/ DR. WOLFGANG WEITNAUER, M.C.L. (ILLINOIS)

Partner

Fully qualified German lawyer admitted since 1982, studied in Heidelberg, Lausanne, Freiburg i.Br. and Illinois, doctorate in Freiburg i.Br..

In 1995 foundation of Weitnauer Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB.

Focus

Corporate and Commercial Law,

Mergers & Acquisitions,

Corporate finance and investments,

Structuring of investment funds and regulatory affairs.

Managing editor of the journal “Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsrecht” (GWR).

Legal advisor to the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK).

Head of the working group “Standard Investment Documents” of the German Standards Setting Institute (GESSI).

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Wolfgang Weitnauer is the editor and author of the Handbook Venture Capital, 7th ed. (2022), the Handbook Management Buy Out, 3rd ed. (2025), the Handbook “International Venture Capital Terms” (2022), co-editor of the Commentary on the German Capital Investment Code Investment Code, 3rd ed. 2021, of Beck's Form Book IT Law, 6th ed. (2025), as well as of the contract form manual “Life Sciences Agreements in Germany” (2014), and the author of numerous articles and contributions (see attachment).

Memberships
Academic Activities
Publications
  • Munich Contract Handbook Commercial Law I, 8th ed. 2020, “Corporate Investments”
  • Pools and investment clubs: Structures and licensing requirements under KAGB and KWG, GWR 2014, 1 et seq.
  • The European Venture Capital Fund Regulation (“EuVECA-VO”), GWR 2014, 139 et seq.
  • Weitnauer/Grob, Corporate Non-Competition Clauses, GWR 2014, 185 et seq.
  • Profit-related mezzanine corporate financing: An area of application of the corporate group law rules?, GWR 2014, 383 et seq.
  • Legal particularities of corporate financing with funds from the ERP start-up fund, GWR 2014, 474 et seq.
  • “Crowdinvesting 2.0” under the German Retail Investor Protection Act, GWR 2015, 309 et seq.
  • Binding managing shareholders through leaver or vesting provisions, GWR 2015, 353 et seq.
  • The legally secure path to exit: “10 lessons” for a successful M&A process, GWR 2016, 413 et seq.
  • Social Impact Investment and Venture Philanthropy: The capital market law framework, GWR 2017, 149
  • Employee Participation: Some thoughts on optimal design, GWR 2017, 391 et seq.
  • Paradigm shift in the tax treatment of shareholder financing aid, GWR 2017, 427 et seq.
  • On the application of § 179a of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) outside of stock corporation law, GWR 2018, 1 et seq.
  • Formal requirements for agreements on corporate investments: An unnecessary ballast?, GWR 2018, 245 et seq.
  • The “US-Flip” – The restructuring of a German GmbH into a Delaware Corp. from a corporate and tax law perspective, GWR 2018, 150 et seq.
  • Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs): legal framework and regulatory limits, BKR 2018, 231 et seq.
  • A comparison of the regulation of corporate investments under the KAGB and the relevant EU regulations, GWR 2019, 1 et seq.
  • Innovation Partnering: Practical challenges and legal structures for joint research and development projects, GWR 2019, 173 et seq.
  • Money laundering compliance requirements for investments by investment companies, GWR 2019, 275 et seq.
  • The German start-up scene after Corona – a legal perspective, GWR 2020, 127 et seq.
  • Weitnauer/Moosbauer: Compliance requirements for investment managers and investment companies: Transparency, foreign trade and money laundering laws, GWR 2021, 325 et seq., 343 et. seq.
  • Employee participation: “Real” or virtual?, GWR 2022, 39 et seq.
  • Manager and employee participation models: Structures and design, GWR 2023, 111, 129 et seq.
  • Profit participation rights: A “silver bullet” for employee participation? GWR 2023, 271 ff.
  • Authorized capital: The key to simplifying investment processes, GWR 2024, 1 et. seq.
  • The notarization requirement for the transfer of shares in the age of digitalization, GWR 2024, 69 et seq.
  • Measures to strengthen the German start-up scene: A contribution to the discussion, GWR 2024, 209 et. seq.
  • The principle of completeness or the extension of notarial form, Festschrift for Heribert Heckschen 2024, 749 et seq.
  • Key points and structuring of a financing round in Günther/Kirchhof, Business Angels Handbuch 2024, 248 et seq.
  • Employee participation via participation rights with the possibility of securitization, ibid. p. 370 et seq.
// +49 89 3839 95-0 /

// wolfgang.weitnauer@wipit.legal /