Josef Bergt

Practice Areas

Dr. Josef Bergt is a Liechtenstein-qualified attorney and Managing Partner at Bergt Law (Vaduz) whose practice is centred on corporate and commercial law and transactions, particularly where corporate execution must be aligned with banking and financial market regulation and, increasingly, with technology-driven operating models. In this perimeter, he advises on corporate structuring and governance, corporate compliance and board matters, cross-border reorganisations, M&A and strategic transactions, as well as venture and growth financings, while also covering regulatory strategy, licensing/registration pathways and authority-facing proceedings that determine feasibility and time-to-market for regulated or regulation-adjacent business models. Complementing this, he provides integrated advice on intellectual property, IT/data governance and data protection, and supports clients in regulatory and supervisory proceedings and related dispute contexts where documentation, governance design and procedural discipline are outcome-determinative.

Career

2025–present: Registered in the EU/EFTA list of lawyers, Bar Association of the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland).

2024–present: Liechtenstein Notary.

2022–present: Founder and Managing Partner, Law Firm Bergt & Partners Ltd. (Bergt Law), Vaduz.

2021–2022: Founder and Name Partner, Bergt | Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Bergt (predecessor practice).

2021–present: Executive Board Member, GST Network AG | GST Network Ltd.

2018–2020: Senior Associate (trainee lawyer; substitution-authorised), NÄGELE Attorneys at Law LLC, Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

2018–2020: Data Protection Officer, NÄGELE Attorneys at Law LLC, Vaduz.

2017: Associate (trainee lawyer; substitution-authorised), Schwärzler Attorneys at Law, Schaan, Liechtenstein.

2016: Judicial clerkships (Princely Court, Vaduz, Liechtenstein; District Court Telfs, Austria).

2012: Legal internship, Law firm Dr. Peter Bergt, Telfs (Austria).

Professional Memberships

IBA - International Bar Association

AIJA - International Association of Young Lawyers

Liechtenstein Bar Association

Liechtenstein Chamber of Notaries

Liechtenstein Investment Fund Association (Liechtensteinischer Anlagefondsverband, LAFV)

Association of Independent Asset Managers in Liechtenstein (Verein unabhängiger Vermögensverwalter in Liechtenstein, VuVL)

Swiss Bar Association

Bar Association of the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Publications

Stern, T., & Bergt, J. (2025). Liechtenstein’s FinTech at the frontier: How Liechtenstein’s token-centric private law meets EU market rules for payments, asset-referenced tokens, and platform economies offering proportionate set-ups and a gateway to the EU single market. International Fintech Review 2025/26. Beaumont Capital Markets.

Bergt, J., & Stern, T. (2025). Liechtenstein. In L. Corte & D. Klimentchenko (Eds.), Global Legal Insights – Mergers & Acquisitions 2025 (14th ed., pp. 99–108). Global Legal Group Ltd.

Bergt, J., & Graber, N. (2025). Introduction to Liechtenstein due diligence law. Zurich: Schulthess Publishing House.

Bergt, J. (2024). National Report on Liechtenstein. doi: 10.2873/3934539. EURICSE (2024). Synthesis report on Council Regulation No. 1435.2003 - Statute for a European Cooperative Society

Bergt, J. (2024). Decentralized Finance (DeFi): An interdisciplinary overview. Zeitschrift für das Recht der digitalen Wirtschaft (ZdiW), 4(1), 30-41.

Bergt, J. (2023). Decentralized Finance Unmasked: Behavioral Finance and Public Policy Insights on Financial Market Regulation. Baden-Baden: Nomos. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748943013

Bergt, J. (2020). Liability of the executive and supervisory bodies in the Liechtenstein public limited company (Aktiengesellschaft): With consideration of Swiss and Austrian law. Schulthess Publishing House.

Bergt, J. (2020). Tokens as book-entry (dematerialized) securities, token offerings, and decentralized trading venues: A securities private-law and regulatory analysis from a Liechtenstein perspective, with particular regard to relevant EU legal acts (2nd rev. ed.). Books on Demand.

Personal

Dr. Josef Bergt LL.M. is Managing Partner at Bergt Law in Vaduz and is admitted to the Liechtenstein Bar; in addition, he is a Liechtenstein Notary and is registered in the EU/EFTA list of lawyers of the Bar Association of the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland). His practice centres on the intersection of corporate and commercial mandates with banking, financial market and FinTech regulation, where clients value a combination of doctrinal rigour, deal pragmatism and technology fluency; alongside his practice, he is active as an author and lecturer, regularly translating European regulatory developments into implementable compliance and product strategies for internationally operating clients.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Liechtenstein

Switzerland

Austria

EU/EEA

Languages Spoken

German

English

Education

Awards

Clients

Clients typically include multinational corporations, financial institutions and financial intermediaries, investors and sponsors, and technology-driven businesses (from early stage to established platforms) that require corporate/commercial advice capable of carrying regulatory, governance and documentation risk at a level acceptable for boards, counterparties and supervisory stakeholders. In addition, he regularly acts for founders and management teams in growth situations—where financing documentation, shareholder arrangements, governance structures and compliance frameworks must be aligned—and for businesses with IP- and data-centric products, where transactional execution and information governance (including data protection) are inseparable in practice.

Industry Sector Expertise

Josef Bergt’s sector focus lies at the interface where corporate structuring and transaction execution must remain resilient under European financial-market regulation, an interface that is increasingly shaped by horizontal EU regimes affecting governance, operational resilience, and financial crime prevention in technology-enabled business models. In practice, this means that corporate steps (incorporation, governance architecture, shareholder arrangements, M&A/financing documentation and commercial contracting) are designed with an explicit view to supervisory expectations and the regulatory perimeter that follows from the chosen operating model, including—where relevant—European frameworks such as the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR), the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and the EU’s evolving AML/CFT architecture (including the establishment of AMLA), insofar as these regimes influence the design of compliant structures, outsourcing chains, ICT risk allocation and group-level control frameworks.

Experience

Dr. Josef Bergt is the Founder and Managing Partner of Bergt Law (Vaduz) and combines a corporate/commercial transactions practice with deep engagement in banking and financial market regulation, which—particularly in Liechtenstein’s EEA-connected environment—frequently requires that corporate execution, licensing/registration strategy, governance design and authority-facing proceedings be handled as a single integrated workstream rather than as separate “corporate” and “regulatory” silos. He is a Liechtenstein Notary and is registered in the EU/EFTA lawyers’ list in the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland), and his pre-founding track includes senior private-practice experience at established Liechtenstein firms; in addition, he contributes to academic and professional discourse as an author and lecturer and serves in executive board roles in corporate capacity.

Work Highlights

Advising multinational corporations, financial institutions and technology businesses on corporate compliance and M&A matters in Liechtenstein, including the governance and documentation architecture required for cross-border execution.

Supporting regulated financial institutions and intermediaries in formation, registration and licensing workstreams, and representing clients in regulatory proceedings before competent authorities where supervisory expectations shape feasible corporate and operational outcomes.

Advising on strategic transactions—from venture and growth financings to cross-border mergers—where corporate structuring, regulatory feasibility and documentation discipline must be integrated from the outset.

Delivering corporate and regulatory support to technology-driven and platform businesses, including mandates connected to blockchain/token-related operating models and the related corporate implementation questions that arise in regulated environments.

Advising on securities and capital markets-adjacent workstreams, including prospectus preparation/approval and EU/EEA notification (“passporting”) interfaces, where corporate structuring and disclosure design must remain consistent.

Designing and implementing governance, compliance and risk frameworks, including internal control system and due diligence concepts, in order to operationalise regulatory and board-level requirements within day-to-day processes.

Providing integrated legal advice on IP, IT and data protection, enabling coherent risk allocation in commercial contracts, outsourcing constellations and scale-up transactions where technology and data are core assets.

Acting in complex, cross-border, high-stakes matters involving significant asset values and multi-jurisdictional coordination (including proceedings in the financial-crime/AML-related context).