Niklaus Zaugg

Dispute Resolution

Niklaus Zaugg is a partner of the CMS Zurich dispute resolution team with a strong focus on international arbitration and banking litigation.

He has engaged in various international and domestic arbitrations as counsel and arbitrator. Most arbitrations he was involved in related to supply agreements, in particular in the automotive industry, to construction projects, as well as to financial and post M&A disputes. He has further gained outstanding expertise in numerous emergency arbitration proceedings. Niklaus also regularly represents financial institutions in complex banking litigation processes before Swiss state courts.

Niklaus has repeatedly published in the areas of his expertise, such as his doctoral thesis on the effects of partial and interim awards in international arbitral proceedings conducted in Switzerland. He also regularly gives lectures at conferences and is a member of the marketing committee of Swiss Arbitration as well as co-chair of the Swiss Arbitration Ambassador Programme.

Niklaus graduated from the Universities of Geneva and Zurich in 2003. In 2006, he was admitted to the bar and passed the Concours Diplomatique of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. He further holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Sydney Law School, obtained in 2011. In 2014, Niklaus' doctoral thesis was approved by the University of Lucerne.

Before joining CMS, Niklaus has worked as a law clerk and chairman of the conciliation authority dealing with lease and rental matters at the District Court of Zurich. He has further acted as a diplomatic attaché at the Political and Legal Affairs' Section of the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C. and as the executive secretary of the Center for Conflict Resolution CCR at the Faculty of Law at University of Lucerne.

- Zurich and Swiss Bar Association

- ASA Swiss Arbitration Association

- Marketing Committee Swiss Arbitration

- Co-head of Swiss Arbitration Ambassador Programme

- ICCA International Council for Commercial Arbitration

- IBA International Bar Association

- UIA Union Internationale des Avocats

- Norgesklubben Sveits

- Swiss Diplomats – Zurich Network

- German Institution for Arbitration (DIS)

- LIS Liechtenstein Arbitration Association