Advestra: reaching for the stars

Featured in our Switzerland Report (July 2021)

Law firm spin-offs have a long history. In January 1889, William Capel Slaughter and William May left the three-man partnership of Ashurst Morris Crisp, where they were working together as trainees, and set up their own shop in the City of London. Business at the firm they founded, Slaughter and May, seems to have ticked along quite nicely ever since. 

In January 2021, Advestra arrived in the Swiss legal market, setting out its stall offering specialist advice in corporate, M&A, capital markets, finance, financial services and tax. ‘We created a corporate law firm combining the power of a big law firm with the personal and lean approach of a small firm. We work as a team with no room for egos.’ So proclaims Advestra’s website as a mission statement to the market which it serves: investment banks and major international companies. 

Beyond a variety of domestic law firm mergers that have taken place – most of them defensive – this move may arguably prove to be one of the most important to have occurred in the Swiss legal market for some years, particularly if the founders’ ultimate ambition to become a major force alongside Switzerland’s current legal elite is eventually realized.