Corporate law and restructuring
There are many corporate forms entrepreneurs may choose to conduct their business – from a sole proprietorship to a listed public limited company, a general partnership, a limited liability company or a LLP.
Our specialist lawyers are familiar with these structures and can guide you in forming, transforming or dissolving a company. In this context, numerous formalities are often required (notarial deeds, entries in the Trade Register), and it is useful to have a lawyer's advice in order to make the right choices in line with your business objectives, as well as to avoid certain pitfalls. Except in sole proprietorships, it is also necessary to regulate the relationships between partners or shareholders, something for which expert advice is necessary, in order to create a sound basis for business development.
Finally, tax considerations often play a role in the choice of the form an entrepreneur may wish to adopt for conducting economic activities. We can provide you with general guidance and, if necessary, guide you towards the experts we are used to working with.
In the course of its life, a business may have to change its legal form, especially as business develops. It may also be sold or transferred to other owners, for example through an acquisition or merger of companies or a transfer of assets and liabilities. The transfer may be a full transfer and may involve the entire business, or just part of it. Such transactions are generally complex, both legally and fiscally, and require specialist advice.
The end of a company's life is characterised by its liquidation and the dissolution of its legal form, all of which again presupposes the conclusion of a number of very specific acts. Our specialist lawyers will advise you in these steps.
Already complex in itself business law and corporate restructuring law have to regularly be involved, in Switzerland and Geneva, in the globalisation of trade and foreign investments. Our specialist lawyers are accustomed to taking the international dimension of business law into consideration in all the steps described above.
An increasingly important topic at present is good corporate governance (internal balance of power, responsibility towards external stakeholders). These concerns are not limited to the area of commercial companies, but also concern foundations and associations. The Firm advises various organisations on improving their legal and institutional governance.