and Lexology Index (leaders in business crime defence) list him in their relevant rankings of recognised experts. According to the rankings of the German Institute for Legal Departments & Corporate Lawyers (KanzleiMonitor), he is not only one of the leading lawyers in criminal law, but also one of the ”Top 100” across all areas of law.

Curriculum vitae

  • Legal studies at the University of Cologne with a focus on commercial criminal law
  • Doctoral thesis on commercial criminal law (Strafbarkeit von Gremienreisen des Aufsichtsrates)
  • Lawyer at Feigen Graf since 2012
  • Specialist Lawyer for Criminal Law since 2015
  • Partner at Feigen Graf since 2019

References

Rising star in commercial and criminal tax law
JUVE 2025/26
experienced, always finds a way
JUVE 2025/26
one of “Germany’s best lawyers” in the area of commercial and tax criminal law as well as corporate governance & compliance
Handelsblatt 2025
well versed in the areas of employment, capital markets, tax, environment and medical criminal law
Legal 500 2025
strong negotiator, reliable, fast
JUVE 2024/25
well versed defender
Legal 500 2024
one of Germany’s”‘best lawyers” in the field of individual defence briefs
WirtschaftsWoche 2025
Recommended leaders Germany Business Crime Defence
Lexology Index 2025
strategically clever, unagitated
JUVE 2023/24
always extreme precise, he is outstanding
JUVE 2022/23
one of the ”Top 100 lawyers” across all areas of law
Kanzleimonitor 2025/26
legally well-founded, pragmatic
JUVE 2022/23
highly competent, to the point
JUVE Steuermarkt 2023
technically excellent
Legal 500 2021
one of the leading lawyers in the area of criminal law
Kanzleimonitor 2025/26
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Areas of Practice

Criminal employment law

Compliance investigations

Capital markets criminal law

Criminal law on corruption

Medical criminal law

Regulatory offences law

Pharmaceutical criminal law

Consumer criminal law

Tax criminal law

Environmental criminal law

Embezzlement cases

Antitrust criminal law

Selected Publications

Causa Cum/Ex finita? – The evaluation of Cum/Ex transactions under criminal tax law according to the landmark decisions of the BGH and BFH

Sartorius/Henckel

DStR, 1022 ff., 2022


Comment on BGH 8.3.2021 – KRB 86/20, Limits of the association fine

Sartorius

NZWiSt, 24 ff., 2022


The end does not justify the means – Cum/Ex and tax evasion as gang and commercial fraud

Sartorius

DStR, 1597 ff., 2021


Internal investigations under the planned Association Sanctions Act – The opposite of good is well-intentioned

Sartorius/Schmidt

wistra, 393 ff., 2020


Comment on FG Niedersachsen v. 20.09.2018 (11 K 267/17), On the prohibition of exploitation in taxation proceedings in the case of a seriously flawed search

Sartorius

NZWiSt, 352 ff., 2019


Ch. 4 Withholding and misappropriation of remuneration, section 266a of the Criminal Code; Ch. 11, Covert hiring-out of workers and bogus self-employment; Ch. 12 The criminal and administrative offences of the AÜG

Graf/Sartorius

Handbuch Arbeitsstrafrecht, 2017


Financing of disadvantage compensation measures by companies – tortious action or permissible sponsoring?

Sartorius/Cordes

NZWiSt, 401 ff., 2013


Criminal liability of board trips of the supervisory board – breach of trust and corruption in connection with so-called pleasure trips

Sartorius

Editorial, 2014


The commencement of the limitation period in the case of breach of trust – necessity of a redefinition

Sartorius/Cordes

NJW, 2635 ff., 2013

Selected Presentations

Opening Statement, Affirmative Evidence Requests and Stipulation of Facts

38. Herbstkolloquium, 12.11.2021


The new corporate criminal law – internal investigation

DICO Webkonferenz, 26.05.2020


Lecture “Commercial Criminal Law”, Master’s Programme Compliance and Corporate Security

Rheinische Fachhochschule Köln, 2020/21


Internal investigations – update and outlook on the new legislation

DICO Compliance Forum, 14.05.2019

Frankfurt

Cologne

Munich

Hamburg