Dr Xavier Favre-Bulle > Lenz & Staehelin > Geneva, Switzerland > Lawyer Profile

Lenz & Staehelin offers comprehensive advice to athletes and sports organisations on a wide spectrum of fields including disputes, corporate law, employment and immigration law, competition law, and IP. Xavier Favre-Bulle leads the Geneva team with his special expertise in acting as counsel before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Zurich team head Stephan Erni advises clients on domestic and international transactions and on corporate and commercial matters. Lucien Masmejan  supports sports teams and event organisations in structuring and organizing their businesses. Other key team members include Hikmat Maleh, Sevan Antreasyan, and Peter Ling.

‘Outstanding’ Lenz & Staehelin enjoys a strong reputation within banking and finance litigation, representing a variety of Swiss financial institutions in relation to money laundering and investment fraud schemes. The team also demonstrates considerable capabilities across the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Switzerland, company law disputes and employment disputes. Notable corporate and M&A disputes expert Harold Frey, who is noted for his ‘great advocacy skills’, and commercial litigator Daniel Tunik spearhead the practice. Martin Burkhardt‘s wealth of experience extends from handling financial services and joint ventures to general corporate matters, while Xavier Favre-Bulle bolsters the team’s commercial disputes expertise. ‘Excellent advocate’ Dominique Müller leads the investigations practice, and Hikmat Maleh advises on the full gamut of criminal and commercial litigation.

A team recommended for its ‘truly global outlook’ and ‘great communication and organisational skills’, Lenz & Staehelin has recently been engaged by an impressive roster of clients to assist with mandates including post-M&A and construction disputes, as well as substantive and procedural matters produced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis. It is pre-eminent with a diverse scope of sectors, from energy and telecoms to luxury goods and sports. ‘Exquisite top-performing colleague’ Harold Frey and ‘one of the leading arbitration practitioners’ Xavier Favre-Bulle spearhead the team from the firm’s Zurich and Geneva offices respectively. The former is especially noted for his vast experience in construction and M&A disputes on an international scale, and the latter utilises his wide-ranging experience to take on the role of President of the Arbitration Court of the Swiss Arbitration Centre. Commercial litigator Martin Burkhardt and IP expert Thierry Calame further bolster the practice. Daniel Tunik is notably active in the banking sector, and Martin Aebi consistently covers construction, M&A and banking arbitration.

The team at Lenz & Staehelin acts for a broad range of clients across the biotech, diagnostics, and medical device industries on a wide range of matters, including IP disputes concerning supplementary protection certificates (SPC), and generics and biosimilars. The team is jointly led by Thierry Calame, Harold Frey, Xavier Favre-Bulle, Andreas Rötheli, and Guy Vermeil. In Geneva, Rötheli handles private equity buyouts and real estate issues; Vermeil maintains a technology and outsourcing based practice; and Favre-Bulle is noted for his longstanding experience in arbitrations concerning licences, joint ventures, and post-M&A disputes. In Zurich, IP expert Calame assists clients with licensing issues and copy right litigation, while Frey often handles international arbitrations and cases before Swiss courts, with his main area of focus being general contractual disputes.