Awards
- Values Award 2022 given by Women in the Legal World, Madrid
- Maria-Otto-Award 2022 given by the German Bar Association (DAV), Berlin
- Honorary Bencher (Honorary Member of the Board) of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, London, since 2022
Margarete was born in Cologne.
Margarete qualified as a lawyer in 1983 and is practicing as a specialist lawyer for criminal law since 1998. She earned her PhD in 2004 at the Humbold University Berlin.
She has been member of different committees:
• Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on European Criminal Policy from 2012 to 2021
• Member and European representative of the Criminal Law Committee (German Bar Association (DAV)) from 2008 to 2020
• Member of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Compliance Committee (DAV) from 2015 to 2024
• Since 2012 member and since 2024 Chair of the European Law Committee (German Federal Bar)
She has written statements on legislative proposals regarding German and European Law and takes part as an expert in hearings of the German Parliament, the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Since 2021, she is member of the Supervisory Board of European Lawyers in Lesvos gGmbH, which provides free legal aid for refugees and asylum seekers in Greece and Poland.
She was Constitutional Court Judge, State of Berlin (Richterin am Verfassungsgerichtshof des Landes Berlin) from 2014 to 2023.
She acted as Vice-President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) from 2018 to 2020 and was President of the CCBE in 2021.
She was on the executive committee of the Berlin Bar Association from 1999 to 2011 and President from 2004 to 2009.
From 2000 to 2004 she was the managing director of the Office of Associations of Defence Lawyers in Germany.
2012 to 2016 she represented the Berlin Bar Association at the judicial selection committee of the State of Berlin.
Publications:
She is co-editor of New Journal of Criminal Law (NStZ) and on the advisory board of the Journal of Economic Criminal Law and Liability in the company (ZWH). She is co-author of commentary “On Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters” (2020 Nomos), editing Sections of “Other types of mutual assistance” and the Regulation on the Establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. In the commentary “Commercial Criminal Law and Criminal Tax Law” (2022 Nomos), she is commenting on §§ 30 ff, 130 OWiG (Act on Regulatory Offences) together with Kilian Schaefer.
She is the editor and co-author of the commentary “ProstSchG – Prostituiertenschutzgesetz” (Law on the protection of prostitutes) (2024 Nomos).
Additionally, she has published essays and decision notes in the field of criminal substantial and procedural law, law governing the deontology for lawyers and issues of the Rule of Law, as well as having lecturing activities in these fields of law.
Memberships:
Association of Berlin Criminal Defence Lawyers, German Bar Association (DAV), Republican Lawyers Association (RAV), European Criminal Bar Association (ECBA)