Prof Dr Matthias Wendland studied Law at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Massachusetts, USA). He obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School and worked as a court mediator at the Quincy District Court (also in Massachusetts).

After working in an international commercial law firm, he received his doctorate in 2015 from the School of Law at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich with a thesis on the relationship between mediation and civil procedure. Wendland's dissertation was honoured with the Faculty Prize of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich's School of Law and the Munich Law Society's Doctoral Prize.

In 2016, Wendland habilitated at the University of Munich with a thesis on the relationship between contractual freedom and contractual fairness and their significance for the review of the content of general terms and conditions in business transactions. In addition to civil law, civil procedure law and private international law, his venia legendi also includes the basic subjects of comparative law, philosophy of law and sociology of law. This rare combination enables him to address current debates in the context of digitalisation law, such as the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and the impact of digital technologies on law, business and society (science and technology studies).

Wendland's research focus is on commercial law, civil procedural law and IT law. He is primarily concerned with the question of how the law can react flexibly to the challenges of digital transformation through innovative regulatory instruments, for example in data protection or medical law, IT security and the use of algorithmic systems. Artificial intelligence law is a particular research focus. Here, Wendland is working with international cooperation partners on the development of a 360-degree certification procedure for AI systems. The focus here is on the question of how the automation of administrative and corporate decisions, the use of low-threshold AI technologies such as the chatbot "Chat-GPT" or the use of AI-based decision support systems can be organised in a legally compliant and secure manner.