Tanja Aschenbeck, LL.M. (San Francisco)

Tanja Aschenbeck is head of Financial Services sector group at Osborne Clarke. She advises national and international corporations, fund managers (AIFM) and fund initiators as well as banks and fintechs in the area of capital markets and financial regulatory law. One area of focus is the structuring of (closed-ended) alternative investment funds (AIFs), particularly in the areas of VC, PE and private debt as well as real estate and renewable energy. Another focus of her practice is  on other alternative investments, such as crowdfunding, profit participation rights or other investment products as well as advising on crypto projects (ICOs/STOs, NFTs, platforms, etc.) and comprehensive regulatory guidance within the framework of MiCAR (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation), including the preparation of whitepapers, advice on licensing procedures and ongoing compliance requirements for crypto service providers.

In the area of financial regulatory law (in particular WpIG, KWG, ZAG, VAG, WpHG, GwG, FinDAG, MiCAR, MiFID II/MiFIR, DORA), Tanja advises start-ups and international corporations on licensing and other BaFin procedures. She supports clients in all aspects – from the application process and fulfilment of organizational requirements  to ongoing regulatory support.

In the area of capital markets law (KAGB, VermAnlG, WpPG, VerkProspG), she advises numerous issuing houses, fund initiators and AIFMs on the design and structuring of alternative investments, regulatory issues and the preparation of prospectuses. In addition, she also conducts due diligence reviews for investors. Her clients include a wide range of well-known national and international fund managers (AIFM) and institutional investors.

Within the field of crowdfunding, she also provides comprehensive advice on all aspects of the ECSPR (European Crowdfunding Service Providers Regulation). She supports clients in particular in obtaining ECSPR authorisation, preparing the required key investment information sheets (KIIS) and implementing regulatory requirements relating to governance and risk management.

Tanja has been admitted to the barsince 2001. After passing the First State Examination, she obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Business Transactions from the University of San Francisco. As part of her legal traineeship, she worked in the legal department of WestLB in New York. Since May 2006, she has also been a certified specialist lawyer for tax law.

She is co-author of the legal handbook “Digitale Finanzdienstleistungen” (Digital Financial Services) published by Beck Verlag and of the English-language commentary “Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business” published by Elgar Verlag. She publishes regularly in in various relevant journals and is a sought-after speaker and panellist on financial regulatory and capital markets law.

Together with the European Crowdfunding Network, Tanja has initiated and presented several Europe-wide studies on the financial regulatory handling of crowdfunding to the European Commission and has conducted studies on European regulation for the European Commission.

Tanja is the initiator of the Women's Business Circle (WBC) at Osborne Clarke and runs the Osborne Clarke FinTech Blog.