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A firm with a long, eventful history
Since founding the firm in the 1950s, we have consulted with domestic and foreign clients with a focus on medium-sized companies. Our consulting includes all business, tax and corporate law issues of our clients of various legal forms, sizes and industries.
The roots of the law firm go back to the beginning of 1950. This makes this one of the oldest law firms in Munich in the area of auditing and tax. The founder, Auditor/Tax Advisor Dr Max Seifried – worked as a consultant for many breweries, and was known as an expert in the brewery business. With his partners and recognised experts – Auditor/Tax Advisor Dr Max Hagenauer, Friedemann Hertzog, Josef Dippert and Franz Kirchmeier – the law firm grew quickly. From the 1980s, the law firm worked closely with Landestreuhand Weihenstephan, one of the leading consulting firms in the country for the brewing and beverage industries.
The firm expanded significantly in 1987. The tax and audit area of the then Commerzial Treuhand AG under the leadership of Auditor/Tax Advisor Dr Werner Linn was integrated into the “Seifried, Linn and Partner” law firm. Many additional clients came with him, especially family companies in many other industries. At the same time, with the collaboration of Dr Linn, HLB Germany was started as a member in an international auditing/tax network. By connecting with HLB, it was possible for the firm to support international business clients.
In 1991, Dr Seifried decided to find a succession rule for the firm to which he belonged until 2003. As a consequence, a new partnership, “Seifried, Linn, Goppold & Partner GbR” was formed with the partners Auditor/Tax Advisor Gerhard Goppold (1991, formerly manager at Peat Marwick and KPMG), RA/StB Dr Heinz Höfling (1993, former Landestreuhand Weihenstephan) and Auditor/Tax Advisor Detlef Ortseifen (1994, former manager at Peat Marwick, KPMG, Düsseldorf). The firm quickly modernised and continued to develop at its location in Nymphenburg.
Several key decisions followed in 2003. On the one hand, the firm moved to a modern and large office building on the Leopoldstrasse – the former headquarters of DASA, IBM Germany and Glaxo SmithKlin – and there was a restructuring of the partnership. That is when Linn Goppold was created with its current structure.
Further steps in our development were the addition of Auditor/Tax Advisor/RA Dr Amin Wendelstein (former Managing Director at Landestreuhand Weihenstephan) in 2009, the integration of the tax firm of Auditor/Tax Advisor Harry Schierl and StB Christine Schierl (2012) as well as the acquisition of a tax department from Warth & Klein Grant Thornton under the management of StB/vBP Gabriele Becker and Auditor/Tax Advisor Bernhard Fleischmann. These steps led to the acquisition of many well-known larger medium-sized companies from various industries.
Linn Goppold was one of the first auditing firms in 2002 to voluntarily accept (and pass) an external quality control, a peer review, under the new professional laws for auditors.
In addition, since 2016 we are one of the few accounting and tax consulting firms in Germany who has gained certification with IDW PS 951 new version Type 2/ISAE 3402 Type 2 for services in financial accounting (including the IT sourcing provided for clients), payroll accounting, creating annual reports and the creation of tax returns.
In parallel to the development of the firm, the national and international HLB network continued to grow. This network now employs 25,000 staff worldwide in 150 countries.
Over time, the firm has taken quantum leaps to grow its staff, quality and IT technology. In addition to such disruptive changes, the firm has for a long time used a Kaizen system to pursue systematic improvements. This comes from Japanese management teaching, and ensures among other things that all staff are continually tied into the improvement process.
Our law firm has always provided a (human) ear for the concerns of our numerous and diverse clients, and is available to help and advise.
The partnership shares in Linn Goppold are completely in the hands of active partners who bear responsibility for advising our clients along with other managing directors.
