Getting to the bottom of things and developing them further with passion in an interdisciplinary team creates universal added value.

Uwe M. Erling

Partner

Uwe M. Erling is a proven expert in public law, in particular administrative and environmental law. His practice focuses on environmental compliance advice for national and international companies and includes Environment Social Governance (ESG) as well as  Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) and supply chain regulation. He also specializes in climate change and CO2 emissions trading law and has been working in that area as an expert from the very beginning. He regularly advises and represents energy, industrial, chemical, commercial and aviation companies in regulatory and court proceedings as well complex environmental remediation proceedings or accompanies corporate transactions from an environmental law perspective. He also advises and represents the aviation industry on regulatory issues and disputes under national, European and international aviation law.

Uwe M. Erling’s practice is nationally and internationally recognized. He was elected by peers “Lawyer of the Year” in Best Lawyers/Handelsblatt in the category of environmental law (2023) and energy law (2023). He is TOP Lawyer 2023 for Environmental Law in the WirtschaftsWoche ranking. He is also recommended by Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.

Languages: German and English

CV

  • Legal studies at the University of Passau and at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer
  • 2001 LL.M. in Energy & Environment from Tulane Law School (USA)
  • 2001 Admission to the bar
  • 2001-2019 Lawyer and Associated Partner at Noerr LLP
  • Since 2010 teaching position in the MBA course Aviation Management at the Danube University Krems
  • Nominated as arbitrator in the Leiden Sarin International Air Law Moot Court
  • Since 2020 Partner at Pohlmann & Company
  • Since 2023 Advisory Board in the Vereinigung Wasserkraftwerke in Bayern e.V. (VWB)
Memberships
  • Associate Member of the American Bar Association (ABA) – Section of Environment, Energy & Natural Resources; Forum on Air & Space Law
  • Society for Environmental Law
  • European Air Law Association (EALA)
  • German-American Lawyers’ Association (DAJV)
  • Founding member “Environmental Symposium
  • Alumni Association German National Academic Foundation
  • Steering Committee Cambridge Forum on International ESG
Publications

Articles

  • „Umwelt-Compliance“ in, Koch/Hofman/Reese (Hrsg.): Handbuch Umweltrecht, 6. Auflage 2024, S. 1525-1584 (together with Dr. Tim Uschkereit)
  • Ongoing selection and discussion of court decisions in the Zeitschrift für materielles und prozessuales Klimaschutzrecht (KlimaRZ) and the Fachzeitschrift für Nachhaltigkeit und Recht (ESGZ)
  • Klimaklagen gegen BMW und Mercedes auch in der zweiten Instanz gescheitert, in ESGZ 2024, 14-17
  • Ist das Label Klimaneutral tot? PR Magazin 2023/12 and 2024/1 (together with Dr. Martin Schorn)
  • Rechtsprechung zum Klimaschutzrecht – Status quo und quo vadis?, in KlimaRZ 2023, S. 136-140
  • Klimaschutz als Geschäftsrisiko – Vermeidung und Abwehr, KlimaRZ 2022, 135 (together with mit Tim Uschkereit, Anke C. Sessler, Max D. Stein)
  • Germany: Environment and Climate Change Regulation, in: Mondaq Comparative Guide 2021 (together with Tim Uschkereit)
  • Germany chapter: Environment & Climate Change Law 2019, in: International Comparative Law Guide (ICLG) (together with Tim Uschkereit)
  • How to reconcile the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for Aviation with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)?, in: Air & Space Law 2018, 371ff.
  • International Aviation Emissions under International Civil Aviation Organization’s Global Market Based Measure: Ready for Offsetting?, in: Air & Space Law 2017, S. 1 ff.
  • “Possible legal arrangements to implement a global market based measure for international aviation emissions”, Study for the Directorate General Climate Action of the EU Commission, December 2015 (together with Professor Pablo Mendes de Leon (University of Leiden) et al.)
  • Umweltbundesamt (Hrsg.): Implikationen der Marktregulierung im Kohlenstoffmarkt, Climate Change 4/2016 (together with Dominik Glock et. al)
  • The German Air Transport Tax: A Treaty Override of International Law, in 10 FIU Law Review, S. 467 (2015)
  • Anmerkung zum Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts vom 5.11.2014 (Az. 1 BvF 3/11) zur Verfassungsmäßigkeit des Luftverkehrsteuergesetzes, ZLW 2015, S. 526-531 (with Tim Uschkereit)
  • Kommentierung der Fallgruppe: Emissionshandel, in: Birnstiel, Bungenberg, Heinrich (Hrsg.), Europäisches Beihilfenrecht, Nomos Kommentar, 2013, S. 329 ff.
  • Introductory Note to Air Transport Association of America v. Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, Court of Justice 21 December 2011, in: International Legal Materials, Vol. 51, 3/2012, S. 535
  • Pumpspeicherkraftwerke im Energiemix der Zukunft (mit Dr. Peter Bachmann), in: Energiewirtschaftliche Tagesfragen (et) 2012, S. 97 ff.
  • Elektromobilität – Strom tanken inklusive (with Christian Alexander Mayer) , in: BHB-Info 1/2011, S. 26 f.
  • Carbon Compliance, in: Corporate Compliance Zeitschrift CCZ, 5/2010, S. 188 ff.
  • Emissionshandel im Luftverkehr – almost ready for Takeoff, in: Dow Jones TradeNews Emissions, 3.9.2010, S. 10 ff.
  • Besprechung Hobe/Boewe/Geisler (Hrsg.), Luftverkehr und Klimawandel, Brennpunkt Luft- und Weltraumrecht, 2009, in: Zeitschrift für Luft- und Weltraumrecht (ZLW), 1/2010, S. 130 ff.
  • Der EU-Emissionshandel im Luftverkehr, Zeitschrift für Luft- und Weltraumrecht (ZLW), 3/2009, S. 338 ff.
  • Implementation of the European Environmental Liability Directive into German Law, in: New York State Bar Association CLE, Complying with environmental laws in Europe, June 2009

Blog Posts

Selected mandates
  • Advising a leading international data center operator on environmental, health and safety (EHS) compliance of German sites
  • Advising an international leading oil and gas exploration company on generating emission reduction units under the German Upstream Emission Reduction Ordinance (Upstream-Emissionsminderungsverordnung) and trade agreements including biofuel-quota treaties
  • Advising a trading company on human rights and environmental compliance under the German Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz)
  • Advising a stock listed corporation in a state aid dispute concerning the CO2 electricity price compensation (CO2-Strompreiskomensation) in a court proceeding, including Court of Justice of the European Union
  • Advising of a hydroelectric power operator in an dispute regarding the conversion/construction of a historic river weir
  • Representation of a US based company in the complex environmental remediation proceeding of a contaminated former production site
  • Representation of a leading gas manufacturer in an CO2 allocation court dispute of concerning 300,000 emission certificates
  • Successful representation of an operator of an truck engine test bench from being covered under the EU ETS
  • Study for the EU Commission/DG CLIMA on the legally binding implementation of climate protection for emissions from international aviation at ICAO level (together with Pablo Mendes de Leon, Institute of Air & Space Law/University Leiden/NL)
  • Representation of Airlines for America (A4A) and US-Airways, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in an internationally observed test case against the German air traffic tax
  • Representation of a recycling company in the cross-border export of waste