Swiss-Qualified Attorney (Los Angeles)

Ashford International Law P.C. is looking to hire an attorney admitted in Switzerland and admitted in either California or New York for its Los Angeles office. The firm’s Swiss matters have reached a volume at which the Swiss side of a file should be advised on in house, by a Swiss lawyer sitting in the same office as the American ones, rather than routed to correspondent counsel. This position is that lawyer.

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About the Firm

Ashford International Law P.C. is a European-American estate and tax law firm with offices in Washington, DC, Los Angeles and Munich. Its attorneys are collectively licensed in the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, California and Germany. The practice concentrates on cross-border estate, trust and tax matters, most often involving Western Europe, and in particular Switzerland, Germany and France. Clients are high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals, families and closely held businesses with assets on both sides of the Atlantic. The firm also advises Western European family-owned companies on their United States subsidiaries and acts as outside counsel to those subsidiaries thereafter.

The Work

Swiss matters reach the firm in three recurring shapes: the American who has a Swiss bank relationship, Swiss pension assets or a Swiss inheritance; the Swiss resident who holds United States securities, United States real estate or a United States beneficiary; and the Swiss family business opening a subsidiary in the United States. None of the three is a single-jurisdiction problem, and the estate tax convention that governs the first two was signed in 1951. Recurring questions in this position include the following.

  • Swiss succession law as revised with effect from 1 January 2023, the reduced reserved shares and the larger disposable portion, and what that now permits in a Swiss-American plan that was drafted under the old rules;
  • The Federal Act on Private International Law: which law governs the succession of a Swiss national resident in California, or of an American resident in Zurich, and whether a professio juris does what the American side of the plan assumes;
  • Trusts, which Switzerland recognizes under the Hague Trust Convention but taxes according to cantonal practice and the circular of the Swiss Tax Conference: who is treated as settlor, when a trust is treated as transparent, and what happens when the settlor or a beneficiary moves;
  • The 1951 estate tax convention between Switzerland and the United States, one of the oldest still in force, the absence of any gift tax treaty, and the planning consequences of that gap;
  • Cantonal inheritance and gift taxes, the exemption of spouses and, in most cantons, of descendants, and what a change of canton or of residence does to a settled plan;
  • Swiss banking as it meets United States law: accounts and portfolios held by United States persons, FATCA and qualified intermediary withholding, documentation of Swiss entities and estates, a bank’s own policy on transferring a portfolio to an American heir, and the cross-border restrictions on investment advice;
  • Pillar 2 and pillar 3a assets, their treatment under the income tax treaty as amended, and the United States reporting that attaches to them;
  • The structures met alongside Swiss files: insurance wrappers, and the Liechtenstein foundation and establishment that appear where article 335 of the Swiss Civil Code leaves little room for a family foundation;
  • United States real estate held by Swiss individuals, estates and structures, including FIRPTA withholding on a sale by a foreign estate and the withholding certificate practice that goes with it;
  • Planning for the Swiss client moving to California or New York, in the window before residence begins, and for the client leaving, including the section 877A expatriation rules;
  • Forming United States subsidiaries for Swiss family-owned businesses and advising them afterwards, including shareholder debt, intercompany agreements and the eventual transfer of shares to the next generation;
  • Contentious matters in which heirs are established in both countries and a Swiss succession and a United States probate are running at the same time.

Your Responsibilities

  • Advising on Swiss law within the scope of your admission, as part of the firm’s own team;
  • Drafting and reviewing the Swiss side of estate plans: wills, inheritance contracts, marital property agreements, choice of law provisions, and the Swiss elements of trust-based structures;
  • Legal research and analysis on questions of Swiss and United States private client and tax law, including treaty analysis, and reducing that analysis to written advice on which a client, a notary, a bank and a tax preparer can each act;
  • Managing cross-border matters from the initial consultation to the closing meeting, together with the firm’s attorneys in Los Angeles, Washington and Munich;
  • Corresponding with Swiss notaries, banks, cantonal tax administrations and courts, and with the Internal Revenue Service and state authorities in the United States;
  • Direct contact with clients, including the family dynamics that accompany a generational transfer;
  • Contributing to the firm’s German-language and French-language publications and client materials.

Your Profile

  • Admitted to practice law in Switzerland, with a cantonal attorney’s patent and entry in a cantonal register of attorneys;
  • Admitted to the California Bar or the New York Bar;
  • Candidates who have sat the California or New York examination and are awaiting results may apply;
  • LL.M. or J.D. from a United States law school;
  • A serious interest in estate, tax and closely held business law, and the patience that cross-border work requires;
  • Intellectual rigor, reliability and thoroughness, and the judgment to say plainly when a question is unsettled;
  • Excellent written and spoken English, and excellent written and spoken French or German; Italian is welcome in addition;
  • Resident in the Los Angeles area, or willing to relocate there, and authorized to work in the United States.

What We Offer

  • Complex multi-jurisdictional matters from the first week, and the opportunity to build a body of experience that few lawyers in the United States are qualified to acquire;
  • Responsibility for the Swiss side of the practice rather than a supporting role on someone else’s file;
  • Work with the firm’s founding attorney, Caroline Esche Ashford, PhD, JD, a graduate of Columbia University Law School who is admitted in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and Germany, and who has seventeen years of experience in cross-border private client matters;
  • A long-term position in a growing international boutique;
  • Professional development seminars and conferences;
  • Compensation commensurate with experience, with a production-based bonus;
  • Paid vacation;
  • 401(k) with a 3% match;
  • Health insurance;
  • Flexibility as to hours, including part-time arrangements.

Application Process

Qualified candidates should send a resume, a writing sample and a law school transcript to ce@internationalestatelaw.com. Applications may be submitted in German, French or English.

Ashford International Law P.C. is an equal opportunity employer.