News | 01 January 2011
Pierre-Olivier Allaz and Werner Jahnel promoted Counsel of the firm
The partners of LALIVE are pleased to announce the promotion of Pierre-Olivier Allaz in Geneva and Werner Jahnel in Zurich to Counsel of the firm as at 1 January 2011.
Mr Allaz joined LALIVE in 2006. His main areas of practice are Swiss commercial and corporate law, debt and insolvency proceedings, domestic litigation and labour law. He regularly advises parties to international contracts and represents clients before the Geneva Courts and the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, including in arbitration-related matters. Mr Allaz is an alternate judge at the Tribunal de première instance, Geneva.
Dr Jahnel joined the firm’s international arbitration group in 2008 and is based in our Zurich office. Aside from his international arbitration practice, including as arbitrator and lecturer (Northwestern Law School, Chicago and Instituto de Empresa, Madrid), Dr Jahnel regularly advises private clients and companies in Switzerland and abroad on business and corporate matters. His promotion reflects the strengthening of our practice in Zurich.
Dr Jahnel’s promotion was reported in the Global Arbitration Review Briefing on 13 January 2011: “Lalive partner Matthias Scherer, who has worked closely with Jahnel, tells GAR: ‘We opened up the Zurich office last year mainly to provide local litigation and corporate services to our Swiss and international corporate clients in the Zurich area. As a by-product, the office also attracted more arbitration work’. ‘Werner’s experience made him the ideal person to deal with this in Zurich, together with other members of the arbitration group,’ Scherer continues. ‘He is not only a fine lawyer but also great with people. Clients love him.’ Partner Domitille Baizeau adds that Jahnel has greatly strengthened the firm’s Spanish-speaking team. Anne Marie Whitesell, who was secretary general of the ICC while Jahnel was there, describes him as ‘a wonderful team player’ and ‘a pleasure to work with’, saying that he will be a ‘great asset to the excellent arbitration practice at Lalive’. While at the ICC, Whitesell says Jahnel was ‘enthusiastic, hard-working, professional, international and intellectually open-minded’. He was also ‘extremely motivated’ – completing his doctoral thesis while working full time. Andreas Reiner, who worked with Jahnel in Vienna, agrees that his promotion comes as no surprise. Reiner calls him a bright and reliable lawyer with ‘great language skills and intercultural knowledge’, adding that he is ‘firm on important principles’ but ‘diplomatic to the extent required and justified’.”
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