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Corporate & Commercial

Contracts, structures and governance for businesses that need the paperwork to hold when something goes wrong.

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Mergers & Acquisitions

Buying or selling a business, from the term sheet and due diligence through to completion and the restraints that follow.

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Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Commercial disputes in the NSW, ACT and Federal courts, resolved early where that is possible and run properly where it is not.

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More of what we do

Property

Wills and Estates

Industries we act for

Boettcher Law Momentum

International Service

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Government and Defence

Supplying government and the defence industry.

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Technology and Software

Your product scales digitally. Your contracts have to scale with it.

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Financial Services

A regulated business, on solid legal footing.

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Real Estate and Construction

Retail, Trade and Consumer Goods

Transport, Logistics and Shipping

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Associate

Sydney or Canberra, five years post-admission and up.

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Special Counsel

Sydney or Canberra, typically eight years and up.

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Associate Partner

Sydney or Canberra, a practice you are building.

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Sydney or Canberra, open all year.

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Our people

Boettcher Law Momentum

What we write

All careers
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Articles

Where the law changed, what it now requires, and what a business has to do about it.

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Guides

One question worked through end to end, with the provisions and the decisions it rests on.

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Case notes

What a judgment decided, and what follows from it for anyone in the same position.

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Latest, and longer form

Modern award coverage: what a high salary does not buy

Pathological arbitration clauses in Singapore

Auditor liability in Singapore and Australia

Guide: directors’ duties and the compliance calendar

Guide: shareholder agreements

The whole library
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Germany

A German desk for businesses moving between Australia and the German-speaking market.

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Singapore

Singapore law where it governs the contract, and the arbitral seat that carries much of the region’s work.

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Vietnam

Market entry, supply arrangements and dispute resolution for Vietnam.

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Worth reading first

Vietnam arbitration

Defective arbitration clauses in Singapore

European privacy law for Australian business

Award coverage for German employers

International services
Notarial Services

Documents signed in Australia and relied on overseas.

Notarial acts for documents going abroad, performed by Fabian Hoffmann as notary public in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales, with the apostille or legalisation arranged from the same office. Most of this work is one step in a cross-border matter we are already running.
2007
Practising in Australia since
3
Offices: Sydney, Canberra, Frankfurt
2
Legal systems, one team
1
Principal on every matter
Fountain pen nib signing a handwritten document
How a notarial act runs

Five steps, starting with the recipient

01

What the receiving authority asks for

The foreign bank, registry, court or authority decides what it will accept, so the work starts there: the form of the document, whether it wants an apostille or consular legalisation, and the language. Where the requirement is unclear, ask the recipient in writing before the appointment.
02

Identity, and the original

A notary public verifies the identity of the person signing, in person. A certified copy is made by comparing the copy with the original in front of the notary, so bring the original: a scan cannot be certified, and DFAT will not accept one.
03

The notarial certificate

The act is recorded in a notarial certificate, signed and sealed. Acts done in New South Wales are done under the New South Wales appointment, on the Society of Notaries of New South Wales form set; acts done in the Australian Capital Territory under the separate ACT appointment. The two are not interchangeable.
04

Apostille or legalisation

For a country party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issues an apostille; for other countries DFAT authenticates the document and the receiving country’s consulate then legalises it. Australia does not issue electronic apostilles, so the document is lodged and returned in hard copy. We arrange the lodgement.
05

Where it sits in the matter

Most notarial acts here are part of work already on the file: a power of attorney for a matter in Germany or Austria, company documents for a foreign parent, or documents for an overseas bank or registry. Where the document itself needs advice, that is given before it is signed, not after.
Who does the work

The notary

Fabian Hoffmann, Principal at Boettcher Law

Fabian Hoffmann

Principal · Sydney, Canberra and Frankfurt
Juris Doctor (ANU) and the First State Examination in Law (Bielefeld). Admitted in the ACT, Notary Public, and Vertrauensanwalt for Germany and Austria. Works in German and English.
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Related

The cross-border work it belongs to

GermanyWills and EstatesCorporate and Commercial LawInternational Services

Tell us where the document is going

Send us the document, the country it is going to and what the recipient has asked for. We will tell you what the act involves, whether an apostille or legalisation follows, and what to bring to the appointment.
Send us the details
+61 2 8201 6400

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  • Germany

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