While boundaries between the once-distinct Geneva and Zurich markets continue to blur and Switzerland’s famed private client business gets ever more global, Helen Mooney finds the country’s top law firms intent on preserving as much of the old order as possible
In March, two well-known Swiss practices, Lachenal & Le Fort and Meyerlustenberger, merged, creating one of the largest law firms in the country. Just 18 months after a high-profile split between the Geneva and Zurich offices of local firm Pestalozzi – when a number of the firm’s Geneva partners decided they wanted to focus on their core practice areas in Francophone Switzerland – the need to provide their clients with Germanic advice drove those partners – practising since October 2010 as Lachenal – to merge with Zurich’s Meyerlustenberger.
