Kai Flatau joined the firm in October 2011 and is Of-Counsel in Bird & Bird’s Hamburg office. He is a member of the IP practice group and specialises in media law. His expertise lies in the possibility of the combination of law and practice, so he knows regulatory framework plus actual conceptual and technical implementations of developments in television broadcasting.

Kai has been working as a lawyer since 1983 and practised family law until 1988. After two and a half years as chief executive at the association of medium-sized companies in the mineral oil industry (European environmental and transport law and lobbying) he joined Premiere Medien GmbH & Co. KG from 1990 to 1999. He built up and subsequently led the legal department and in 1996 was appointed as Head of Legal and Business Affairs and as a company director.

From 2000 to 2001 Kai worked as a lawyer and advisor in the media sector (including Kirch group and Premiere). He then worked until the end of 2002 for SPORTFIVE GmbH where he set up the legal department, first as a self-employed attorney, later as Senior Vice President Legal Affairs and as a company director. From 2002 to 2004 he worked for ish KS NRW GmbH & Co. KG (now Unitymedia GmbH) as legal advisor and a company director.

Since 2004 Kai has been working as a self-employed lawyer and advisor for several companies in the telecommunications industry whom he advises on the development and implementation of new digital media products. This has included the development of an encoding and marketing platform and advising a media company on the introduction of its own programme platform. Kai also advises on the marketing of sports rights and is managing director of PROdigital TV, Interessengemeinschaft digitale Medien e.V. (group representing the interests of private broadcasters and a partner of Amtes Medien in der Senatskanzlei der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg) and director of newtv working group Hamburg (public/private partnership with the department of Culture, Sports and Media).

Before joining Bird & Bird Kai worked as Of-Counsel for Hogan Lovells.