FBT Attorneys-at-Law

Alain Moreau is a Partner and head of the FBT Paris office. He holds a specialist qualification in tax law and has been practising French and international tax law for more than twenty years. In addition to his legal advisory activities, Alain Moreau follows numerous tax audit procedures, often with international implications and criminal risks. In this context, he has privileged relations at various levels of the French tax administration. Alain Moreau is recognised by the magazine Décideurs (Classification 2017) in patrimonial taxation (“strong notoriety”) and tax litigation (“renowned practice”). AREAS OF EXPERTISE French and international patrimonial taxation International exchange of information Tax litigation, particularly in connection with cross-border holdings Criminal tax litigation

Alix Caillard

Alix Caillard is a tax advisor and a member of FBT’s Tax group. She assists our clients in the tax optimization of their business and private assets both in France and abroad. She also assists individuals and corporations within the framework of examinations conducted by the tax administration, negotiations with the tax administration and tax litigations. Alix Caillard also assists individuals with respect to their tax reporting duties (income tax), wealth tax (IFI), « Dutreil » Scheme, including cross-border situations.

Aurélie Moyal-Azra

Aurélie Moyal-Azra is an Associate and a member of FBT’s Banking & Finance group. She advises Swiss and foreign banking establishments, companies active in asset management, as well as Swiss and foreign fund managers. Her experience extends to providing advice to individuals and legal persons with respect to financial market legislation, to contract law or criminal business law. She also advises private clients. Areas of expertise : Banking and Financial Regulations Regulatory and Financial Disputes Money Laundering

Frederique Bensahel

Frédérique Bensahel is considered as a leading lawyer in the banking and financial sector in Switzerland. As Partner at FBT and head of its Banking and Finance group, she advises Swiss and foreign financial institutions, in particular banks, asset managers, brokers, dealers as well as investment funds and fund managers on all regulatory and contractual issues. Frédérique Bensahel’s practice covers, in particular, fund and structured product distribution. Her activities also extend to civil financial litigation and regulatory proceedings. Frédérique Bensahel is a member of the STEP association and has a broad experience in wealth planning and trustee regulations. Frédérique Bensahel is the author of numerous publications in the field of financial regulation and investment funds and co-edited the Stämpfli Commentary of the Swiss Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA). She is regularly invited to participate as speaker in conferences in the field of financial regulation and investment funds. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Banking and Financial Services Asset Management Investment Funds Hedge Funds and Private Equity Distribution of Financial Products Independent Asset Manager and Trustee Regulation Wealth Management FINMA Enforcement Proceedings Financial Litigation

Jean De Skowronski

Jean de Skowronski is an Attorney-at-Law and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He has been active in the banking industry for more than 25 years, leading Credit Suisse’s Debt Capital Market Origination Departments in Zurich and London, BNP Paribas (Switzerland)’s Financial Institutions Group and one of Credit Suisse’s UHNWI wealth management teams. Member of several boards of directors, he has a broad experience in the field of finance regulation and in the banking and financial sectors, as well as in the areas of corporate and commercial law and in situations requiring mediation. Jean de Skowronski is active in a number of charitable organizations in Switzerland and abroad. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Banking and Finance Regulation Investment Funds and Structured Products Public and private Financing, Capital operations Wealth Management Commercial Litigation Employment Disputes Mediation and Assistance

Jean-Louis Tsimaratos

Jean-Louis Tsimaratos is a Partner with FBT and a member of its Banking and Finance Group. He advises a number of Swiss and international banking institutions, as well as companies active in asset management, securities dealing or intermediation as well as Swiss and foreign funds and fund managers. He has been nominated by various professional organizations in his capacity as expert in banking and finance law. He also benefits from a broad experience in asset management advisory with Swiss and foreign private clients. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Banking and financial regulation Investment funds Asset management Trade financing FOREX and administrative assistance in stock exchange matters

Jean-Luc Bochatay

Jean-Luc Bochatay is co-founder and Chairman of FBT Avocats SA. He has broad experience in tax, finance and corporate commercial issues regarding Swiss and foreign corporations and their shareholders. He regularly advises individuals and corporate clients on complex domestic and cross-border matters. Jean-Luc Bochatay has extensive experience in handling and coordinating multi-jurisdictional projects. He is considered as a leading expert in Swiss-French regulatory and tax matters. Areas of specialization: Swiss-French cross-border issues Tax disclosures Administrative assistance in tax matters Commercial and contract law Asset restructuring

Jean-Marie Kiener

Jean-Marie Kiener is a Counsel and a member of FBT’s Banking and Finance Group. He advises a number of Swiss and foreign financial institutions, notably banks and companies active in asset management, trading or intermediation of financial instruments. He also has extensive experience in civil and regulatory financial litigation and sanctions. Jean-Marie Kiener is the author of publications in the field of financial regulation and a regular speaker at conferences in this field. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Banking and Finance Regulation Licences Financial Market Infrastructures Collective Investment Schemes

Jerome Bissardon

Jérôme Bissardon is a Partner at FBT and a member of its Tax and Corporate Groups. He specializes in personal and patrimonial taxation and advises company directors and individuals on the tax optimization of their professional and private assets both in France and abroad with a view to their transfer (sale, donation, inheritance), or in a long-term return or investment logic. He has acquired solid experience of the “Dutreil” transmission pact in a French or French-Swiss environment, assisting company directors in the free transfer of shares or units of operating companies or animating holding companies, for the application of the transfer duty exemption on three quarters of the value. He also provides companies with day-to-day legal and tax advice and intervenes particularly in company structuring and intra-group relations. In this respect, he assists entrepreneurs in setting up companies, carrying out operations relating to the top end of companies’ balance sheets, drafting the legal documents necessary for the life of the company or of the group. He also acts in tax audits and disputes involving companies and individuals, whom he assists in seeking and concluding transactions with the tax authorities. As a music tax expert, he also advises record and show production companies on tax credits for live musical performances and tax credits for phonographic production. Lastly, he also assists individuals with respect to their tax reporting duties (income tax, wealth tax (IFI), exit tax, “Dutreil” transmission pact) as well as corporations with respect to (participation in meetings to prepare the annual accounts and tax returns).

Julien Le Fort

Julien Le Fort is a Lawyer with FBT and a member of both its Corporate and Commercial and its Banking and Finance groups. He specializes in corporate and commercial law and advises individuals and companies of different sizes on domestic as well as cross-border legal issues, namely on mergers and acquisitions, agency and distribution agreements and other commercial agreements. He also collaborates with the Banking and Finance group on financial litigations and banking regulation and advises Swiss and foreign banking institutions, companies active in asset management as well as investment funds and Swiss and foreign fund managers on these areas. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Incorporation and structuring of new commercial companies Contractual law Banking and financial litigations Banking and financial regulations

Marco Villa

Marco Villa is a Partner with FBT and a member of its Corporate and Banking and Finance groups. He is a leading contract and commercial law expert and specializes in corporate and commercial law and advises individuals, banks and companies of different sizes on domestic as well as cross-border legal issues, notably in the fields of business, finance and commercial contracts, mergers and acquisitions operations and agency and distribution agreements. He also has a broad experience in private equity as well as in real estate law (transactions, leases etc.). Marco Villa is a former professor on contract and tort law at the University of Lausanne. He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences on corporate and commercial law issues and the author of various publications in this field.

Michel Abt

Michel Abt is a Partner with FBT Attorneys-at-Law, the co-head of its Tax Group and a member of its Banking & Finance Group. He advises both natural persons and legal entities such as banks, family offices and trusts, as well as investors and administrators whether in Switzerland or abroad, with a specific emphasis on asset holding structures. Since 2009, Michel Abt has been advising a large number of French clients in their regularization process and has assisted them with their tax optimisation. He thus addresses all tax matters arising therefrom such as gift and inheritance issues in a cross-border perspective. He also assists clients in their voluntary disclosure to Swiss authorities as well as to foreign authorities enducting the same disclosure programmes, particularly in Italy. Michel Abt has significant expertise in negotiating tax rulings with various Swiss tax authorities (Geneva, Vaud, Valais, Lucerne, Schwyz, etc.) for the account of foreign high net worth clients wishing to settle in Switzerland. He assists them in their asset restructuring before their relocation and within their estate and succession planning. Furthermore, Michel Abt advises inheritors in the context of their international, multi-jurisdictional and complex successions both in a legal and fiscal perspective. He also advises on artistic heritages, their mode of ownership, their transmission and their sale. Finally, Michel Abt is an expert in financial market regulation, particularly in investment funds. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Tax law, in particular : Natural persons taxation (including tax engineering and wealth management, transmission and protection of assets, delocalisation et tax status) Companies and managerial taxation Property taxation (including structuration of real estate investments, and their financing) Collective investment schemes taxation Tax procedures (including unsolicited announcements and tax amnesties) Banking and financial regulations, in particular in relation to collective investment schemes (securities and real estate funds)

Noemie Pauli

Noémie Pauli is an Associate and member of FBT's Banking and Finance group. She advises Swiss and foreign banking establishments, companies active in asset management, as well as Swiss and foreign fund managers. Her experience extends to providing advice with respect to prudential law issues and contract law. Noémie Pauli carries out her activities in the field of financial advice and litigation. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Banking and Financial Regulations Regulatory and Financial Disputes Criminal Economic Law

Olivia de Weck

As a Partner in FBT’s Litigation and Arbitration group, Olivia de Weck advises and assists both natural and legal persons in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings. She regularly represents clients in the field of criminal business law, notably economic crime and mutual assistance in criminal matters, and ensures the protection and recovery of their assets. She also has extensive experience in proceedings before the Labour Courts in the context of labour law and unfair competition disputes. She is incorporated as an officer (Captain) in the Armed Forces of the Mechanised Brigade 1 since 2022, after having commanded for four years an exploration company. She also holds the position of Deputy Judge at the Military Court of Appeal 1. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Labour and Social Law Economic Criminal Law Family Law Debt Collector and Bankruptcy Law Contract Law Criminal Law Litigation and Arbitration

Pascale Cano

Pascale Cano is a member of FBT's Tax group of FBT Avocats. She has extensive experience in family estate law and private international law. After twelve years of practice in a notary’s office in Paris, she joined a prominent single-Family Office to devote herself for another twelve years to assisting the family members – established in various jurisdictions and with increasing geographic mobility – on family, marital and patrimonial-related legal and tax issues, in both domestic and cross-border contexts. Pascale Cano joined FBT in January 2018 as Head of its Family Estate Law group. In close synergy with our Geneva office, she advises individuals on family estate law matters, with a particular focus on cross-border issues. She is especially involved in ways and means of structuring and holding assets, as well as estate planning, through the recommendation of holding and transmission schemes (options and evolution of matrimonial regime, union/disunion, gifts inter vivos and wills, holding structures, philanthropic approaches).

Sara Pugliese-Charfadi

Sara Pugliese-Charfadi is an Associate with FBT and a member of its Litigation and Arbitration group. She is mainly active in business law litigations. Areas of Expertise : Labour and Social Insurance Law Debt Collector and Bankruptcy Law Contractual Law Criminal Law Litigation and Arbitration

Serge Fasel

Serge Fasel is one of the Founding Partners of FBT and head of its Litigation and Arbitration Group. He has extensive experience both in Swiss and international court litigation and arbitration. His fields of activities cover all forms of commercial disputes, particularly in the financial sector. He is also active in the areas of insolvency law, employment law and economic crime. He has a vast knowledge of the Swiss judicial environment. Serge Fasel is a Deputy Judge with the Geneva Appeal Court after having served for several years as Deputy Judge with the Court of First Instance. He has also achieved a course in the Military Justice, his last two responsibilities having been Deputy Chief Auditor with the Swiss Army and then Judge with the Federal Military Court of Cassation.

Stéphanie Barreira

Stéphanie Barreira is a Partner with FBT and shares responsibility of the Paris office. She is a member of itsTax Group. She advises individuals and corporations on the tax optimisation of their professional and private assets, in France and abroad. She also assists them in the optimisation of transfers of domicile (or headquarter) into France or abroad. She assists individuals and corporations within the framework of examinations conducted by the tax administration on national and international levels (notably within the framework of requests for administrative assistance) as well as of tax litigations. Stéphanie Barreira also deals with all reporting requirements of French or foreign taxpayers. She is highly experimented in the disclosure of foreign assets.

Veronique Chatelain Gomez

Véronique Chatelain Gomez is an Associate with FBT and a member of the Banking and Finance Group. She advises a number of Swiss and international banking institutions, as well as companies active in asset management, securities dealing or intermediation as well as Swiss and foreign funds and fund managers, in particular with regard to anti-money laundering issues. Her expertise extends to the different legal aspects of holding structures, notably trusts. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Banking and Finance Regulation Anti-Money Laundering Issues Legal Aspects of Holding Structures

Camille Fournier

Sara Pugliese-Charfadi

Legal 500

Our Team

FAQs

Marketing Resources

Newsletters

Contact us