What are the most important transactions and litigations you have been involved during the last two years?

My team mostly focuses in keeping the organisation running smoothly and in line with best practices. Some important activities include the AGM, the challenges presented during the pandemic and the constant need to adapt to a changing legal and factual environment. Concurrently, we are ramping up for the implementation of the Swiss corporate law reform. Additionally, the increased importance of ESG for organisations and the society at large presented new opportunities and challenges for the legal function like how to help shape the governance, support sustainability initiatives, and keep the pace in an integrated and complex world that also impacts how multinational organisations operate. On ESG, we work closely with various functions as a strategic partner to implement ESG in our operations; this includes not only our positions and initiatives, but also how we disclose those and develop non-financial reporting that increasingly gets a similar standing to financial reporting. The complexity of ESG topics, which are global in nature but at the same time specific to each jurisdiction, has an incredible speed in developing new laws and regulations and these require close attention and a strong network. In addition to a dedicated sustainability function, the legal team has a key role to play to support a consistent approach across the organisation, to identify risks and to shape the governance around strategic implementation of and oversight over ESG strategy.

What impact did Brexit have on the financial industry in Switzerland?

At least for insurance companies, Switzerland was fast in agreeing bilateral treaties to mitigate the impact of Brexit with respect to UK operations and regulatory topics. Both Switzerland and the UK are now non-EU members and have already agreed on a fair number of bilateral treaties. It is unlikely that Switzerland as such would otherwise benefit from Brexit.

Have any new laws, regulations or judicial decisions greatly impacted your company’s business or your legal practice?

Lawmakers and regulators are challenged to develop within their jurisdictions’, laws and regulations that seek to address global issues. Non-financial disclosure, measuring financial impact of climate risk, greenwashing, addressing social issues and globally covered human rights concerns are topics that are increasingly covered by laws and regulations locally, which multinational corporations need to consider.

We increasingly see TCFD becoming embedded in regulations which has extra-territorial impact.