Heike Schmitz
Heike is a partner in Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer's Frankfurt office, focusing on advising funds, asset managers, insurers and pension funds on investments, regulation, products and contractual matters.
She has worked in various roles in the insurance and investment industry for more than 19 years. Heike advises on a broad range of topics driven by regulation and client’s business models, including structuring of funds and other investments, governance and regulatory compliance, launch of new asset management and insurance products, distribution structures and outsourcing.
Heike co-leads the ESG practice in EMEA and is a renowned expert for responsible investment and sustainability in the financial services sector in Germany and wider Europe. She co-chairs the Insurance Development Forum's Infrastructure Taskforce aiming to facilitate climate-related infrastructure investments in emerging and developing countries and she is a member of Invest Europe's ESG Committee, the central body of the European private equity association dealing with sustainability matters. She has also recently been appointed to the German Government's Advisory Board on Sustainable Finance.
Heike was named a Green Ambassador by Legal 500 Europe in 2025 and 2026. The JUVE Handbook 2026 lists her as "frequently recommended" in both ESG and insurance regulatory law, with clients praising her reliability and ability to find "a pragmatic and legally secure path through the jungle of sometimes contradictory regulations”.
Accolades
- Frequently recommended lawyer for ESG (Funds), JUVE 2025
- Frequently recommended lawyer for insurance regulatory law, JUVE 2025
- Heike is recommended as a "capital investment specialist" by Legal 500 Germany 2021 (Insurance law/advice to insurance companies) and is being described as "proactive and solution-oriented" as well as "...very well connected in the insurance industry." (JUVE Handbuch 2023/2024 and 2022/2023).
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
- Invesco on contract drafting and matters relating to the distribution of investment funds and portfolio management services
- a global asset manager on regulatory matters and contract design in connection with the cross-border provision of investment services and unregulated services across Europe
- a large European banking group on the structuring, establishment and distribution of a German retirement savings account (Altersvorsorgevertrag) in form of an insurance product
- BarmeniaGothaer, a German mutual insurance group with life and non-life business, on CSRD applicability, on the implementation of SFDR, Taxonomy Regulation, further elements of the EU Sustainable Finance framework and general asset management and insurance regulatory and governance questions
- Sagard Private Equity, an international private equity asset manager on the implementation of SFDR, Taxonomy, further elements of the EU Sustainable Finance framework and general regulatory and governance questions
- Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek investing in next-generation companies providing solutions and technologies to help accelerate global efforts to achieve net zero, to assess the current status and possible future developments of EU Sustainability-related regulation in the context of pursuing opportunities in the regulatory and compliance software and services space
- a German insurance group on the design of their websites and marketing communications in the context of EU and German greenwashing rules
Sectors
Background
Heike graduated from the University of Cologne. Prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills in 2021, Heike worked for German and international law firms in Germany and as an inhouse counsel for a European insurance group. A German native speaker, she is fluent in English and French.
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