Josef Bergt

Practice Areas

Dr. Josef Bergt is the managing partner of Bergt Law in Vaduz and advises domestic and international FinTechs, virtual-asset businesses and regulated financial institutions on the full lifecycle of market entry and operation in Liechtenstein and the wider EEA context, with particular emphasis on regulatory strategy, licensing and registration pathways, supervisory interaction, and the translation of business models into governance-ready documentation and controls. Consistent with the firm’s Chambers-ranked FinTech positioning, his work frequently involves Financial Market Authority proceedings and the structuring of blockchain- and token-related products, as well as digital assets and payment service operating models, while also covering the corporate backbone—incorporations, governance architecture, shareholder arrangements, financings and M&A—through which regulated growth is typically executed.

In addition to acting as counsel, he regularly coordinates multidisciplinary workstreams (legal, compliance, tax, technology and operations) so that regulatory design choices remain compatible with commercial timelines, outsourcing realities and cross-border distribution plans, and he supports clients in contentious or sensitive regulatory matters where responsiveness and documentary precision are decisive. He is admitted to the Liechtenstein Bar, serves as a Liechtenstein notary, and is registered in the EU/EFTA list of lawyers of the Bar Association of the Canton of St. Gallen, enabling integrated Liechtenstein–Swiss–EEA workflows for international clients.

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

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Liechtenstein

Switzerland

Austria

EU/EEA

Languages Spoken

English

German

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

Managing Partner at Bergt Law (Vaduz), Dr. Josef Bergt is admitted to the Liechtenstein Bar, acts as a Liechtenstein notary, and is registered in the EU/EFTA list of lawyers of the Bar Association of the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland), allowing clients to run Liechtenstein–Swiss–EEA workstreams in a coordinated manner when corporate and regulatory steps must be sequenced efficiently.

Education

Awards

Experience

Dr. Josef Bergt is a Liechtenstein-qualified attorney-at-law whose FinTech practice is anchored in the formation, registration and licensing of regulated financial institutions and financial intermediaries, and in the accompanying supervisory interface and regulatory proceedings, where the decisive question is typically not “whether” a model is conceptually viable, but “how” it can be implemented in governance, documentation and operational controls that withstand regulatory scrutiny. Alongside these regulatory workstreams, he regularly advises founders and growth companies on the corporate execution layer that enables regulated scaling—corporate structuring, financing rounds, and transactional mandates (including M&A)—and complements this with integrated capabilities in intellectual property and data protection, which are frequently determinative in technology-driven business models and platform-based services.

Industry Sector Expertise

Regulated FinTech and financial services (formation, registration/licensing pathways, supervisory proceedings and regulatory change implementation); crypto-asset and blockchain operating models (including token-use questions and the corporate/commercial structuring required for compliant deployment); payments and investment/financial market matters in Liechtenstein’s VASP/FinTech environment; governance, compliance and risk frameworks for technology-driven businesses; and adjacent IP/data protection issues that often become decisive in product design, outsourcing, and platform scaling.

Clients

Clients typically include crypto exchanges and digital-asset trading venues, international banks, FinTech companies and start-ups, Payment Service Providers, Asset Management Companies, Fund Managers, regulated financial institutions and financial intermediaries, and multinational corporates requiring Liechtenstein and EEA-facing advice on regulatory and registration requirements, supervisory proceedings, and the corporate mandates that arise when technology-driven business models (including token-related use cases) must be implemented within a compliant operating framework.

Work Highlights

Advised a global cryptocurrency exchange on its multi-jurisdictional rollout across Europe.

Advises FinTech clients on Liechtenstein regulatory and registration requirements and on proceedings involving the FMA, including the corporate implementation work that follows from supervisory expectations.

Handles blockchain-related mandates, including matters concerning the use of tokens and related corporate mandates.

Provides integrated advice to large crypto exchanges and FinTech start-ups on the Liechtenstein payment, investment and VASP environment, including representation before the FMA and related regulatory workstreams.

Supports regulated financial institutions and financial intermediaries in formation, registration and licensing workstreams, where the principal deliverables typically include governance design, documentation architecture, and operational controls suitable for regulated operation.

Advises multinational corporates, financial institutions and technology-driven businesses on the full spectrum of banking and financial market law issues that frequently accompany FinTech scaling and cross-border expansion strategies.

Assists clients with corporate mandates arising in regulated implementations (e.g., corporate structuring, governance frameworks, and corporate maintenance) where regulatory classification and compliance constraints shape the feasible transaction architecture.