Title/Profession

• Founding Partner
• Lawyer

Short bio

Jakob Kisser is the Founding Partner of KISSER LEGAL. He is a business focused lawyer advising commercial and private clients on M&A projects, corporate matters and investments in the UAE. He brings practical business insight from serving on the boards of several private foundations and corporations and currently acts as Vice Chairman of the Austrian Business Council in the UAE.

Jakob studied law in Austria and the Netherlands and holds a Master of Law degree, Mag. iur., from the University of Vienna. He practised business law for 15 years at leading international law firms in Austria, including Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Schoenherr, and was admitted to the Austrian Bar from 2009 to 2020.

Jakob advises international groups of companies, entrepreneurs, family offices and UHNW individuals on investments, corporate structuring, transactions and private client matters in the UAE and across borders. He is regularly involved in cross-border mandates where commercial, legal and personal considerations intersect, including investment platforms, shareholder arrangements, governance matters, succession planning and private wealth structuring.

His representative experience includes advising Austrian investor Erich Erber on a USD 40m investment into Sterner Group, a leading aquaculture solutions provider from Norway, advising a leading European financial services provider on the acquisition of a DIFC-registered asset management company, advising an international technology and mechanical engineering group on the divestment of three local subsidiaries in the UAE, and advising a German buyer consortium on an asset deal with a Dubai-incorporated entity.

Earlier in his career, Jakob advised on major Austrian and international M&A, private equity and restructuring matters, including the divestment of four retail banks and the real estate, leasing and CEE businesses of the Austrian Volksbanken Group, the Volkswagen-Porsche merger, the global restructuring of Nortel Networks as Austrian local counsel, private equity investments into Themis Bioscience by Ventech SA and Crédit Agricole Private Equity, later renamed OMNES, and several acquisitions and divestments for ISS Facility Services.

Jakob has authored numerous academic publications, including LexisNexis handbooks on start-ups and crowdfunding, form requirements and legalisation, and letters of comfort. He regularly speaks at UAE business councils and previously lectured at the Austrian Attorneys Academy.