Michel Jaccard

Partner

Michel Jaccard is the founder of id est avocats. For the past 25 years, he has been involved in corporate finance and M&A deals in Switzerland and abroad, acting for entrepreneurs and owners, venture capital and private equity firms, industrial buyers and financial sponsors. He also advises investment funds, big corporates and SMEs on governance and sustainability issues (ESG).

Along his corporate expertise, Michel helps financial institutions, industrial leaders, SMEs and global brands navigate the world of innovation, technologies, data protection and cybersecurity, and regularly assists in the negotiation or the resolution of disputes in complex business projects requiring an understanding of advanced technologies (development, outsourcing, hosting, migration, XaaS and platforms, R&D and JV) and intellectual property licensing, in particular open source and open access strategies.

Michel holds a JD and PhD from the University of Lausanne and an LLM from Columbia Law School (Stone Scholar, Fulbright grantee). He has been involved for years as neutral, mediator, expert or party representative in numerous alternative dispute resolution (ADR) proceedings and is a certified CEDR and ITDR mediator and legal expert, and also on the WIPO List of Neutrals. Michel is admitted to practice in Switzerland and New York, and has been highly recommended in Corporate/M&A, Technology, Media/Telecoms and Intellectual Property by leading guides such as Chambers, Legal500, Best Lawyers and Who’s Who Legal. His legal expertise has been further recognized by the CMTA for the tokenisation of shares.

He has frequently acted as jury member, mentor or coach in startup and innovation competitions. He is a lecturer in the Master in Sustainable Management and Technology (SMT) managed by the Entreprise for Society Center (E4S) of the University of Lausanne, IMD and EPFL and also teaches a class on innovation, technology transfer, intellectual property and new business models in the master program of the University of Neuchâtel.

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