Biography: Arbitration

Anne Véronique Schlaepfer is a partner in Schellenberg Wittmer's arbitration group in Geneva. She specialises in international arbitration relating to, inter alia, construction contracts, corporate affairs, energy (upstream and downstream), joint ventures, sales (building materials, metals, specialised equipment). She has represented parties before Swiss courts in arbitration-related court proceedings, namely challenges of arbitral awards before the Swiss Supreme court or the Geneva Court of Justice. She has advised companies when negotiating agreements governed by Swiss law and acted as a legal expert in the context of arbitration proceedings. Anne Véronique Schlaepfer also serves as arbitrator in numerous proceedings.

She chairs the Swiss national committee that administers arbitration proceedings governed by the Swiss Rules of arbitration and the special committee that gives recommendations and renders decisions on various issues such as the determination of the place of arbitration, the challenge of arbitrators in proceedings governed by the Swiss Rules. Anne Véronique Schlaepfer is the chairman of the arbitration committee that administers arbitration proceedings governed by the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration. She is a member of the arbitration committee of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce and an associate member of the ICC Institute of World business law.

Anne Véronique Schlaepfer is also a member of the working group for the revision of the Swiss Rules (2010-2011) and was a member of the task force for the drafting of the IBA Guidelines for drafting International Arbitration Clauses, approved in October 2010. Since January 2012, Anne Véronique Schlaepfer has been vice-chair of the IBA arbitration committee.

She is a lecturer on international arbitration at the University of Paris XII and a member of various associations (International Bar Association, Association Suisse d'Arbitrage (ASA), London Court of International Arbitration). She is a co-founder of the ASA 'Below 40' and of the Young Arbitration Practitioners (YAP).

Anne Véronique Schlaepfer was admitted to the Bar in Switzerland in 1996, after graduating from the University of Geneva where she obtained a business administration degree in 1991 and a law degree in 1993. She joined Schellenberg Wittmer in 1994 and became a partner in 2002. In 1998 she worked with Herbert Smith in London as a foreign lawyer. Anne Véronique Schlaepfer is fluent in French, English and German. She has published various contributions in the field of international arbitration.

Schellenberg Wittmer is one of the leading business law firms in Switzerland. Over 130 lawyers in Zurich and Geneva advise domestic and international clients on all aspects of business law. The firm's areas of expertise include: banking and finance, competition and antitrust, dispute resolution and international arbitration, intellectual property/information technology, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, private clients, trusts and estates, foundations, real estate and construction, restructuring and insolvency, taxation, white-collar crime and compliance.