Legal drafting: precision and nuance

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The drafting of contracts, articles of association, wills, inheritance agreements, foundation deeds and regulations is one of the core professions of the financial centre. The quality of that drafting depends on mastery of the language in which it is carried out. Legal French, with its syntax, its connectives, its terminological precision and its tradition of clarity, offers practitioners a proven instrument.

This mastery is all the more valuable because many of the financial centre’s clients are French-speaking. A contract drafted in French for a French, Belgian or African client will be read, understood and discussed in the client’s own language, without the filter of a translation that may alter the meaning or create ambiguities. A will drafted in French by a Geneva notary for a French-speaking resident will be executed in the French-speaking countries where the heirs are located with a degree of certainty that the translation of an English document would not provide.

Bilingual or trilingual drafting, which is common in Geneva, calls for particular vigilance. Because a contract whose French and English versions diverge creates a potential dispute, the prevailing-language clause, which designates the authoritative version, must be drafted with care. Geneva practitioners, accustomed to working in several languages, have developed an expertise in multilingual drafting that monolingual financial centres do not possess.

The language of drafting also has a reputational dimension. A poorly drafted document, in approximate French, discredits its author in the eyes of a clientele attentive to the quality of expression. The Geneva tradition of rigour, described in Part B in connection with Calvin’s Academy, lives on in the demand for linguistic quality in the documents produced by the financial centre.

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

My approach is to act as a trusted advisor who works directly with decision-makers, on an equal footing: I start from what you want to achieve and shape every structure, contract and tax decision around your commercial goals and how it improves your after-tax return. As “lawyers who make it happen”, my team and I stay involved until your company is set up, your structure is in place and your transaction has closed, and we remain available for any follow-on work that may be required. You benefit from bespoke solutions and personal attention, and sound, friendly and practical advice. We are not the lowest-cost provider in the market, nor do we intend to be; our aim is to deliver well-founded, proper solutions and excellent value for money.

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Legal drafting: precision and nuance

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