Blesi & Papa

Number of partners: 4
Number of other lawyers: 3
Languages: English, French, German, Italian

Firm Overview:
Blesi & Papa was established in 2007 by Alfred Blesi and Roberta Papa, former key members of Lenz & Staehelin’s employment law practice group. Blesi & Papa handles all facets of individual and collective employment law, pensions, social security and related areas on non-contentious and contentious matters, including litigation in court and representation of clients before arbitral tribunals and administrative agencies. Being the first law firm in Switzerland exclusively dedicated to these areas of practice, Blesi & Papa serves an international clientele, predominantly enterprises, with the highest level of expertise. The firm is also regularly consulted by other law firms in Switzerland and abroad to assist in employment, pension and social security law matters.

Main Areas of Practice:  

Employment Law:
Blesi & Papa advises employers and employees on all aspects of non-contentious and contentious employment law, across all industries both in domestic and international cases. Besides assistance in daily business employment matters, Blesi & Papa provides its clients advice namely in the following areas.

Employment Regulations:
Standard employment contracts, employee handbooks, working time regulations, company car policies, expense policies etc.

Customised Employment Contracts For Executives:
Including compensation and benefits programmes as well as non-compete and non-solicitation covenants.

Employee Incentive Schemes:
The firm has ample experience in drafting and implementing all types of employee incentive schemes (shares, stock options, phantom shares etc), both for public companies and start-up enterprises, in combination with tailored shareholders agreements.

Termination Agreements & Garden Leave:
The firm provides legal advice in drafting and represents clients in negotiations on termination agreements, in particular for executives.

Collective Dismissals/Redundancy Programmes:
The firm assists corporate clients, often in close cooperation with human resources representatives and transaction lawyers, and provides the necessary guidance to comply with consultation and notification requirements.

Collective Labour Law Issues:
The firm advises and represents corporate clients in connection with worker’s participation and negotiations with trade unions on collective bargaining agreements. In case of labour disputes, it advises corporate clients in the development and implementation of prudent defence strategies.

Reorganisations, Restructurings, Corporate Transactions:
The firm advises corporate clients on strategic and transaction-specific issues in the context of reorganisations, restructurings and corporate transactions. In larger deals, the firm works closely together with corporate lawyers (in-house and outside counsel) providing constructive advice on all employment and pension law aspects (such as transfer of businesses, consultation of employees, partial liquidation of pension funds etc).

Lending of Employees:
The firm advises corporate clients on lending of employees, in particular within multinational groups of companies.

Internal Investigations:
The firm advises and assists corporate clients in conducting internal investigations, in particular in the context of accusations of mobbing, harassment and grievances. The firm also provides advice on drafting and implementing investigation policies and disciplinary policies. Data Protection Issues: In particular in the context of outsourcing, whistleblowing hotlines, monitoring of electronic communication etc.

Dispute Resolution:
The firm provides legal advice and representation in connection with employment disputes before Swiss courts, arbitral tribunals and administrative agencies. The partners of Blesi & Papa also serve as arbitrators on domestic and international arbitral tribunals in employment matters.

Pensions:
The firm advises and assists employers, pension funds and employees on all aspects of pension law, in particular on: drafting of pension regulations, partial liquidations of pension funds (e.g. in connection with reorganisations, restructurings and collective dismissals), early or postponed retirements, optimised pension buy-in for individuals, coordination of payments of the employer with pension fund benefits (e.g. in relation with redundancy programs/ social plans), pensions and cross-border secondments. The firm also has ample experience in litigating complex pension matters in court.

Social Security:
In particular in the context of international assignments and global mobility, the firm advises its clients with regard to: compulsory insurance, insurance contributions, liability of executives, coordination of insurance benefits (e.g. payments of the employer), international coordination, cross-border secondments.

Immigration:
The firm assists clients with the application for work and residence permits for senior employees and highly qualified specialists and their families from EU-/EFTA member states and third countries.

International Work:
Blesi & Papa advises international clients who wish to relocate to or establish a business presence in Switzerland in all Swiss employment, pension, social security, data protection and immigration matters. Furthermore, Blesi & Papa assists law firms abroad in drafting, reviewing and adopting global incentive schemes and other multi-jurisdictional documents for multinational companies. In addition, it provides its expertise in employment and pensions aspects of international corporate transactions.

Clients:
Blesi & Papa has an international clientele including public and privately held businesses as well as financial institutions, pension funds and individuals.