In a year in which the majority of Switzerland’s law firms bunkered down to weather the economic downturn, Froriep Renggli seemed determined to buck the trend. In December last year, the firm opened an office in Madrid – the first Swiss firm to do so. The firm is in the habit of setting precedents, the opening of its London office being another Swiss first back in the late 1980s.
Jean-Marie Vulliemin, the Geneva-based Froriep partner behind the move into Spain, is passionate about the philosophy behind the Madrid office. The focus of 2002 was to develop the firm’s Latin America practice group, which is made up of lawyers from both Zurich and Geneva, and is the first such regionally-focused group to be created in a Swiss firm. Having an office in Madrid will serve as a platform for developing business in Latin America – private client work in particular is a lucrative practice area – while Spain itself is recognised as one of the European Union’s (EU’s) fastest-growing economies.
