Banking and finance: Geneva

Lenz & Staehelin

The ‘proactive, available, and very pragmatic’ team at Lenz & Staehelin advises domestic and international clients on the full spectrum of banking and finance matters including refinancing, sustainability-linked, acquisition financings, regulatory advice, and fintech-related matters. The team is headed by the ’highly experienced’ Shelby du Pasquier who has extensive expertise advising financial institutions, offshore private equity, hedge fund managers on various legal and regulatory matters as well as internal investigations. Olivier Stahler assists financial institutions, industrial groups, and commodities traders with regulatory advice, in particular the granting of licenses. François Rayroux has a key focus on asset management and regulatory matters, specifically new regulatory developments, such as digitalisation, and financial products. David Ledermann has expertise in complex equity financing for privately held companies, convertible debt financing and debt financing backed by traditional and non-traditional assets, while Fedor Poskriakov has specialist knowledge in advising on new technologies, such as DLT and fintech-business models. Other key team members include Valérie Menoud, Laurence Vogt Scholler, and Isy Isaac Sakkal.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘Lenz & Staehelin has a highly experienced practice, with a great knowledge of the Swiss regulator and the Swiss banking practice. They have a high expertise in financing, regulatory or global market with a pragmatic/solution driven mindset.’
'Shelby du Pasquier is a highly experienced partner. He is available when needed and provides timely advice. He is also reassuring to his clients and very well respected by regulators. Isy Isaac Sakkal is a very good senior lawyer working with Shelby and is always keen to assist the firm's clients in particular on banking/financing regulations and administrative procedures.
François Rayroux is a very skilled banking and regulatory lawyer. He is always available when needed, solution-oriented and pragmatic.’
‘Lenz & Staehelin is a great law firm, clearly meeting the high expectations coming with the reputation. Great internal network of subject matter experts, which are pulled in as and when required.’
‘David Ledermannclearly stands out: highly skilled, very engaged, super pragmatic, client-centric lawyer. Avoids unnecessary rounds of negotiations, very commercially minded, and always focused on finding a solution.
‘François Rayroux is extremely well connected in the fund and asset management industry and with relevant authorities. Therefore, he has a great overview on market practices overall and on future developments of the law.’
‘They are very proactive, available, and very pragmatic to find a solution.’
‘I have been working with Olivier Stahler for more than 15 years on funds and asset management regulatory topics generally. He consistently combines extremely high technical knowledge with strong business acumen.’

Key clients

ABN AMRO
Amundi Suisse SA
Ares Life Sciences / Waypoint
Aviva Investors Global Services
Banque Lombard Odier & Cie SA
Banque Syz SA
BNP Paribas Group
BlackRock
Barclays Bank
Citibank Group
Clariant
Crédit Agricole Group
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
Edmond de Rothschild Group
Equistone Partners
Goldman Sachs
Fidelity
Hilti
HSBC
INEOS
ING Bank
ISDA
Banco Itau
J.P. Morgan
Kennedy Lewis Investment Management
LafargeHolcim
Legal and General Investment Management Limited
Macquarie Group
New York Digital Investment Group
Nomura
ODDO BHF
OROX Asset Management
Pargesa Holding SA
Pensionskasse SBB
Pictet Group
PIMCO
Rabobank
Raiffeisen Bank
REHAU
REYL Intesa Sanpaolo
Saxobank
SIX Swiss Exchange
Société Générale
SoftwareONE
Stratéo
Swissquote Bank SA
UBP
UBS
Unigestion S.A.
Vanguard
Bank Vontobel AG
VTG Aktiengesellschaft

Work highlights

Acted as legal advisor to Swissquote Bank in relation to the structuring and implementation of Yuh, a new online digital banking platform and app for retail investors in Switzerland.
Assisted Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate SICAV, for the purpose of its capital increase of CHF 290m and the listing of its new shares on SIX Swiss Exchange.

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