Dr. Axel Spies, a German lawyer, advises domestic and international clients on various international issues, including licensing, competition, corporate issues and new technologies such as Cloud Computing in the European markets. He advises on international data protection, international data transfers, data privacy, technology licensing and equity purchases. He is a member of the Sedona Conference on Electronic Discovery with a focus on German and international data protection. He is frequently quoted in the media for his telecommunications knowledge. Axel serves as the Washington correspondent and co-editor of the European Telecoms Journal MultiMedia und Recht (MMR) and of the German Journal of Data Protection (ZD).

In addition to his telecommunications and international litigation work, Axel provides assistance to manufacturing companies and industry associations on matters before U.S. federal agencies and on emissions trading in Europe.

Prior to joining the firm, Axel worked in telecommunications in Germany, Russia and France for a German utility. He has also practiced law in Russia and was a lawyer for the German Embassy in India. He has participated in various international transactions, including projects in Germany, France, Russia, the Netherlands and Poland.

He is a native speaker of German and also speaks English, French, Russian and Italian. Dr. Spies recently authored various chapters on e-discovery, cloud computing and international data transfers for a German treatise (2 volumes) on data protection (“Betrieblicher Datenschutz” and “Konzerndatenschutz”), published by C.H. Beck.