Commercial and civil disputes, freezing orders, debt enforcement and bankruptcy, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Switzerland.
Contact us — reply within one working day.
Swiss counsel for foreign law firms
We act on the Swiss part of your client's matter — litigation, attachment, debt enforcement, and the recognition of foreign judgments and awards — and report to you in English, French or German.
Instructing counsel in a jurisdiction you do not practise in means handing over part of a file you remain answerable for. This page sets out exactly what we do with it: what we take on, what we do not, how we are paid, what your client's cost exposure in Switzerland looks like, and where Swiss law will constrain what you can ask us to do. If anything here does not answer your question, call and ask.
What we take on
We act for clients and lawyers based outside Switzerland in contentious matters. In practice, instructions reach us in one of five situations.
Assets in Switzerland need to be secured. Attachment proceedings (Arrest) under Art. 271 of the Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act, including applications heard without notice to the debtor, and the debt-enforcement steps that must follow within the statutory deadlines to keep the attachment alive.
A foreign judgment or arbitral award needs to be enforced here. Recognition and enforcement under the Lugano Convention, under the Swiss Private International Law Act for judgments from outside the Convention, and under the New York Convention for arbitral awards.
A Swiss debtor is not paying. Debt enforcement proceedings, applications to set aside the debtor's objection (Rechtsöffnung), bankruptcy petitions, and the recognition of foreign insolvency decrees under Art. 166 ff. of the Private International Law Act.
A commercial dispute has to be litigated here. Pre-action correspondence and negotiation, proceedings before the cantonal courts and the commercial courts, appeals to the Federal Supreme Court, and arbitration seated in Switzerland.
You need to know whether Switzerland is the right forum at all. Jurisdiction, applicable law, limitation periods, evidentiary rules, and a realistic view of cost and duration before your client commits.
What we do not do
We are admitted to practise in Switzerland only. We do not advise on the law of any other jurisdiction, on tax in any jurisdiction including Switzerland, or on accounting and financial reporting. We take no view on the commercial merits of your client's position.
We also do not take on criminal defence, family law, or administrative and immigration matters. If your client needs any of that in Switzerland, say so and we will point you to someone who does it properly rather than take it on ourselves.
Your client stays your client
The Swiss mandate stays within the boundaries you and your client set. We do not approach your client about work outside the matter you instruct us on, and we do not use the introduction to build a relationship behind you. If your client asks us about something outside the Swiss matter, we tell them to speak to you.
You choose the reporting line. We can report to you and correspond with your client only through you, or we can deal with your client directly and copy you on everything. Tell us which at the outset; we will not switch without asking.
You choose the contracting party. Either your client signs our engagement letter and power of attorney directly, or your firm instructs us as principal and we invoice you. Both work. The second is simpler where your client is already comfortable dealing only with you, but it means your firm carries our fees. There is no difference in what we do.
Conflicts are cleared before anything else happens. We do not act on standing retainers for the large Swiss banks, insurers or corporates, which is the usual reason a Swiss firm has to decline. A conflict check normally comes back the same working day.
How to instruct us
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Send us the names and a short outline. An email with the names of the parties, any affiliated entities that may be drawn in, a few lines on what the dispute is about and the amount in dispute is all we need to start. Please hold the documents back at this stage. Your enquiry is already covered by our duty of professional secrecy.
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We run the conflict check and come back with a short answer on whether we can act. We do not charge for this. Once we are clear of conflicts, send us the contract.
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Engagement letter and power of attorney. Our engagement letter sets out the scope of the mandate task by task, the hourly rates, the retainer, and the governing law. The power of attorney is bilingual German and English on one page. Swiss courts generally accept a a scan of a hand signed PoA; we will tell you if a given authority wants an original.
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Client identification. Swiss law requires us to identify the client and the beneficial owner of the assets involvedand to screen against Swiss, UN, EU, UK and OFAC sanctions. For a corporate client that usually means a current commercial-register extract, the identity documents of the signatory, and a declaration of beneficial ownership. Your own KYC file will often cover most of it.
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Retainer and start. We ask for an advance payment before starting work. It is held in a segregated client trust account, applied only to fees and expenses in your matter, and any unused balance is refunded when the mandate ends.
In a time-critical matter these steps compress. Say so in your first email.
Fees
We bill on a time-spent basis, recorded in six-minute units, with statements of account monthly. Travel time is billed at half rate. Small disbursements — postage, copies, courier — are charged as a flat 3 % of fees instead of being itemised; court fees, translation, experts and foreign counsel are passed through at cost.
Swiss VAT is currently 8.1 %. For clients domiciled outside Switzerland it generally does not apply.
Contingency fees in the strict sense are prohibited for Swiss lawyers (Art. 12 lit. e of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers). A success component on top of a reasonable base fee is permissible within limits; if your client's expectation is a pure no-win-no-fee arrangement, it cannot be done here and it is better to know that in the first conversation.
What your client is exposed to beyond our fees
The claimant advances the court costs. Swiss courts require the claimant to advance the expected court fee before the case proceeds.
The fee is calculated on the amount in dispute and other factors. It varies by canton.
The loser pays the winner's party compensation. Under Art. 106 of the Civil Procedure Code costs follow the event. The party compensation is set by a cantonal tariff on the amount in dispute and other factors, not by the winner's actual legal spend, so it not cover the full attorney's fees or may exceed them.
A claimant can be ordered to provide security. Under Art. 99 of the Civil Procedure Code the defendant can apply for security for its party costs where the claimant has no Swiss domicile, subject to treaty exceptions. The application is usually made at the outset, and the amount can be substantial. Any claimant based outside Switzerland should budget for this before filing.
Privilege
We are bound by the Swiss attorney-client privilege under Art. 13 of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers and Art. 321 of the Criminal Code. It is a duty of secrecy enforced by criminal sanction, and it is strong. But foreign courts and regulators do not always give Swiss privilege the same effect as their own attorney-client privilege or work-product protection, and no Swiss lawyer can warrant what a court in another jurisdiction will do. Address the issue where the protection of a foreign privilege regime may matter.
Who handles the matter
Andri Ganzoni has practised as a Swiss attorney since 2009. He is registered in the Bar Register of the Canton of Basel-Stadt and is a member of the Basel Bar Association and the Swiss Bar Association.
The lawyer you brief is the lawyer who drafts the submissions and appears in court. Where a hearing or a discrete task is delegated within the firm, it is under his supervision and you are told in advance.
Working languages are German, English and French. Court proceedings run in the official language of the canton — German in Basel and most of northern and eastern Switzerland, French in the west, Italian in Ticino. We conduct proceedings in German and French; for Italian-language cantons we work with local co-counsel.
We carry professional indemnity insurance with a Swiss-licensed insurer in accordance with Art. 12 lit. f of the Federal Act on the Free Movement of Lawyers, with cover of at least CHF 5 million per claim.
New enquiries are normally answered within one working day. Basel is on Central European Time, one hour ahead of London, six ahead of New York, seven behind Singapore.
