Robert Witte: consultant for foreign trade and export control law

During my legal studies, I worked at the Institute for Foreign Trade Law at the University of Münster, where I was responsible for organising a large conference on export controls. This allowed me to acquaint myself with foreign trade law and the management of AWB. I then chose to specialise in this area of law for the rest of my degree and my traineeship at a major international law firm. However, despite learning a lot, I quickly realised my future lay elsewhere.

What our clients appreciate about AWB is that we are not a "consulting factory": our high degree of specialisation means we do not view consultancy as a mass business. Similarly, as a consultant in my team, I am not treated as an interchangeable cog in the wheel. We work very independently and this ensures we can develop individual solutions for our clients, thereby bringing about immediate improvements. Our work is practical and "hands on": for example, in order to really get to know a client I simply take a look at the production hall. What lawyer in a large law firm has such opportunities and practical variety? Compared to a large law firm, we do not compromise on the quality or level of our specialised advice. Our clients range from small companies to DAX-listed corporations and our mandates are legally challenging and varied.

The center of my life is East Westphalia, where I run our family farm with my wife and children. As I am very rooted there I (along with colleagues in similar situations) pushed ahead with working from home. Therefore, even before the Corona crisis, I had been working at my home office for some time. At AWB there is no stubborn insistence on the physical location of our work. Of course, there is no question that the work has to be done properly and we have to be there for our clients. However, AWB trusts the integrity of its employees. I think that's consistent because provided we do good work, are approachable to other team members and deliver high-quality advice to our clients, it doesn't matter where we work.

I appreciate working in a friendly and appreciative corporate culture and can definitely say that this has enabled me to develop professionally. I take pleasure in my work every day (besides other more objective considerations), which is of crucial importance to me. The fact that everyone in our team knows each other and that we are well co-ordinated across AWB’s three branches contributes immensely to my job satisfaction. Besides our professional cooperation, AWB has a collegiate atmosphere based on a flat hierarchy, which I appreciate very much.