Planning, drafting and negotiating all types of national and international business contracts are some of our core capabilities. Whether you need contractual advice on financing, hedging, selling and purchasing, principal and agent relations, agency and distribution, licensing, insurance, general terms and conditions, research and development, joint ventures or other commercial agreements, we are your qualified partner for reaching your economic goals using the best legal approach.

Building projects require a wide range of stakeholders to cooperate with each other. In addition to private or public principals, they most often involve several contractors, planners and public authorities, not to mention architects, neighbours and associations. In such projects, you can count not only on our legal assistance, but also on our negotiation skills, project management experience and grasp of technical implications. These assets allow us to deliver practical, time-saving and therefore economically predictable solutions to our clients.

We assist you in all stages of building project planning and execution, especially with:

• building permit and recourse procedures, planning approval procedure and expropriation, parcelling, tendering and land-use and design planning procedures;
  
• awarding of work, assessment and negotiation of all types of building and planning contracts, particularly contracts for work and services and contracts with architects and planners; and
  
• avoidance or, if necessary, settlement of building problems such as defects, delays, additional costs, and assistance in managing your claim.

Furthermore, we gladly advise you on choosing the right legal form of organisation for your project. Is a total or general contractor agreement the best solution? Or would a consortium or a public private partnership be more suitable? Finally, we also clarify environmental law issues relating to building projects.  

The continuity and success of a business also depends on early and thorough succession planning. We answer all your legal questions in this respect.

After careful consideration of your particular situation, we can answer your legal questions about matrimonial property regimes or inheritance that arise in connection with succession planning. We can also plan and conduct a management buyout for an in-house succession or restructure your business in anticipation of new management, such as by creating holding companies or splitting off business divisions. In doing so, we also provide advice on the legal issues involved in financing, pensions and tax planning.

Moreover, we provide qualified advice on all legal aspects of private inheritance planning and inheritance law. We draft and review wills, inheritance contracts and matrimonial agreements. Upon your request, we also serve as executors.  

Our experience in succession settlements allows us to support heirs and communities of heirs in such areas as legal security measures, estate distribution, hotchpot obligations and actions in abatement.

We assist you and your company in all stages of development, from founding, legal structuring and corporate finance (venture capital, private equity investments, capital increases, mezzanine financing, loans) to sales to strategic investors, management buyouts or other exit scenarios.

Furthermore, you can rely on our extensive experience in restructuring, such as mergers and divisions, and in sales and acquisitions of companies (share deal) or enterprises (asset deal). We are also the right choice for contractual arrangements of legal and commercial relationships between shareholders. 

We assist board members and executives on a wide range of matters, especially corporate governance and compliance issues.

When providing our corporate and transaction law services, we always consider the relevant tax aspects. We also represent you in cases involving business offences.

You can rely on our expertise in all areas of real estate and tenancy law when planning a real estate transaction. We provide you with legal assistance in evaluating property for purchase and in purchasing, selling, renting, leasing and financing real estate.

We are also pleased to assist you in setting up and adapting servitudes and property liens, such as mortgages or mortgage certificates, and in creating ownership of, administering and selling condominiums.

Last but not least, we gladly advise you on issues relating to real estate acquisitions by foreigners (Lex Koller) and in conflicts with neighbours or tenants.

We are a reliable partner for your legal concerns about information technology. Terms like 'source code', 'compiler' and 'user interface' are not foreign to us.

We offer legal assistance particularly in the areas of software development (e.g. development, license or escrow agreements), outsourcing (e.g. service and support agreements), data protection, data security, public tenders for IT services and purchasing hardware and software.

To that end, you can rely on both our technical expertise in IT law and our knowledge of related legal areas.

Effective, forward-looking corporate management must observe and make the most of the guidelines and scopes set out in public and private labour law. This is specifically true when implementing incentive and employee participation schemes, work scheduling concepts, and restructuring and reorganisation projects. Whether you need assistance in drafting employment contracts or regulations (such as for general staff or allowable expenses), want to enforce non-competition obligations, or are grappling with issues related to the termination of employment contracts, labour law claims, work or residence permits, you can always count on our legal assistance.

Together with our international network, we can also provide you with qualified advice on legal forms of international deployment and labour leasing arrangements.

At your request, we will also provide you with support regarding insurance issues. In the area of pension plans and funds, we assist you in planning and carrying out mergers and liquidations of pension funds or in creating regulations on pension fund investment and partial liquidation. We will also point out opportunities for using your pension fund assets.

Whether you want to enforce a claim as a creditor using the recourses available to you under debt collection and insolvency law, realise a lien, or have concerns about restructuring measures at your company, you can take advantage of our extensive experience in dealing with all the legal issues involved in debt collection and insolvency, including bankruptcy and receivership, and benefit from our representation in all phases and forms of enforcement proceedings.

In our insolvency and restructuring legal practise, we draw from our experience in other fields of law, especially corporate, transaction, litigation, contract and labour law. Furthermore, just like we do in other fields of law, we make it a priority in our insolvency and restructuring engagements to promptly assess not only the legal, but also the commercial chances of success.

Qualified legal advice, when obtained early enough (i.e. before a conflict arises), can often prevent legal proceedings. If this is impossible and legal proceedings cannot be avoided through out-of-court negotiations, we will protect your interests before state courts and courts of arbitration.

Our litigation approach is not only rigorous, but also always keeps your economic goals in mind. A careful analysis of the opportunities and risks in a case, combined with a clear recommendation, is part and parcel to the counsel and representation we provide in legal proceedings. If protecting your interests requires litigation in foreign jurisdictions, you can rely on our network of approved associated attorneys.