Udo Kornmeier, born in Düsseldorf, studied law at the University of Cologne. After obtaining his doctorate from the Faculty for International Business Law at the Ruhr University of Bochum, he worked as a lawyer at Baker & McKenzie in Chicago and Frankfurt from 1980 to 1983, and until 1984 in Munich. In 1985 he moved to the music industry and was Director Business Affairs at Sony Entertainment until 1990, and was also Managing Director of Sony Music Publishing from 1988 to 1990. During this time he was a member of the Legal Committee at the Federal German Music Industry Association (Bundesverband der deutschen Tonträgerindustrie). He has since 1991 been a self-employed lawyer and partner of the specialist copyright and media law firm Kornmeier & Partner, which merged with Schalast in October 2016.