Our Lawyers

Ben Tanis is the founder of Tanis | von der Mosel, the Kiel firm devoted exclusively to yacht law from the outset.

He advises and represents clients in every aspect of the field: Union status, import duties and VAT, changes of flag, and supporting owners through the acquisition, sale and delivery of their yacht – situations in which a wrong decision may later prove impossible to correct.

He also plays an active role in shaping the yacht industry. As processes surrounding yachts become increasingly digital – from escrow transactions through to Union status – he thinks one step ahead and positions the firm for tomorrow from the outset.

Over more than a decade, Ben Tanis has built a network spanning the full breadth of the European yacht industry: shipyards, brokers, insurers, customs and waterways authorities, and leading legal advisers from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. Where matters would ordinarily pass through layers of administration, he takes the direct route to the key decision-maker – proximity that produces solutions in days or weeks where years might otherwise pass.

His work extends far beyond individual instructions: Ben Tanis founded an arbitral tribunal for disputes with a maritime connection, offering the yachting world swift, highly specialised proceedings in place of years of litigation.

As an author for YACHT and BOOTE and an expert guest on podcasts, Ben Tanis makes this body of law accessible to the professional community. What he develops there returns to the firm’s daily advice, keeping his client work at the forefront of current developments in the field.