Biography: Business Crime Defence

Gerhard Strate heads the law firm Strate & Ventzke, which has existed in this form since 1985 after he had previously (since 1979) run a lawyer's office alone. The law firm concentrated at an early stage on counselling and representation in criminal law briefs, especially in the field of appeal law. In addition to this, the law firm also focuses on dealing with petitions to the Constitutional Court proceeding from the most varied legal fields. Gerhard Strate was and still is counsel in a lot of high-profile cases in Germany. He defended Monika Weimar in a famous retrial against the charge of having murdered her two daughters – a case which divided the nation in two. He represented Björn Engholm, in the beginning of the Nineties, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party for the chancellorship in Germany, against the charge of perjury. He is the defence counsel of Alexander Falk, the former CEO of ISION, against the charge of fraud in a three-year trial – one of the longest-lasting trials in German history.

Gerhard Strate actively participates in topical discussions on legal matters and legal policy. He continues to contribute a considerable number of published articles and lectures. His ethos has always been to defend the guarantees of liberty provided by the German constitution against their being insidiously whittled away by the opportunism of everyday politics – both on the side of justice and on that of legislators.

Gerhard Strate is a member of the advisory board of the periodical Strafverteidiger, in addition to being co-publisher and managing editor of the periodical Informationsbrief Ausländerrecht, and also the editor of the internet publication, hrr-strafrecht.de. In addition, he was a member of the committee on criminal law of the Association of German Lawyers from 1987 to 2001, and since 1989 he has been on the board of the Hanseatic Bar Association, of which he was vice president from 1999 to 2002. On 20 November 2003, the degree of Doctor iuris honoris causa was conferred on him by the Faculty of Law of the University of Rostock. In the certificate presented to him by the Rector of the University it states that: "By this his academic attainments in criminal law and procedure, in particular the close linking of his academic activity and his work as criminal defence counsel, as well as his didactic commitment are being acknowledged, by means of which he imparts his knowledge and his experience in practice in his teaching." Since 2007 he has been an appointed member of the constitutional committee of the German Bar Association.