BATLINER WANGER BATLINER Rechtsanwälte AG

The firm: The firm has grown continuously since its inception in 2002, and now has a sizeable team (including eight partners) covering wide-ranging contentious and non-contentious matters. We pride ourselves on our combination of specialist expertise and interdisciplinary capability, enabling us to meet our clients’ needs in a flexible, dynamic and efficient manner.

We act for clients ranging from domestic and international companies and financial institutions to government bodies, trust companies and private individuals, and we regularly work in collaboration with leading international law firms (including coordinating transnational proceedings).

Although we handle mandates with cross-border connections and major economic implications on a regular basis, we attach the greatest importance to looking after our local clients and consider ourselves to be firmly rooted in Liechtenstein. Our clients appreciate our strong ties with Liechtenstein, which are reflected by our longstanding relations with decision-makers and public authorities. Many of our employees have held, and continue to hold, significant positions in public institutions.

Practice areas
Dispute resolution / litigation and arbitration: We act in judicial and extra-judicial disputes of all kinds. Our work on the civil side includes mainstream corporate and contractual disputes, representing domestic and international companies, and banks, insurers and other financial institutions. Our contentious practice also includes white-collar crime cases and international legal assistance; and disputes in areas such as insolvency, employment, foundations and trusts, EEA/EU law, constitutional law, tax, inheritance law, and IP/data privacy.

We have many years’ experience acting in all areas of arbitration, including representation in arbitration proceedings, and representation in domestic judicial proceedings for the purpose of legal assistance to a court of arbitration. Members of our team also sit as arbitrators in arbitration proceedings.

Corporate, capital markets and finance: We handle high-end national and international M&A and other corporate transactions, and are active in matters of corporate governance, general commercial matters and a host of other non-contentious areas (such as real estate and data protection). On the capital markets side, we are experienced in all matters of financial regulation and have longstanding experience in working closely with the authorities on demanding projects. Our finance practice covers wide-ranging financing transactions, regulatory and funds, restructuring, and FinTech (including advice in the area of Blockchain and DLT).

Criminal: We act for various defendants in relation to criminal charges of all kinds (including white-collar crime and administrative criminal law).

Execution & bankruptcy: We have a longstanding appointment (since 2016) as the official receiver and liquidator of an internationally operating insurance company with thousands of policyholders.

 Investment funds: We advise various international investment funds. This includes the new formation of investment funds, their restructuring, the distribution of fund units, regulatory issues of any kind, and representation vis-à-vis the FMA and other authorities.

FinTech and distributed ledger technology: This area includes advice in connection with electronic currencies, digital payment systems, distributed ledger technologies (in particular blockchain and directed acyclic graph or tangle), e-money and fundraising via Initial Coin Offerings (Token Generating Events). We also advise and represent clients in regulatory approval procedures before the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Private clients: We offer comprehensive advice to our clients in all matters concerning their private and business assets. Our work focuses on estate planning and asset succession, in particular the succession planning of companies as well as asset structuring coupled with the associated tax planning. We are experienced in the area of asset protection, and also act as a family office for selected clients.

Public law: We are active in all areas of general and special administrative law in which private individuals and companies appear against the state or public authorities, and also act for municipalities and the state on statutory administrative matters.