About us
Kay Höft
Attorney at Law (German bar)
M.A. (Business Administration)
Born in Bremen and raised in Hamburg, Kay Höft studied law with a focus on (foreign) commercial law at the universities of Bayreuth and Münster, completed a specialist foreign language course in legal English and, after several stays abroad, obtained a master's degree in business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Kiel.
After completing his legal clerkship, he worked as an in-house lawyer for several group companies, focusing on German and EU foreign trade law, embargo law, US (re)export control, setting up internal compliance systems in foreign trade law, and as a lecturer for in-house training and representatives in industry associations.
At the Hamburg Academy of Transportation Economics, he was a lecturer for customs and foreign trade.
Kay Höft is a member of the bitkom e.V. working group on export control and customs as well as of the Außenwirtschaftsrunde e.V.
Publications (selection)
Kay Höft is the author of numerous publications on export control and co-author of the Heidelberg Commentary by HOCKE/SACHS/PELZ on foreign trade law from the C. F. Müller Verlag. 2011 Book publication: Linking risk management and compliance in medium-sized group companies, ISBN: 978-3-8428-6349-12015 Essay in operating-consultant positions: Extended Export Control - "Technical Assistance" in Communication Intelligence
2015 Essay in Recht der internationalen Wirtschaft 09/2015: Technical support in Communication Intelligence
2017 Editorial in Recht der internationalen Wirtschaft 03/2017: The Dual-Use Reform 2017 - Legal Certainty comes First
2018 Essay in AW-Prax 11/2018: Export Control Made in China: The Draft of the New Export Control Law of the People's Republic of China in Comparative Legal Review 2018 Essay in AW-Prax 11/2018: Export Control Made in China: The Draft of the New Export Control Law of the People's Republic of China in Comparative Legal Review
2019 Practical Guide to Export and Customs Management, 66th Supplementary Delivery: The Draft of a New PRC Export Control Law, (Introduction, History and Context, Chapter of the ECL Overview, Essential Regulations)
Speaker at ACI’s 10th Advanced Forum on Global Encryption, Cloud & Cyber Export Controls, September 2020
2021 Essay in: Zeitschrift für Chinesisches Recht, Issue 01/2021: An Overview of the New Export Control Law of the PRC.
Horst P. Preßler-Höft
Graduate Financial Economist
Horst P Preßler-Höft has been working as a freelance lecturer and foreign trade consultant in Hamburg for many years. Prior to this, he developed and supervised the international trade and customs practice of various BIG 5 auditing and tax consulting companies on a global level as a senior manager (Arthur Andersen, KPMG).
In the 1980s, he worked as a senior customs inspector and major auditor at the Federal Customs Administration and was then seconded as an EC temporary agent for four years to the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, where he audited the legality and regularity and the sound financial management of the EU budget as external auditor in the EC own resources sector.
From 2003 - 2007 he supported the Cypriot Financial Administration as an EU Accession Advisor for the implementation of the Aquis Communautaire (AC) in the customs sector according to best practice standards of the EU Customs Union and WCO World Customs Organisation.
In 2010 he was appointed by the Bund Deutscher Sachverständiger (BDSF) as an expert and expert witness for customs and foreign trade and since 1995 he is an associated member of the German Society for Quality (DGQ) in his capacity as QM-Manager (Services-TAR) and QM-Fachauditor - DIN EN ISO 900xx family of standards (TAR-Zert01QMP0576-1995) TÜV-Akademie NORD/RHEINLAND. He is also a founding member of the Außenwirtschaftsrunde eV and EFA EU Forum for Foreign Trade, Excise and Customs eV
Publications (selection)
The new EC customs warehousing law, ZfZ 1991, p. 223 ff. 1992 SME Guide for the Internal Market/Customs Chapter, Herausg. Federal Centre for Political Education, Bonn09/2015 "Big Brother is watching you!" Technical article on global U.S. export control, ISSN 1864-8924 - Brennstoffspiegel + Mineralölrundschau, UNITI Media Group, Berlin
03/2016 "The new Union Customs Code (UZK)" Technical contribution on implementation, ISSN 1864-8924 - Brennstoffspiegel + Mineralölrundschau, UNITI Media Group, Berlin