Omni Bridgeway hires Meissner Bolte counsel for European push

Michael Munsch (41) joined the Cologne office of legal finance and risk management firm Omni Bridgeway on 1 October 2022, in the role of investment manager and senior legal counsel. Omni Bridgeway now has a dedicated patent specialist in Europe, whose aim is to indentify which IP- or patent-oriented litigation cases will be the most valuable. From the Cologne office, Munsch will work closely with its five IP specialists in the US

Prior to his new position, Munsch most recently worked as a counsel across the Munich and Düsseldorf offices of leading mixed patent firm Meissner Bolte.

Bringing SEP experience

Michael Munsch

He began his career at the international law firm CMS Hasche Sigle. He later moved to Cologne law firm, LLR Legerlotz Laschet. In early 2015, Munsch joined EIP in Düsseldorf, where he initially worked in a team with Benjamin Grzimek.

When Grzimek joined Fieldfisher in summer 2017, Munsch took over the helm of EIP’s Düsseldorf office, later handing over to Christof Höhne following Taylor Wessing’s hire of the latter.

Munsch is especially experienced in litigation around standard essential patents. During his stint at EIP, prior to joining Meissner Bolte, Michael Munsch was part of the team representing Unwired Planet and Conversant in cases against Huawei. Munsch also advised PanOptis in a case against ZTE.

In 2020, he left the partnership at EIP to join Meissner Bolte in a counsel position, helping to build up the practice around Tobias Wuttke. Upon joining Meissner Bolte as a counsel, Munsch became one of the traditional patent attorney firm’s first litigators. To offer young lawyers career prospects, the mixed firm introduced a new ‘counsel’ status, with three litigators benefitting from the change.

Recently, the firm expanded its Düsseldorf office, which has a strong focus on litigation. Meissner Bolte brought in lawyer Marina Wehler, who joined the firm in October from Arnold Ruess. Meissner Bolte now has eleven lawyers working in patent litigation, as well as 71 patent attorneys.

Back to in-house

However, his move to Omni Bridegway is not Munsch’s first stint in-house. Between 2011 and 2014, he worked for three years as legal counsel intellectual property for Nestlé Deutschland, moving to a position as legal counsel at ThyssenKrupp Elevator for a short time after.

On returning to an in-house role, Michael Munsch says, “During my career as a litigator, I have worked on big and small cases involving every kind of technology. These are a great foundation for work at Omni Bridgeway. I have seen first-hand how to develop a successful client strategy, as well as strong assessment of issues such as costs. I am looking forward to steering IP cases for Omni Bridgeway’s clients across jurisdictions in Europe, as well as before the UPC.”

Omni Bridgeway expands IP

Omni Bridgeway, founded in 1986, is a global commercial litigation funder which is publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The company provides legal finance and risk management and, as part of its client offering, is expanding its expertise in intellectual property.

Through the hire of Munsch, Omni Bridgeway now has a dedicated patent specialist in Europe whose aim is to identify solutions for litigation cases. From the Cologne office, Munsch will work closely with the company’s five IP specialists in the US.

Raymond van Hulst is executive director, managing director and chief information officer for EMEA for Omni Bridgeway. He says, “In collaboration with our US-based IP litigation funding team, Michael Munsch further strengthens our ability to support our global client base, and specifically those in Germany and EMEA, seeking dispute funding and specialist recovery solutions for patent and other intellectual property disputes.”