Pierre-Yves Gunter
Founding Partner
Pierre-Yves Gunter is a highly acclaimed legal professional and is consistently ranked in leading professional guides such as Who’s Who Legal (“Thought Leader”), GAR, Chambers & Partner, and Legal 500. In 2023, he was named as one of the top 9 Leading Arbitrators in Switzerland by Leaders League.
Pierre-Yves Gunter
Founding Partner
Attorney-at-law
LL.M. Harvard
Geneva Bar Admission: 1991
Areas of practice:
Arbitration,
Dispute Resolution
Languages:
English, French, German
Overview
Pierre-Yves Gunter benefits from a remarkable track record in international commercial arbitration. His experience, spanning over three decades, also includes business law and IT law.
Since 1991, he has acted as counsel and arbitrator in 245 international commercial arbitration cases, both ad hoc (including UNCITRAL) and institutional (ICC, LCIA, ICDR, SIAC, SCAI, Stockholm Arbitration Institute, VIAC), making him one of the most experienced practitioners in the field.
Experience
His extensive experience in commercial arbitration includes a wide range of industries, such as, but not limited to, construction and complex projects, oil & gas, commodity and international trade, telecommunications and IT, intellectual property, post M&A, pharmaceutical, military & defense, real estate, and hotel management. Additionally, Mr. Gunter has experience as Counsel and arbitrator with investment arbitration cases.
Third party funders regularly seek his expert advice. He is also frequently called upon to serve as arbitration and Swiss law expert.
He acts as counsel before state courts primarily for litigation cases connected to arbitration cases and appeals to the Swiss Federal Tribunal against arbitral awards, or in defending such appeals.
Qualifications
Mr. Gunter graduated summa cum laude from the Law School of the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) where he was also a teaching assistant for contract law.
He furthered his education by earning an LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
He also gained experience abroad by working for two years in London and Paris for a leading international law firm.
Mr. Gunter is a Board Member of the Swiss Arbitration Center (SAC), and has served as a Board Member of the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) and Chair of the Arbitration Committee of the section “International Law and Practice” of the American Bar Association (ABA).
He is a frequent speaker at conferences in arbitration and regularly publishes on topics of Swiss law, commercial disputes, and international arbitration.
His contributions to the field of international arbitration include co-editing the Guide to IP Arbitration for the Global Arbitration Review (GAR), co-authoring an article on “Organization of the Proceedings in Construction Arbitrations: General Considerations and Special Issues” in the GAR Guide to Construction Arbitration, and co-authoring the yearly review of the Swiss arbitration case law (Panorama de jurisprudence) for the Paris Journal of International Arbitration.