Switzerland

Describes motivation process for creativity with emphasis on intrinsic motivation by Corey K Katir

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Switzerland’s Lachenal & Le Fort and Meyerlustenberger are to merge, creating one of the largest law firms in the country. The new 85-lawyer firm, which will be called Meyerlustenberger Lachenal, will have offices in Zurich, Geneva, Zug, Lausanne and Brussels. It will be a full-service firm, although its Geneva office will focus on private client work, while Zurich will specialise in financial services, with the Brussels base primarily advising on European Union regulation.

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US litigation specialist Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has set out ambitious plans to expand across Asia and Europe. The firm has earmarked Germany, Switzerland and Singapore for office launches within the next two years, with an office in Hong Kong planned for a later date. Germany, where Quinn Emanuel launched a two-partner office in Mannheim in 2010, is expected to gain two new bases, with an opening in Hamburg expected imminently and a launch in Munich expected before the end of the year.

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Baker & McKenzie, Prager Dreifuss and Schellenberg Wittmer size up the key issues in the Swiss legal market, including tax liabilities for UK residents with Swiss bank accounts, the overhaul of the Insurance Contract Act and the introduction of a new simplified form of plea bargaining…

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With more money spent per head on insurance premiums in Switzerland than any other country, the first overhaul of Switzerland’s Insurance Contract Act in 100 years is causing much discussion, say Christian Lang and Zsuzsanna Kunszt

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Switzerland’s takeover law, finance sector and the new Anglo-Swiss tax accord

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Viewed from the outside, Switzerland looks like a rocky island in a stormy sea of financial distress. The unemployment rate is only 4.4% compared with 9.1% in the US and the national budget closed in 2010 with a surplus, a sharp contrast to the situation in all major neighbouring countries like France or Italy. The Swiss financial sector continues to play an important role in the country’s economy. It contributes approximately 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. Despite this bright picture, the Swiss financial sector did not remain unaffected by the worldwide financial crisis in 2007. In particular, UBS, the largest Swiss bank and a top-tier player in the wealth management business, reported losses of $18.7bn (£11.7bn) in relation to US residential mortgage sector exposures for 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.

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The Swiss legal market is so well established and its clients so well served by large and reputable local firms operating within an entirely stable and predictable regime that the country often falls below international firms’ radar – but not so of late. Not only are new legislative changes to the cantonal civil procedure system being touted by some as the most important reforms since the beginning of the 20th century, but as countries such as the UK come to terms with tightening tax measures, local Swiss lawyers are reaping the benefit of a growing hub of international businesses from large bluechips to lucrative hedge fund managers now headquartered in Zurich and Geneva.

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Withers is set to launch an office in Zurich in response to increasing client demand in the region. The Zurich office – which will be the firm’s ninth base around the world – will launch in April this year, with Geneva tax partner Judith Ingham relocating to the city to head up the new operation. Ingham will be joined by Geneva US tax and trust partner Jay Rubinstein, with City corporate partner Olga Boltenko also set to join the outfit in the summer.

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As new measures aim to bring Switzerland’s cantons more in line with one another, Caroline Hill asks if this is the dawn of a new era for the country’s law firms, while Pestalozzi’s Jakob Hoehn reports on the new developments giving minority shareholders a voice…

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Switzerland’s legal market has long been dominated by domestic law firms but recent changes in the banking sector and in financial legislation are encouraging a more international outlook, says Suzanna Ring

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Vischer sizes up Switzerland’s new patent court as Homburger surveys the increasingly rocky terrain for Swiss boards…

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Switzerland is at the top of most charts measuring international competitiveness in innovation. The country issues more patents to protect intellectual property (IP) rights per capita than any other European country. On the legal side, Switzerland has historically considered of paramount importance a judicial system that allows inventors to protect and exploit their innovations. Accordingly, Switzerland was among the first countries to support at an early stage an international harmonisation of patent law and to implement the steps necessary to making such a law reality.

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As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, the time has come to take stock: a lot has changed in the Swiss corporate governance landscape over the past 10 years. First, the takeover regulation which came into force in 1998 has provided the basis for a number of takeovers of listed companies, many of them unsolicited. Second, the rise in shareholder activism outside of takeover situations has had a profound impact on the governance of Swiss-listed companies. Third, the recent corporate crises in Switzerland have had their effects on the perception of the role of a Swiss corporate board, especially with regards to board composition and the agenda a Swiss board should pursue.

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Eversheds International has made five new lateral partner hires, with the network bulking up in South Africa, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The firm’s Johannesburg office has seen the bulk of the hires, with the addition of three new partners. Mondli Sibisi and Sibusiso Masondo have joined the resources and finance group from DLA Piper’s South African ally Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr and local firm Khumalo Masondo respectively.

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Eversheds’ Swiss ally has opened an office in Geneva, with the top 10 UK firm’s international network now covering three sites in Switzerland. Schmid Eversheds merged with Geneva-based firm MCP Avocats earlier this month (1 February) and has rebranded as Eversheds Schmid Mangeat, adding to its existing bases in Zurich and Berne.The Geneva office consists of ten lawyers and houses two of the firm’s eight partners. The remaining lawyers are spread equally between Zurich and Berne.

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In a country renowned for its banking prowess, the financial turmoil of the last months has been keenly felt in Switzerland. While the financial haven is proving less than rosy for many bankers with two of its major institutions, UBS and Credit Suisse, both caught up in the financial storm, Switzerland’s legal elite has a more positive story to tell.For many of the country’s main firms, the crisis has meant an inflow of lucrative instructions, landing roles in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers – with its plentiful Swiss creditors – for example, or on one of the many reorganisations within Swiss banks.Several of Switzerland’s largest firms, including Lenz & Staehelin, Baer & Karrer, Homburger and Schellenberg Wittmer, credit the banking crisis with a major upturn in work in the region.”It is clear that last year was dominated by the financial crisis. It has taken a lot of our time and made us quite busy,” says Homburger managing partner and co-head of M&A Heinz Schaerer.

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It is a popular view that Swiss bank secrecy attracts undeclared, illegal money – that it exists only for this purpose and that the need for its removal is self-evident. Many believe that the first steps to achieve this have been successfully taken, with the US Justice Department’s attack on UBS. However, first a reminder before you read on: in 1934 Switzerland enacted specific legislation to make divulging bank secrets a criminal offence, partly in response to a law introduced by Adolf Hitler that any German with foreign capital should be put to death.

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Although the substantive civil law of Switzerland has long been unified – the Swiss Civil Code recently celebrated its 100th birthday – this small country still affords itself the luxury of no less than 27 different systems of civil procedure. On many issues, the various civil procedure rules differ substantially from one another, making recourse to a local trial lawyer almost inevitable, and constituting a technical barrier to litigation.To date, the federal legislator has only enacted a limited number of civil procedural provisions, including in tenancy law, labour law and divorce law, and unified provisions on jurisdiction. Even the Swiss Supreme Court was unable to put an end to the legal fragmentation in the area of civil procedure since it is essentially barred from reviewing the application of cantonal law and is only able to determine minimum standards with which cantonal proceedings are required to comply.

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In times of financial crisis, optimising the security packages for commercial loans which banks have, in the economically more stable past, granted – or which they now consider granting to their existing and new customers – has become an even more important concern. In the manufacturing industry, in particular, the inventories of raw material, goods in production, as well as the end products, usually make up an important part of a borrower’s assets.

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Sullivan & Cromwell has landed a lead role for UBS after the Swiss National Bank and the Government of Switzerland created a fund for the bank to dump $60bn in illiquid assets, reports the Am Law Daily. The elite US firm is advising UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, on US aspects of the bailout.Sullivan has worked with UBS in the past, advising the bank on its $10.8bn (£6.3bn) acquisition of private banker PaineWebber in 2000. The team handling the work was led by firm chairman Rodgin Cohen.

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