Practice Areas

We assist our clients on a wide range of transactional and regulatory work in technology. We advise on all commercial agreements related to information technology including project management, outsourcing, services contracts, online services, KPIs, service level agreements, SOWs, social media, software development, software distribution, licenses and maintenance, hosting, online privacy and terms and conditions.

The Firm represents companies and individuals in their requests for residence and work permits and the steps to be taken when moving to Switzerland. We also assist in all subsequent steps, including requests for naturalisation.

We advise clients on all aspects of Art Law. Transactions, buying, selling or dividing art collections, including litigation. We act for both private clients and institutions.

Due to its international character and practice, our Firm is frequently called upon to deal with technical private international law questions.

Our Firm is also regularly engaged by sovereign states and international organisations to assist them with the issues that arise in connection with their status and relations with Swiss authorities.

Our Firm assists clients in public and administrative law matters, particularly in the fields of construction, roads, and immigration and work permits. We also act for our clients in administrative appeals before cantonal and federal authorities.

Our Firm is active in the domain of enforcement measures. We offer the full range of assistance both to creditors in debt recovery and to debtors in asset protection. We appear in attachment, seizure, bankruptcy and composition procedures. We also assist in the recognition of foreign bankruptcy judgments and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards.

We are active in general criminal and white collar crime matters. Our Firm acts for those accused of crimes, as well as persons under criminal investigation by cantonal and federal authorities, and in related financial and administrative matters.

Our Firm is very experienced in matters of civil liability, acting for both institutional and individual clients in both negotiations and litigation. We have a recognised expertise in private and corporate insurance matters, notably including accident and retirement insurance. Our Firm represents large institutions in civil and administrative insurance matters.

Our Firm advises and acts for private clients in all aspects of family law, marriage and divorce.

Our Firm is active in counselling institutional clients in all legal and organisational aspects of human resources. It also acts for individuals and employers in labour matters before judicial and administrative authorities.

Since its founding, our Firm has been particularly active in the fields of the international sale of goods (raw materials and finished products) and agency and distribution contracts. Our partners handle, on a daily basis, the negotiation and drafting of sales agreements and are regularly solicited for advice as to trade finance, documentary credits and bank guarantees. They also take on verification and due diligence mandates in the sales and distribution sectors.

We counsel clients in Swiss and international tax laws, notably in the context of corporate groups wishing to create an establishment in Switzerland. We also assist individuals wishing to domicile themselves in Switzerland with the benefit of a cost-based taxation regime (forfait fiscal).

Our Firm is skilled in commercial contract and corporate matters. It deploys its resources in all aspects of corporate and company law (formation, restructuring, acquisitions, mergers and split-offs) for both public and private companies). We also handle the full range contract matters (including sales or service contracts, construction, telecommunications, franchising).

We establish, advice and administer all types of non-profit entities on behalf of their founders, both physical persons and institutions. In particular, we assist with the obtention of authorisations recognising their non-profit status and the resulting tax exemptions. We also help these entities with their general requirements and filings before federal and cantonal regulatory authorities.

Our Firm has the will and ability to deploy its efforts in the traditional fields of lawyer activity, such as court litigation. The Firm represents clients in all manner of civil, commercial and administrative procedures before the Swiss Courts. It acts in these procedures, at all judicial levels, with diligence and efficiency. The Firm coordinates international litigation with the help of its international network of correspondents, who are independently chosen for their abilities.

In a world where data and exchanges of information are everywhere, we help our clients comply with data privacy and security regulatory obligations. We have expertise in due diligence, internal privacy audits, processes and procedures review, cross-border data transfer solutions, privacy and cyber-security policies, data subject requests, data security breach preparedness and response, privacy statements for online activities, employee, healthcare and marketing policies as well as privacy and cyber-security aspects of cloud computing and any agreement.

The Firm helps individuals, associations and other institutions to protect themselves against violations or infringements of civil liberties or human dignity, in particular in the fields of religious freedom and racist actions. It advises on the putting in place related preventive measures or plans: notably internal corporate guidance and rules.

We counsel clients in registration and renewal procedures at both the national and international level, as well as in intellectual property disputes. Our Firm also makes use of its contractual expertise in drafting all manner of contracts related to intellectual property, and license agreements in particular.

We draw on a long experience in the field of aviation law, notably the acquisition, sale and registration of commercial and private aircraft. We have for many years advised public and private entities active in the aviation field. We have also acted on behalf of victims of airplane accidents in national and international claims procedures.

We counsel clients in all aspects of real estate and construction law and related issues (construction contracts, real estate agency, building permits and zoning issues.) We act both at the stage of the negotiation of projects and at the stage of the civil or administrative proceedings that may follow.

Our Firm is frequently involved in international judicial cooperation in both civil and criminal matters; acting both for governments and private parties.

Our Firm has developed expertise in sports law which permits us to advise high level athletes in the context of the negotiation of all manner of contracts incident to their activities. We also assist an institutional clientele in the negotiation and drafting of sponsorship contracts and act as arbitrators in CAS proceedings.

We assist clients in their estate planning, including, where appropriate, the putting in place of trusts or other structures. We also act in all manner of disputes arising in this domain.

We advise real estate companies and tenants in the drafting and negotiation of leases, and act for clients in the litigation of lease disputes.

Our Firm practices international maritime law (freight forwarding, charter parties, ship seizures, maritime insurance, bills of lading) as well as international road transport law. Clients include ship owners, P & I Clubs, Club correspondent counsel, and civil liability insurers. We also represent traders, insurers, brokers and insurance agents. Our complementary expertise in international sales, documentary credits, bank guarantees, standby letters of credit and commercial agency allow our Firm to offer a full range of integrated services in this area.

Our Firm provides both technical and strategic advice to governments and enterprises as to their commercial and trade policies for goods and services, and this in light of international treaties, free-trade accords and investment protection provisions.

BudinPartners benefits from a recognised experience in M & A. The Firm’s activity in the field includes, notably, investments and dispositions in Switzerland by multi-national groups, the acquisition of Swiss companies by foreigners, and transactions between Swiss entities. Our lawyers specialised in this area also work regularly as Swiss counsel coordinating multi-jurisdictional transactions. They handle corporate, financial and contractual due diligence; analyse each matter individually; obtain the necessary authorisations and permits, as well as tax rulings and exemptions; and assist in managing human resources issues (for example, the obtention of work permits for foreign executives and specialists.) The acquisitions on which this Firm has acted for non-Swiss companies and groups have, due to our committed and efficient work, generally resulted in long-term stable relationships.

Our Firm masters all fields of banking and financial law, from acting as counsel for the establishment of banks and investment vehicles, to the registration of foreign funds in Switzerland. We are also expert in the domains of documentary credits, bank guarantees and other financial or banking instruments. We act in a wide variety of disputes in the fields of banking and finance.

Our Firm, due to a long practice history in numerous arbitral jurisdictions, enjoys an international reputation for excellence in arbitration, both institutional and ad hoc.

Members of the Firm are regularly appointed arbitrators or counsel for matters venued in Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London and other centres of international arbitration.