Councel

Bernard Ziegler’s practice focuses on public law. He is regularly retained as counsel by the State, the Municipalities and other public law entities and corporations. Among others, he acted for the Swiss Federal Railways Agency and for the State of Geneva in the numerous appeal proceedings filed against the CEVA railways project. Bernard also drafted and negotiated different intercantonal and international agreements, prepared various draft of laws and regulations, acted as an auditor in claims involving administrative services and acted as a trustee for the liquidation proceedings of an important press company in Geneva.

Bernard was granted a law degree from the University of Geneva in 1967 and was admitted to the Geneva bar in 1970. He served as a judge with the Geneva Court of Criminal Appeals from 1976 to 1982, and as a deputy judge with the Federal Court from 1980 to 1985. He was then elected to the Geneva state Council in 1985 where he exercised his functions till 1993. During the same period, he also held the Presidency of the Swiss Conference of Justice and Police Ministers. Bernard has been a part of different expert committees, including the expert committee which prepared the draft law of the Federal Games of Chance and Casinos Act.

Bernard Ziegler was a founding partner of ZPG – with Charles Poncet and Philippe Grumbach – which eventually merged with CMS in 2014.

He joined Grumbach Avocats as a counsel in 2021.