Biography: Commercial Litigation

Ernst Walch is senior partner of Walch & Schurti, one of Liechtenstein's foremost law practices (linked with a renowned trustee company providing services to international companies and high-wealth individuals). His firm has extensive litigation experience and is an acknowledged leading player in the commercial litigation field in Liechtenstein.

Walch is admitted both in New York and in Liechtenstein, where he has practised since 1984. He was the first Liechtenstein law student to study and obtain admission in a common law jurisdiction.

His firm's expertise extends to litigation in all areas but particularly to commercial and other disputes involving banks, insurance companies and internationally active legal companies, as well as trusts, foundations and other Liechtenstein legal entities. The firm also specialises in disputes involving public bodies including government departments and agencies inside and outside Liechtenstein. Ernst Walch has advised and represented companies worldwide, but has focused on representing European and United States multinational companies.

The firm is forensically active before the national courts and before arbitration bodies, including the ICC.

Walch wrote the Liechtenstein chapters of Asset Protection: Domestic and International Law and Tactics (Osborne) and The Commercial Laws of the World (Lester Nelson). He is a member of the Liechtenstein and New York State Bar Associations, and of the European Lawyers Union. As member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law he serves on its executive council.

Walch also pursued a parallel political career, being a member of the Liechtenstein parliament from 1989 to 1996, president of parliament in 1993 and minister of foreign affairs from 2001 to 2005.