As professor by special appointment of German-Dutch Legal Relationships, Axel Hagedorn will focus on comparative law research and aspects of legal culture. He aims to foster greater mutual affinity for the two countries' respective legal cultural principles and views, thus creating added value for the academic world, business sector and political networks. 

Hagedorn studied Law at the University of Göttingen, where he earned his PhD with a study on the private-law consequences of the Baulast, a form of public easement. Before emigrating to the Netherlands in 1994, Hagedorn worked for several years as a Rechtsanwalt in Hamburg, Germany. In addition to his legal studies, Hagedorn also studied Culture, Organisation and Management at VU University Amsterdam. In 1997 he began working for the Van Diepen Van der Kroef law firm, where he has been a partner and head of the international department since 2000. Hagedorn is sworn as a German Rechtsanwalt and Dutch lawyer. He specialises in international company law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions. Hagedorn regularly publishes and gives lectures on a broad range of subjects in the area of German-Dutch legal transactions.

Hagedorn has served as a board member at the UvA-affiliated Amsterdam Institute for German Studies since 2012. Besides being the chairman of the German-Dutch Lawyers' Association since 2004, Hagedorn also serves as a member of the Business Law Specialist Committee and mediator at the Dutch-German Chamber of Commerce.