Regarded for its combination of ‘technical expertise with commercial pragmatism’, Lenz & Staehelin maintains a broad offering that extends across abuse of dominance issues, restrictive practices, and cartel investigations. Other core streams of work for the team include dawn raids and leniency issues. The practice is steered by ’star’ lawyer Marcel Meinhardt and ‘top expert’ Benoît Merkt; the former is a tour-de-force across the sectors of insurance, banking, and energy, among others, while the latter is renowned for his strengths in managing Swiss and European merger control issues. Astrid Waser demonstrates considerable prowess on the non-contentious side, while Sevan Antreasyan possesses expertise in relation to merger control, cartel investigations and infringement proceedings.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Mentions
Profile
Work Department
Competition / Antitrust Law, Compliance, Investigations, Public Law, Public Procurement Law, Technology, Media & Telecoms, Energy Law and Environmental Law
Position
Partner, Head of ESG
Career
Joined Lenz & Staehelin (2002), European Commission / DG Competition - Secondment in a leading Brussel's law firm (2004), Partner at Lenz & Staehelin (2012), Lecturer for competition law at University of Bern (2023)
Languages
German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
Memberships
Board member of the Competition Law Commission of the Swiss Bar
Association (SAV), Co-Chair of the Competition Law Section of the Zurich Bar
Association (ZAV), Member of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht eV, Swiss
Association for Competition Law (ASAS is a member of the International
League of Competition Law - LIDC)
Education
University College Dublin (1995), University of Lausanne (lic. iur., 1996), College of Europe (LL.M., 1997), Admission to Zurich Bar (1999), University of Zurich (Dr. iur., 2002)
Content supplied by Lenz & Staehelin
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Indisputably, the best competition team in Switzerland in both litigation and merger control.'
‘Benoît Merkt is extremely clear and always advises you in a pragmatic way with a real sense of business. His younger partner Sevan Antreasyan is the name to watch. Excellent as well.’
‘Best team in in Switzerland for competition - technical expertise with commercial pragmatism.’
‘Benoît Merkt is a standout individual - always open and available at short notice. Top expert with commercial pragmatism.’
‘Depth of regulatory understanding for this jurisdiction.’
‘Marcel Meinhardt is a star, always helpful on every topic we put to him.’
‘Extremely professional, excellent quality and great advice. They have excellent knowledge of the legal system and have extensive experience with similar cases. I can't imagine a team being even better.’
‘Benoît Merkt is outstanding - highly intelligent, pragmatic and sensitive to client's goals and objectives’
Key clients
- Allfunds Bank Group
- Alliance SwissPass
- AG Hallenstadion
- APG|SGA
- AURA Blockchain Consortium
- Bain Capital Private Equity
- BMW
- Chanel
- Cinven
- City of Geneva
- City of Zurich
- Colgate Palmolive
- CRH
- CTS Eventim
- SBB Cargo
- Dargaud
- Deutsche Bank
- ENGIE Services AG
- European Broadcasting Union
- Ford
- Geberit Vertriebs AG
- Officine Maccaferri
- HgCapital
- Honda
- HSBC
- Implenia
- INEOS Group
- Mastercard
- Krones AG
- Maus Frères SA
- MSC
- Pfizer
- PostFinance
- Richemont
- SAP
- Swiss Post
- Swisscom
- Swissquote
- TA Associates
- The Carlyle Group
- Ticketcorner
- TotalEnergies
- Unilever
- Vigier
- Vicat
- XXXLutz
- Zendesk