Biography: Commercial Litigation

Laurent Killias, born 1961, is a partner and member of Pestalozzi's litigation and arbitration group in Zurich.

Laurent Killias graduated from the University of Zurich and was admitted to the Zurich Bar in 1990. He published a doctoral dissertation summa cum laude in the area of forum selection clauses in international litigation. In addition, he received his LLM from King's College, London.

Laurent Killias acts regularly as counsel in court proceedings. The subject matters of the disputes in which Laurent Killias has been involved include all kinds of commercial and corporate disputes, such as banking litigation, M&A transactions, joint ventures, licensee agreements, distributorship agreement and director's liability disputes.

Furthermore, he is frequently chosen as a party-appointed arbitrator and chairman in international arbitrations on ICC panels, as well as under other institutional rules.

Laurent Killias has extensively published in the field of international litigation and arbitration, as well as in private international law and debt collection. His most recent publications include commentaries on the Lugano Convention/EC Regulation No. 44/2001 on jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments, the new Swiss Code of Civil Procedure and on aspects of the Swiss Code of Obligations (statutes of limitation; set-off), as well as articles on the enforcement of foreign judgments, forum selection clauses, the relevance of arbitration under the Lugano Convention, conflict of law issues in relation to distributorship agreements, and the international jurisdiction of disputes between companies and their shareholders. In addition, he lectures on international arbitration at the University of Zurich's LLM programme.