Heuking strengthens management level of service units and expands legal operation divisions – Juliane Diefenbach joins as Director of Knowledge Management – Rahel Skau promoted to Director of Legal Tech & Digitalization

Juliane Diefenbach started as Director of Knowledge Management effective May 1, 2022. She joined the firm from Dentons, where she had built the Knowledge Management division since 2017, and most recently served as Europe Director of Knowledge. Previously, she had worked at Morrison & Foerster in Business Development and at Hogan Lovells in Knowledge Management. After completing her legal training in Berlin and Cape Town, Juliane Diefenbach had initially practiced as a lawyer in IP and media law. She has extensive experience in developing Knowledge Management and will further grow this area at Heuking.
 
Effective April 1, 2022, Rahel Skau was appointed Director of Legal Tech & Digitalization at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek. When the German-Canadian dual national joined the firm as Head of Legal Tech & Digitalization in 2020, Heuking brought together the firm’s innovation projects at the interface between legal services and business processes in a newly created unit to advance its digitalization strategy overall. With the WhistleFox whistleblower system, the firm's first in-house development, Rahel Skau has brought an innovative legal tech product to market in a short time together with the multi-award-winning compliance experts and her interdisciplinary team.

“Excellent legal expertise is a key resource, and digital fitness acts as a central competitive factor for all market players. Reinforcing our organizational structure takes into account the importance of the two closely associated areas of Knowledge Management and Legal Tech. We aim to expand Legal Operations in our firm in a concerted, market-oriented manner that generates specific added value for our existing and future clients,” said Dr. Johan Schneider, Managing Partner at Heuking and responsible for both areas in management.

The topic of knowledge management is not new at Heuking. It now shall be further boosted, set up more centrally and built strategically to meet market developments even better and faster, and to implement innovative knowledge initiatives.

“I am very pleased to support Heuking as one of the most renowned German law firms in further growing Knowledge Management, as it is of key importance for the challenges law firms are facing in digitalization. Standardizing and automating knowledge and processes allow for higher-quality and more efficient advice to clients. The further expansion and strengthening of Knowledge Management at Heuking demonstrates the strategic importance that the firm attaches to these exciting tasks,” Juliane Diefenbach said about joining the firm. 

In addition to Finance & Controlling, IT, HR, and Communications & Marketing, the Knowledge Management and Legal Tech units are now also headed by a Director.