Practice areas
FARLEGAL focuses its practice on four areas. Learn more about them below.
Contact Us
Contact Us
At FARLEGAL, the client's best interests take center stage and require that all alternative avenues to litigation be considered and, where appropriate, pursued. When litigation is unavoidable, the firm applies a strategic focus and creative approach in order to offer its clients the most effective representation.
FARLEGAL advises and represents clients before all levels of court in Geneva and Switzerland across a broad spectrum of both Swiss civil law (contract law; employment law; tenancy law; construction disputes; defamation; tort; fundamental rights) and Swiss criminal law (all felonies and misdemeanors with a focus on plaintiff-side and victim representation, and false criminal allegations defense; transnational crimes; extradition and mutual legal assistance).
Well-versed in handling multi-jurisdictional disputes, the firm seamlessly assists clients on cross-border matters that bear European law and international law components. The firm has specific expertise in EU whistleblower protection and international mutual legal assistance (both civil and criminal).
The firm also provides legal advice to clients in various areas of English law that intersect with or arise from the firm's overall practice areas.
Relying upon founder Shayan Farhad's experience and background in both international commercial arbitration and investor-state arbitration, FARLEGAL also accepts engagements to act as (co-)counsel in
international arbitration proceedings (commercial and investor-state) conducted under the major institutional rules (ICC, LCIA, ICSID, UNCITRAL, etc.) in a wide variety of industry sectors (engineering, construction, manufacturing, energy, joint-venture projects, etc.).
Founder Shayan Farhad came across situations involving the widespread destruction of the natural environment by human action - known as environmental crimes or ecocide - at various points in her career with the same observation each time: ecocide lies at the intersection of other crimes and disciplines of the law, such as white collar crime (corruption, money laundering), international criminal law, human rights and organized crime.
While the protection of the environment has gained momentum over the years and efforts to establish ecocide as an international crime are underway, the current lack of legal arsenal and the transnational nature of such crimes enable perpetrators to act in almost total impunity. Much more needs to be done. That is why FARLEGAL has made the fight against ecocide one of its main areas of focus.
With offices in two of the world's most international cities, Geneva and London, the firm is ideally situated to handle ecocide matters as those mostly originate from entities which conduct their environmentally harmful activities from business-friendly markets, such as Switzerland and the UK, and/or which use either country's economy and financial institutions to channel through their illegally generated proceeds.
Drawing upon the firm's expertise in ecocide and its interconnected disciplines, FARLEGAL applies a comprehensive, integrated approach in tackling environmental crimes. Often in collaboration with global partners, the firm investigates situations involving the destruction of the natural environment, represents and litigates cases on behalf of harmed communities, protects the rights of frontline environmental defenders, and files cases before all relevant jurisdictions to hold perpetrators to account.
Based upon the self-evident truth that there can be no peace without justice, FARLEGAL has made it one of its missions to fight against impunity and help achieve meaningful justice for victims and survivors of the most serious international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture) and human rights violations.
Either independently or in collaboration with partners, FARLEGAL handles complex legal issues involving conflict-affected regions, advises and assists victims of human rights violations and international crimes, and files cases on their behalf before domestic, regional or international courts.
Relying upon founder Shayan Farhad's investigative and prosecutorial skills, FARLEGAL also assists organizations that share the firm's values in their investigations, evidence-gathering work and overall efforts to ensure accountability.
Shayan Farhad is a Legal and Human Trafficking Associate Consultant for
HumanitarianHR, an organization headquartered in Minneapolis that works to protect at-risk people from sexual exploitation and abuse.