Prof. Dr. Anke Reich, LL.M., has been Professor of Private Commercial Law and Digitalization Law at Mainz University of Applied Sciences since the beginning of February 2025. Prior to this, she worked for almost 15 years as a lawyer and certified specialized lawyer (Fachanwalt) in intellectual property law and as a mediator (CVM) specializing in commercial mediation.
This puts her in a position to provide students with valuable insights into legal practices and optimally prepare them for their future career activities at a company or organization. She will also be able to contribute her professional expertise and practical experience to research at the university.
One area she would like to focus on in her new role at Mainz University of Applied Sciences is digitalization and, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI). This technological advance is influencing all areas of life and causing profound changes in companies, organizations, and society as a whole. Prof. Reich takes a particular interest in legal issues in this area, especially with regard to data protection law, copyright law, industrial property rights, and labor law. She will also address particularly important aspects such as the conscious and critical use of AI and discuss ethical, economic, and ecological implications. In this way, she will make a valuable contribution to teaching and research in this pioneering field of the future.
In addition to her position as professor in Mainz, she will continue to work as a research fellow at vunk (Institute for Consumer Research and Sustainable Consumption at Pforzheim University) and as a lecturer at the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Kleve. Prof. Reich has a wide network of contacts and is a member of the German Association for Intellectual Property Law (GRUR), the global network for intellectual property (IP-COSTER.com), the Business and Professional Woman eClub (BPW eClub), and the Association of Teachers at Universities of Applied Sciences (hlb).
Anke Reich completed her law degree at the University of Bayreuth and her legal clerkship in Würzburg. After working in law firms in London and the Channel Islands, she completed her master’s degree in International Business Law at the University of Rostock and her doctorate at the University of Erfurt. She then worked for several years at a large, international commercial law firm in Hamburg and Düsseldorf, where she specialized in intellectual property law, copyright law, media law, and data protection law. After being awarded the title of Fachanwalt (certified specialized lawyer) in intellectual property law, she founded her own law firm in Essen.
