Before establishing his own independent practice, Martin Bernet was for 29 years a partner with the Swiss law firm Schellenberg Wittmer, heading the firm's dispute resolution team in Zurich and serving as managing partner for a number of years.
Martin Bernet has acted, mostly as arbitrator but also regularly as counsel, in around one hundred arbitrations, both in ad hoc proceedings and under various institutional rules, including the ICC, Swiss Arbitration Centre, CEPANI, VIAC, DIS and UNCITRAL Rules, involving the laws of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Russia, Turkey, Liechtenstein, Poland, Singapore, Saudi-Arabia as well as the UN Sales Convention (CISG) and the UNIDROIT Principles. His cases concerned disputes in connection with, inter alia, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, shareholders’ agreements, international sales and related transactions, agency and distribution, licensing and engineering projects, across a wide range of industries including professional services, telecommunications, automotive, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, machinery, ship building, food, energy and commodity trading.
Martin Bernet has taught international commercial arbitration at the University of Zurich from 2010 to 2020.
Martin Bernet also has extensive experience as a commercial litigator and has, in the past years, acted in some of the most important cases affecting the financial industry in Switzerland.
For many years, Martin Bernet has been recognized as one of Switzerland's best dispute lawyers and arbitration practitioner by the major directories, including Chambers, Who's Who Legal, Expert Guides, The Legal 500 and The Best of the Best.
Martin Bernet is a member of the German Arbitration Institute's ("DIS") Arbitration Council and of the Swiss Arbitration Court and he is a former chair of the International Bar Association's International Litigation Committee.
Martin Bernet obtained a PhD (Dr. iur.) from the University of Zurich, and was admitted to the Zurich Bar in 1982. Before joining Schellenberg Wittmer in 1985, Martin Bernet worked as a foreign associate in Washington, D.C.
