HANEFELD announces Partner Promotion
HANEFELD is pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Johanna Büstgens to Partner, effective 1 October 2026.
Johanna, a German national based in HANEFELD’s Hamburg office, has ten years of experience in international arbitration, litigation, and alternative dispute resolution across various practice areas, including energy and renewables, construction and engineering, and commercial and trade law.
She first joined HANEFELD as a legal trainee in 2015 before returning as an associate in 2016 and being promoted to counsel in 2023. Earlier in her career, she studied law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, with a focus on international commercial law, and at Oxford University (Brasenose College). She was a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley in 2012 and served as a research and teaching assistant at Bucerius Law School from 2011 to 2013, where she also obtained her doctorate in law (Dr. iur.). She completed her legal traineeship at the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, during which she gained experience at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, the German Parliament and
the ICC International Court of Arbitration. She also interned at WilmerHale’s international arbitration group in London.
Johanna actively shapes the German arbitration landscape through various leadership roles. She serves as a Board Member of the Hamburg Arbitration Circle (HAC), co-organises the CAMCCBC Hamburg Pre-Moot and the Hamburg International Arbitration Days, and was a Cochair of DIS40 on federal level from 2020 to 2023.
As arbitrator, she has sat as sole arbitrator, chair and co-arbitrator in cases administered under the rules of the ICC, DIS, DIA, VIAC, GMAA and the Court of Arbitration of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, as well as in ad hoc proceedings.
Inka Hanefeld, founding partner of HANEFELD, says: “I am delighted to welcome Johanna as a new partner. As I could witness in the past 10 years: She is like a gemstone designed to shine. Johanna will excell as counsel, arbitrator and leader.”
Jan Heiner Nedden, the firm’s Managing Partner, adds: “Johanna has been outstanding from day one. Her very own calm way of simply getting things done, her considerate and modest but determined approach to everything that she does and her extraordinarily sharp mind make her a role model in many ways. I cannot wait to see her excell also in her new role.”
HANEFELD, Germany’s first dedicated dispute resolution boutique, was founded in Hamburg in 2011 and expanded to Paris in 2020. Johanna’s promotion to Partner reflects the firm’s ongoing momentum and steady growth reinforcing its reputation for high end internationaldispute resolution services.