MARAIT is a European law firm and advises on all legal aspects of digitalization, in particular in connection with software projects, software licenses and data transfers in complex infrastructures. We focus in particular on advising on all legal issues relating to the licensing of SAP software and software from other manufacturers of enterprise software, as well as legal issues relating to the development, use and licensing of artificial intelligence. As part of our legal advice, we also cover the digital health sector, which is subject to numerous special regulations.

MARAIT was founded by lawyer and IT law specialist Dr. Jana Jentzsch in 2009, initially as a specialized IT legal consultancy, which was renamed Jentzsch IT Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH in 2015. Since April 2024, the company has been called MARAIT Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH and is based at Neuer Wall in Hamburg’s city center.

We see ourselves as consultants who not only analyze the formal legal requirements and look for the best concrete legal solutions, but also take into account the company’s IT strategy from a compliance perspective and, if desired, help shape it. The intensive involvement of the infrastructure, the respective technical functionality and the economic framework conditions is a matter of course.

As a law firm, we are bound by the law governing the legal profession. This not only imposes strict rules on confidentiality, but also on the performance and support of the mandate as an organ of the administration of justice. Lawyers are instruments of the rule of law by virtue of the qualifications conferred on them by law and help to enforce the rule of law, if necessary by representing clients in court. For this reason, only lawyers and, to a limited extent, tax consultants and auditors are allowed to offer legal advice in Germany. Normal GmbHs or other non-lawyer companies are prohibited from doing so.

Lawyers

Dr. Jana Jentzsch, LL.M.

Jana is a certified lawyer for information technology law (Fachanwältin für Informationstechnologierecht), and an IAPP- certified Information Privacy Professional – Europe (CIPP/E). Her main area of expertise is legal consulting in technology-driven projects, including all software- and data-related matters. Jana’s Clients are large and medium-sized companies that use/buy software, as well as software companies and investor-driven start-ups.

Jana’s main areas of expertise are the following:

  • Comprehensive legal solutions for IT projects (in particular project contracts/software implementations/migration projects, software creation and transfer contracts, cloud services contracts, maintenance contracts, SLAs, ).
  • Comprehensive legal solutions in software law including software copyright law (advice in connection with the procurement & use of software, legal analysis of software inventory and license metrics, support in contract negotiations, execution of technology-related IP/IT due diligences in commercial transactions, advice in connection with software audits).
  • IT Compliance consulting: privacy and IT security law, in particular data rights in connection with the use of new technologies, AI/AI, robotics, machine learning. Advice on compliance issues for IT assets in M&A processes.
  • Advice on the development of digital business models, in particular on structuring options for legally compliant data transfers and data uses, indirect data use.

Other qualifications/activities:

Memberships:

Jana Jentzsch is a member of the Hamburg Bar Association, the German Society of Law and Informatics (DGRI), the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), and a founding member of the DOAG Legal Council (DOAG is the German Oracle User Group).

Languages: German, English, French, Italian

Jana Jentzsch studied law at the Universities of Bonn, Milan (Italy) and Cologne. During her studies, she worked as a freelance journalist for a publishing house in Bonn. After passing the First State Examination, she earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in International Air and Space Law from the University of Leiden (Netherlands). As part of the LL.M. degree, she completed traineeships at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and the European Space Agency in Paris. Jana wrote her doctoral thesis in English at the University of Cologne under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stephan Hobe („Satellite Imagery for Verification and Enforcement of Public International Law“).

During the clerkship for the bar exam, Jana worked in the business and press departments of the German Embassy in Washington D.C. After the Second State Examination in 2005, she was admitted to the Frankfurt bar. Jana worked as an attorney at the international business law firm Lovells (now merged to Hogan Lovells LLP) in Frankfurt in the practice group technology, media, telecommunications (TMT). Subsequently, she moved to Hamburg and worked in the prominent Hamburg media law firm Prinz Neidhardt Engelschall. During this time, Jana represented companies and individuals in high-level media law disputes.

Jana is particularly interested in cases which involve software licensing, software maintenance, software projects and data processing.

2023

“Legally well equipped for the SAP S/4 HANA conversion, CC Competence Center Summit E/3 Salzburg, June 01, 2023

“Cloud software and export control law”, SACS Leipzig, September 13, 2023

“Legally well equipped for the SAP S/4 HANA conversion, USU Workshop at DSAG Bremen, September 18, 2023

2022

“Specific legal challenges of cloud software licensing”, SACS Congress, Frankfurt, September 21, 2022.

2020

“Setting up and implementing software projects successfully” (together with Dr. Daniel Taraz), Software Asset Management Strategies (SAMS), Berlin, March 03, 2020.

“Legal challenges in the migration to SAP S/4 HANA”, Webinar Snow for SAP Forum, July 14, 2020

2019

“Legal challenges in the S/4 HANA migration process”, Snow for SAP Forum, Hamburg, November 20, 2019

“Pitfalls in licensing Oracle via SAP”, DOAG Conference Nuremberg, November 19, 2019

“Oracle Java: What’s new? And is Oracle allowed to do that?”, with Michael Paege, DOAG Conference Nuremberg, November 19, 2019

“Effects of the GDPR on Oracle Cloud offerings”, publication in Red Stack Magazine, April 2019; p. 8-10

2018

“The new SAP licensing policy on digital access – legal considerations”, E-3 Magazine Forum, Heidelberg, September 18, 2018

Author in Intveen/Gennen/Karger “Handbuch des Softwarerechts”, here § 2 Projektvorgehensmethoden, Projektorganisation (with Sascha Kremer) and § 8 “Beraterverträge bei IT-Projekten” (with Dr. Mathias Schneider), Deutscher Anwaltverlag, Bonn, 2018.

2017

“Indirect use of SAP software from a legal perspective”, Snow for SAP Forum, Hamburg, June 16, 2017

2016

“Legal foundations of license optimization”, VOICE, Baden-Baden, 12 October 2016

“Legal Implications of SAP Indirect Usage”, Stockholm, April 2016

2015

“Requirements for legally compliant cloud computing”, Hamburg, April 2015
“Legal foundations of a license audit”, Stuttgart, March 2015
“The scope of application of SAP’s General Terms and Conditions”, Cologne, March 2015
“SAP: Legal principles of measurement and indirect use”, Berlin, February 2015
“Used licenses in the audit”, Berlin, February 2015

2014

“Data protection & data security liability trap”, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, November 2014
“License Optimization from a Legal Perspective”, Stockholm, October 2014
“Legal foundations of a license audit”, Munich, May 2014
“Legal framework for used software after the ECJ ruling of 03.07.2012”, Leverkusen, May 2014
“Current legal issues in dealing with used software”, Berlin, February 2014

2013

“Legal framework for used software after the ECJ ruling of July 3, 2012”, Hamburg and Cologne, November 2013
“Data protection – important topics for management”, Hamburg, September 2013
“Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – Legal aspects”, Hamburg, September 2013

Paul Füssel Legal Counsel IT & Data

Paul Füssel

Legal Counsel IT & Data

Paul studied law at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg from 2012 to 2019.

During his legal clerkship from 2019, Paul worked at the Dessau-Roßlau Regional Court, at the Dessau-Roßlau Public Prosecutor’s Office, at a law firm for civil law, as well as an elective station at the Federal Environment Agency. Since completing his second state law examination in 2021, Mr. Füssel has been a legal assistant.

Following his legal clerkship, Paul worked as corporate counsel at a software and IT service company in Halle, where he carried out legal audits of SAP contracts, among other things. Paul has been with MARAIT since 2022.

As Legal Counsel IT & Data, he advises clients on software licensing law, data protection law and IT compliance in German and English, with a focus on SAP projects. He also advises in the area of AI and is involved in the preparation of legal opinions, statements and legal memoranda.

Languages: German, English

Michelle Bonk

Legal Counsel IT & Data

Michelle Bonk is a bar-admitted attorney and studied law at the University of Bayreuth, specializing in markets in the digital world. She completed her seminar paper on the topic of quality requirements for the storage cloud. In 2017, she obtained the Certificate of Higher Education in English Law at the University of Birmingham.

During her legal clerkship from 2021, Ms. Bonk worked at the Wismar Local Court, the Administrative Court and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Schwerin, at a boutique law firm for media law/competition & intellectual property in Hamburg and at a medium-sized law firm in the field of IT/IP.

Ms. Bonk already worked for us as a working student during her studies and continued to do so during her legal clerkship until she joined the MARAIT team completely after completing her second state examination in 2023.

As a lawyer and Legal Counsel IT & Data, Michelle Bonk advises clients on software licensing law, data protection law and IT compliance in German and English, but in particular on the topic of health data. She also advises in the field of AI/AI and is involved in the preparation of legal opinions, statements and legal memoranda. For example, she wrote an expert opinion on the admissibility of a data processing model for processing patient data for research purposes without consent.

Memberships: Michelle Bonk is also a member of the Hamburg Bar Association, the German Bar Association, and the Young Lawyers Forum.

Languages: German, English

Professional Network

We are a team of highly specialized professionals and concentrate on the best legal and economic solutions for your business. If necessary, we profit from a strong network of lawyers, IT technical experts and business consultants. We work with:

  • Technical tool providers to measure your standard software solutions in the areas of SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM;
  • Management consulting in the area of SAP software license optimization, S/4 HANA conversion and preparation of the measurement;
  • Specialized law firm in the field of intellectual property law, in particular trademark law, with office in Hamburg;
  • Specialized commercial law firm with a focus on: Company acquisitions and sales; medical and healthcare law and restructuring and insolvency advice.
  • Law firm in New York with German and US attorneys, specializing in start-ups, venture capital and corporate law;
  • Technical service provider in the field of telecommunications, networks and security systems with ISO 27001 and BSI basic protection certification;
  • Specialized law firm in the field of IP and IT law in Vienna.