As Senior European Consultant at Bird & Bird, Wolf-Rainer mainly advises in the energy sector. He gained experience while working several decades in this sector. Until his retirement as General Counsel, Senior Vice President of E.ON Ruhrgas AG and member of the E.ON Top Executive Group at the end of 2006, he acted predominantly in the gas industry in diverse sectors both legal and commercial.
At E.ON Ruhrgas AG, Wolf-Rainer supervised energy purchase legal issues including big natural gas import contracts and national and international transport, as well as big international arbitration procedures. From 1989 to 1998, he managed the corporate department of E.ON Ruhrgas AG and gained profound legal and commercial know-how in the M&A sector. In 1992, he took his state examination before the ministry of economics and the “Wirtschaftsprüferkammer” of North Rhine-Westphalia (the state supervised organisation of all Public Accountants and firms of Public Accountants in Germany) as a certified accountant.
From 1980 to 1987, Wolf-Rainer managed the department purchase of liquefied natural gas as well as the department supply of gas from the North Sea in the natural gas purchase department of E.ON Ruhrgas AG.
He was also was intensely engaged as an energy lawyer within the International Bar Association. From 1994 to 1996, he was Chairman of the Section on Energy in Natural Resources Law and acted for several years as a member of the IBA Council and the Nominations Committee. In 2005, he was appointed as an Honorary Life Member of the association.
Wolf-Rainer studied law and political science, as well as Slavonic studies at the Georg-AugustUniversity in Göttingen and earned his doctorate with his dissertation on nuclear liability law at the Institute of Public International Law, International Business Law and Nuclear Energy Law after having completed a work placement at EURATOM in Brussels.
He has been licensed to practise law since 1972 and first worked as a privately practising attorney within a business law firm in Essen.
He speaks English, French, Italian and Russian.
