Shearman Out, Cleary In on Deutsche Bank’s Integrity Committee

It was a friendship cemented after the fall of communism: Deutsche Bank AG’s supervisory board chairman Paul Achleitner and Shearman & Sterling’s Georg Thoma worked together to help privatize East Germany’s chemicals industry.

“Achleitner’s wife, Ann-Kristin, gave a speech in 2005 congratulating Thoma on his award of an honorary doctorate by the European Business School in Reichartshausen, Germany,” Bloomberg reported.

[caption id="attachment_14094" align="alignleft” width="229"][Image “Georg_F_Thoma” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Georg_F_Thoma.jpg)]Thoma (Deutsche Bank)[/caption]

But this close relationship appears threatened by a business dispute: In 2013, Achleitner tapped Thoma to lead an integrity committee at Deutsche Bank tasked with analysing and managing the bank’s legal risks, including ...