Legal expertise for the real estate sector

Whether it is a matter of procurement, urban development, or contract negotiations, professional planners are often confronted with complex legal issues. We combine our technical planning skills and our legal expertise to offer our clients optimal solutions that are both technically and legally sound.

We support our clients in the following legal areas: procurement law; construction contract law; land-registry law; spatial planning and public construction law; environmental law; transportation law; and energy law.

  • Procurement law
    Working in accordance with federal and cantonal legislation, we draft the documents you need for calls to tender and oversee the procurement procedures. We also manage special types of procurement, including dialogues and proposal-based and design competitions. (For more information, see Procurement.)
     
  • Construction law and land-registry law
    We draft development plan agreements, work contracts, real-estate transaction documents, easement documents and other property-use agreements (operation and maintenance). We review contract drafts, complete contract negotiations, oversee land-registry revisions, and provide legal counsel in case of contract disputes.
     
  • Spatial planning and public construction law
    We offer our federal, cantonal, and municipal clients proven expertise in all areas of spatial planning. We help municipalities to draft and review their land use plans; devise development and other special-use plans; negotiate urban-development agreements with private-sector stakeholders (e.g. with regard to compensation procedures for major advantages and disadvantages resulting from planning acts or development obligations), and realize site developments. We support communities when it comes to questions relating to urban development and negotiate with public agencies to help developers realize their private-sector projects. We help planning agencies to complete all planning-certification and project-approval procedures relating to federal, cantonal, and municipal infrastructure (e.g. road projects, urban-renewal projects, flood-protection projects, etc.). We offer legal advice when it comes to the planning of underground projects, expropriations or land reorganisation projects.
     
  • Environmental law
    We help our clients to manage legal issues relating to aquatic-environment protection, noise control, brownfields, protection against non-ionizing radiation, environmental-impact assessments, and landscape, nature, and heritage protection.
     
  • Transportation law
    We help our clients to manage licensing issues relating to public-transportation services and show them how to ensure they are compliant with traffic laws, taxi provisions, and parking regulations.
     
  • Energy law
    We help our clients handle all legal matters relating to the construction and operation of renewable-energy systems, thermal networks, and microgrids. We draft contracting agreements, review contract drafts, facilitate implementation, and provide legal advice in case of contractual disputes. We also provide advisory services relating to energy-market law and licensing, especially when it comes to obtaining licenses for water-use and district-heating projects.