Schellenberg Wittmer

Schellenberg Wittmer shook up the Swiss market for international arbitration some 12 years ago. We referred to the practice in our recent survey of Switzerland as "the house that Laurent built". It is arguably the most consistent Swiss practice to appear in both our league tables.

In 1996, the partners at Schellenberg gave Laurent Lévy permission to develop an arbitration team that was, essentially, too big for the firm. Lévy believed such a group could pitch for international cases, thus delivering new clients to the firm. Lévy recruited a second partner, Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, and they began to implement his idea. Today they are world-famous international arbitrators and the practice they built - with its mix of Swiss and non-Swiss lawyers - is the model that others emulate.

Nowadays the practice is divided between Geneva and Zurich. In 2000, Schellenberg merged with Wittmer. So the group contains around seven partners. Having that sort of size, and two locations, gives the practice a couple of advantages. The French-speaking lawyers have access to German-speaking lawyers versed in German law (and vice versa). And the team can scale up and scale down more easily. "In any number of combinations," says Anne-Veronique Schlaepfer, "having the Zurich office is exceptionally useful."

Kaufmann-Kohler and Lévy left the Geneva office in 2007. The names to know now are: Anne Véronique Schlaepfer, Elliott Geisinger and David Roney (who all work from Geneva); and Georg von Segesser, Nathalie Voser, and Alexander Jolles (who work from Zurich).

Schlaepfer believes that the departure of the practice's founders is probably for the best. "In terms of visibility, it was really wonderful having them. But the success of the practice as counsel, as well as the growth of the firm overall, was leading to more and more complicated conflict situations. Their decision has simplified matters greatly."

The practice is notable for having produced one of the first common-law trained partners working in Switzerland (in arbitration): David Roney. It is also endeavouring to remain an innovator in the market. Schlaepfer is one of the founders of the Swiss Young Arbitration Practitioners group. David Roney has created the Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy - a body "dedicated to providing advocacy training specifically designed for international arbitration".