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Eversheds moots Swiss Verein move as part of its 2020 vision

In Switzerland, a verein is akin to a voluntary association - a grouping of individual companies or firms, each with separate limited liability and regulated by the members' respective domestic jurisdictions; whose joint and overall governance or control is "pooled" within an over-arching board or committee. Norton Rose and SNR Denton - LLPs each holding subsidiaries and shares in associated firms practising in 20+ countries - are examples of the "verein" model operating in the UK. The principal benefit lies in the pursuit of a unified, global policy of business expansion whilst preserving independence of liability between national entities; although I am aware of at least one judgment (in the USA) in which claimants argued successfully that the court should apply "veil piercing" in order to hold that one country's firm of accountants was acting as agent for an alleged "verein-principal" domiciled in another.

9-Jul-2012

12:55 pm