Our Team

Dr. Christian Schmaus

has been a self-employed lawyer in Vienna since passing the bar exam with distinction in 2012. He has also been a lecturer at the Institute for Constitutional and Administrative Law (Institut für Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht) at the University of Vienna since 2017 and teaches there as part of the Refugee Law Clinic.

He is part of the board of the NGO Integrationshaus and is a regular lecturer in the areas of asylum and immigration, for example for Asylkoordination Österreich, the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, the Austrian Integration Fund (Österreichischer Integrationsfonds) and the Vienna Social Fund (Fonds Soziales Wien).

He is co-author of the guidebook Fremdenrecht: Asyl – Ausländerbeschäftigung – Einbürgerung – Einwanderung – Verwaltungsverfahren, which was published in its 8th edition in 2023.

Mag.a Ariane Olschak

has been an associate at the Schmaus law firm since 2021. She previously worked as a lawyer at Menschen.Würde.Österreich in the field of public relations for asylum and integration.

As a lawyer and legal advisor, she worked for various NGOs, such as the Diakonie Refugee Service as part of the ARGE legal counselling service, the Tracing Service of the Austrian Red Cross in the family reunification department and as head of the legal department at Asyl in Not.

In 2019, she co-founded the association frida - Beratung in Asyl- und Fremdenrecht and has been a board member ever since. She regularly gives lectures and workshops in the areas of asylum and immigration law (e.g. for BBU GmbH, Integrationshaus, Volkshilfe and other NGOs).

Mag.a Clara Zimmermann

has been an associate at the Schmaus law firm since 2023. Previously, she worked as a research assistant and organisational head of the project “Clean Mediterranean Sea!” at the Vienna Forum for Democracy and Human Rights.

In the past, she has worked in various NGOs (such as Amnesty International, Verein Ute Bock, Caritas) in the field of fundamental and human rights. In 2021, she co-founded the Civil Action Network association, which works to strengthen civil society, and served as its chairwoman for two years.

Michaela Fischer-Langer

has been responsible for the organisational management of the law firm since 2014. Among other things, she is responsible for appointment coordination, file and deadline management, mail management, enforcement proceedings and general office management.

Isabel Mikolasch

has been a member of the firm's organisational team since 2020, alongside her law studies at the University of Vienna.