BianchiSchwald LLC

Number of partners: 13

Number of lawyers: 40

Languages: English, French, German, Swiss German, Italian, Spanish, Ahmaric, Tigrinya, Croatian, Albanian, Kurdish, Serbian.

Firm Overview:

BianchiSchwald LLC is a leading Swiss business law firm with offices in Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne and Bern. The firm was launched in January 2017 and is a combination of BCCC Attorneys-at-law LLC and a spin-out of Staiger Schwald & Partners Ltd., including Hans-Peter Schwald, the corporate and the IP teams. BianchiSchwald LLC is fully integrated and governed as one firm, driven by a culture based on full cooperation among lawyers. With a total of 13 partners and 40 highly qualified fee earners, BianchiSchwald LLC delivers high value services to its clients wherever they are in Switzerland.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Finance

Competition

Corporate, Commercial & M&A

Employment

Energy & Environment

Insolvency & Corporate Recovery

Intellectual Property

International Assistance & White Collar Crime

Litigation & Arbitration

Real Estate & Construction

Sport & Entertainment

Tax & Private Clients

Technology, Media & Privacy

Public Procurement, Transport, Healthcare

Main Areas of Practice:

Corporate, Commercial & M&A:

BianchiSchwald has an excellent understanding of the industries it serves and efficiently assists its clients in all their corporate ventures and financings: incorporation, administration, commercial activities, governance, compliance, shareholding, financing, drafting and negotiating complex contracts, including without limitation sales contracts, contracts for supply of work and materials, distribution, agency as well as servicing agreements. The firm has a strong position in domestic and cross-border M&A transactions and provides clients with dedicated teams of partners and associates who beyond knowing the rule of law are all experts of the management and mechanics of an acquisition or a sales process.

Employment:

BianchiSchwald offers employers and senior executives first rate advice on issues related to the employment relationship (including recruitment, retention, dismissals), company employment regulations, legal and tax aspects of share incentive structures and other benefit programs, cross-boarder employee transfers, aviation finance transactions, collective dismissals and transfer of business with employees. The firm has a special expertise of discrimination, social security, pensions, immigration law and outsourcing issues and relies on a strong litigation team in the field.

Banking & Finance:

Based on a solid combined experience acquired in first rate Swiss banks, BianchiSchwald’s banking team is recognised for its expertise and the quality of its services rendered to Swiss and international actors of the industry: banks, traders, wealth managers, investment funds, fund managers, insurance companies, trading companies and private clients. The firm’s banking and finance group advises clients active in banking, finance and capital markets in high added value areas: regulation, financing, investments, private banking, outsourcing and banking IT security.

Tax & Private Clients:

Investing, trading, setting up a company or a trust, buying corporate or private assets requires tax planning. Tax planning has frequent cross-border and inter-cantonal aspects. Distinct features of BianchiSchwald’s tax practice are an outstanding team including certified tax experts and a certified expert in finance and controlling as well as a network of reputable tax experts in other tax jurisdictions, working relationships with tax authorities and an intense interaction with other practice groups within the firm. Clients include companies, business owners, investors, non-profit organisations, families and individuals.

Technology, Media & Privacy:

BianchiSchwald has a first rate expertise in the fields of privacy, IT and media. The firm’s team has developed specific know-how in connection with data protection, surveillance, telecommunications, complex IT agreements, protection of technology and computer crime. It has also specialised in the negotiation of broadcasting rights, libel cases and issues in connection with media convergence.

Intellectual Property:

BianchiSchwald is at the forefront of IP issues. Its litigation work covers patents, trademarks, copyrights and designs as well as know-how, trade secrets and unfair competition, issues that are intrinsically linked to IP. The firm files trademarks and designs in Switzerland. Its team has also been regularly involved in contractual work related for instance to licensing, research and development or to new technologies where IP often is at stake.

Sport & Entertainment:

BianchiSchwald’s bulk of sport services are at the crossroad of the sport and the media industries (broadcasting, marketing, sponsoring and merchandising). The firm serves broadcasters, cable operators, sport agencies and sport organisations.

Real Estate & Construction:

BianchiSchwald is at the forefront on all real estate related matters: construction, public works procurement, zoning, real estate transactions, leases, contracts and financing. It works on a regular basis for real estate professionals: real estate agencies, finders, lending institutions, constructors, developers, investors, fund managers and other persons/ entities. It assists them in achieving their projects in a heavily regulated environment and in resolving their disputes.

Insolvency & Corporate Recovery:

BianchiSchwald assists corporate clients in setting up contingency plans and restructuring measures. It also provides advice to banks and other creditors in connection with the securing and/or enforcement of their claims. If and when bankruptcy authorities are involved, BianchiSchwald’s team represents insolvent companies and creditors in the context of a liquidation, composition and restructuring.

Litigation & Arbitration:

BianchiSchwald’s approach remains constant: careful planning of the trial or arbitration, selection of the most efficient course of action, reasonable assessment of the merits of the case, focus on results and avoidance of protracted disputes. The firm is well equipped to sustain heavy litigation but also to allocate important resources in a tight time-frame when necessary.

International Assistance & White Collar Crime:

BianchiSchwald actively supports corporate clients in all defence proceedings they might face, in criminal, civil or administrative investigations by local or federal authorities. It further assists foreign clients with assets located in Switzerland following criminal assistance requests filed by governmental agencies of foreign States (request for document, freezing of bank accounts).

Competition:

BianchiSchwald is recognised in the following fields: merger control filings, anti-competitive conducts (vertical and horizontal restraints, abuse of market power) unfair practices and practices in violation of consumer protection law. Its special expertise lies in designing distribution and e-distribution channels that are in compliance with competition law. The firm also advises bidders in proceedings for the award of public contracts.

Public Procurement, Transport, Healthcare:

The firm has important knowledge and extensive experience in the sectors of public procurement, transport and health care with a special focus on major national and international public procurement projects in the building industry, the plant/system building sector, the railway sector as well as the health care industry (both in relation to the management of clinics as well as in relation to the building of hospitals), working with established and well known Swiss and international clients.

Energy & Environment:

The energy and environmental sectors are in a constant state of flux. Changes in the underlying political, economic and legal environment pose new challenges for clients. With its sector-specific expertise, BianchiSchwald covers the full range of legal services relating to the energy sector (power, oil and gas and renewables industries), including transactional work and regulatory advice. Cantonal agencies, regional companies, energy groups, international trading companies and leading financial institutions count on the firm for advice or for litigious cases. Clients benefit from a multi-disciplinary firm and BianchiSchwald’s energy and utilities lawyers work alongside experts in corporate M&A, tax, banking and finance, competition and litigation and arbitration. The firm’s deep knowledge of environmental regulations is the key to the success of its assignments.