Lars Petersen is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Frankfurt office. His practice focuses on German and EU public and regulatory law. He advises on regulatory compliance in a broad range of areas, across a variety of industrial sectors. His regulatory practice focuses particularly on administrative law, digital platforms (including social media), public procurement as well as export and foreign direct investment control.

Lars has extensive experience in representing international and national clients before a variety of regulatory authorities including the State Media Authorities (Landesmedienanstalten), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundeswirtschaftsministerium) and the Federal Justice Office (Bundesamt für Justiz). He has litigated cases before the German courts and Public Procurement Chambers.

Lars also assists clients on public law, regulatory and legislative matters in Saudi Arabia, where he has worked on matters pertaining to Saudi Vision 2030 and the related government initiatives.

The Legal 500 Deutschland 2023 and The Legal 500 EMEA 2023 recommended him for Foreign Trade Law, Commercial Administrative Law and Media – Entertainment.

His representative experience* includes advising:

• on the establishment of special economic zones in Saudi Arabia and drafting the founding laws for those zones including regulatory and public law regulations,
• social media clients on their obligations under German and EU media regulation including defending clients in fine proceedings against German authorities,
• clients on matters of foreign direct investment and export control including litigation before the German Administrative Courts, and
• bidders in large-scale public procurement proceedings in the IT and infrastructure sector.

Lars passed his first state exam with honors at Bucerius Law School in 2007 and his second state exam with honors at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court of Hamburg in 2011. He received his Dr. jur. degree, magna cum laude, from Kiel University in 2010 (Walther Schücking Institute for International Law) and an LL.M. (European Law), with distinction, from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2019. He has practiced as an admitted German lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) since 2011.

Lars is an alumnus of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). During his legal training, he worked for the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations on issues of public international law, EU law and export control. He regularly publishes on legal matters. Among others, he is co-author of a commentary on the Regulation on the Award of Public Contracts and the Lower Threshold Public Award Regulation (VgV – UVgO) (3rd edition, 2022 published at Beck Verlag). In addition to his native German, Lars is fluent in English.

*Includes matters prior to joining Gibson Dunn