Brownstone Partners

Brownstone Partners stands for Experience. Independence. Reliability. Competence.

Our services focus on independent legal advice to businesses, management and their teams in the context of private equity transactions. We provide support to our clients in negotiations of management equity programs and guide them throughout the entire term of such programs up until exit.

Our other core practice area is traditional M&A legal advisory, including acting as counsel to businesses and entrepreneurs/business owners in corporate and business law-related questions.

Joachim has been named as a leading Private Equity counsel in Handelsblatt’s directory of “Germany’s Best Attorneys” in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

He is also a member of the

Tax & Legal Excellence Network.

Why choose Brownstone Partners?

An invitation to join a management equity program in a private equity-owned business typically represents a significant life-changing opportunity, accompanied by substantial personal capital investment and associated financial risks. The structure and terms of such equity programs are complex and, even for experienced business managers and their regular counsel, in most cases represent an unknown territory. A reading of the contractual documentation alone is not sufficient to optimize a manager’s position in relation to his personal financial return and risk exposure. A high level of expertise and focus is required to decrease information disparity and reach a level playing field in negotiations with private equity funds. Only experience gained over time and an intimate knowledge of the industry and the market (including the private equity funds and their advisors) bring with it the ability to enhance the terms of the management equity programs and to fine-tune them to a manager’s personal circumstances.

We do not seek business from PE Funds and are hence truly independent and free of any commercial conflict when advising management teams.

Years of Experience in PE

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Executed Transactions

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EUR Billion Total Transaction Volume

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Known PE Funds

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In the area of corporate and business-law advisory, we provide legal advice in particular in connection with sale-side M&A, restructurings, succession planning and implementation, joint venture agreements, as well as general corporate law questions and processes.

Joachim Hasselbach is an attorney-at-law (Rechtsanswalt) since 2000 and started his career with one of Bertelsmann AG’s venture capital funds in Gütersloh and Hamburg. Following his Master of Laws (LL.M.) qualification in corporate law at the New York University School of Law in 2003 and admission to practice law in the State of New York, Joachim joined the Private Equity Group at Lovells (today Hogan Lovells). In 2006, he joined Clifford Chance and became Partner in the firm’s Private Equity practice in 2014. At Clifford Chance, Joachim was responsible for the execution of numerous high-profile German and cross-border M&A deals. In 2020, Joachim took the step to become an independent legal counsel in Private Equity, M&A and Corporate Law and founded Brownstone Partners. He was for many years member of the Legal Committee of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. In 2021, the leading German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published his article on the topic of management equity programs. Joachim has been regularly listed in national and international legal directories and has been named as a leading Private Equity counsel in Handelsblatt’s directory of “Germany’s Best Attorneys” (Deutschland’s Beste Anwälte) in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He is also a member of the Tax & Legal Excellence Network.

Selected Transactional Experience in prior functions

Cinven on the acquistion of Synlab from BC Partners
Cinven on the acquistion of CeramTec from Rockwood and sale to BC Partners
Cromwell Europe REIT IPO
3i on the acquistion of Lapenwelt from the founders
Morgan Stanley Infrastructure on the acquistion of a stake in listed VTG AG
EQT on the sale of EEW Energy from Waste to Bejing Enterprises
CeramTec on the acquistion of UK Electro Geschäft from Morgan Advanced Materials
3i / Allianz on the sale of Scandlines to 3i
Permira on the acquistion of Frozen Food from Unilever
SVP on the sale of Vestolit to Mexichem
EQT on the acquistion of Inexio from Warburg Pincus and DBAG
Blackstone on the acquistion of CRH Europe Distribution
Permira on the acquistion of CABB-Gruppe from Bridgepoint
Permira on the acquistion of Jayhawk Fine Chemicals from Evonik
Rockwood in connection with a Joint Venture with Kermira
Bridgepoint on the sale of Aenova to BC Partners
RFR on the acquistion of Frankfurt IBC Campus top GEG
Permira on the sale of Jet Aviation to General Dynamics
Ardian on the acquistion of Agfa Healthcare from Agfa
Cinven V on the sale of Viridium to Cinven VI
3i on the acquistion of GEKA form Halder and sale to Sulzer AG
HgCapital on the sale of Casa Reha to Korian
Permira on the acquistion of Debitel from Swisscom
Nordic Capital on the acquistion of SIC Processing from Cleantec Invest
HgCapital on the acquistion of Schleich Group from the founder.
Chequers Capital on the sale of DTK Deutsche Telekabel to PrimaCom
Investa Holding on the investment of ABRY Partners into the e-shelter Group
Investa / ABRY Partners on the acquistion of e-shelter to NTT
HgCapital on the acquistion of Mondo Minerals from Omya AG
HgCapital on the acquistion of Hofmann Menue and sale to Gilde
EQT on the sale of Sirona Dental to Madison Dearborn

Rechtsanwalt Joachim Hasselbach, LL.M. (NYU)
Attorney-at-Law (New York)
Zum Gipelhof 1
60594 Frankfurt am Main

Termine nur nach Vereinbarung