Claudia Fritsche

ENQUIRE Attorneys-at-Law Ltd

Zurich www.enquire.ch

fritsche@enquire.ch Tel: +41 44 545 39 59

Biography

Claudia is the founder and managing director of ENQUIRE, a boutique law firm specialised in investigations and whistle-blowing. Before founding ENQUIRE in 2017, Claudia practiced as an attorney, inhouse counsel and law enforcer. Since her time as the Head of FINMA’s (then) General Counsel’s Office, complex investigations, questions around law enforcement and cooperation with domestic and foreign authorities are the key areas of her expertise. Claudia is also the author of the first Handbook on Internal Investigations in Switzerland (2013), which is considered a standard work of reference. With her second edition (2021) as well as other publications and speeches on relevant topics, Claudia continues to make a significant contribution to shaping Switzerland's investigation landscape.

What attracted you to specialise in investigations?

There are mainly three aspects that attracted me to specialize in investigations:

Firstly, I am intrinsically curious and like to get to the bottom of things. For me, facts and their evidence are decisive – not biases, not assumptions, not speculations, not emotions.

Secondly, I am attracted by the variety of topics that we encounter as investigation counsel, which makes our job fascinating every day. Our mandates include, among others, the investigation of workplace related matters (e.g. harassment, mobbing, discrimination), compliance incidents (e.g. conflicts of interest, governance, data leaks, green washing, crossborder provision of financial services) and criminal conduct such as internal fraud, bribery, corruption, money laundering or violation of business secrets.

Thirdly, I love big, complex cases, which result in the collaboration with very smart colleagues in diverse teams that are motivated to cross the finishing line in a joint effort.

How has the role of an investigations lawyer evolved since you first started practising?

When I first got in close contact with investigations in Switzerland around 2008, there were numerous open questions; dedicated investigation functions in corporations as well as related policies and procedures were the exception.

Over the past 10-15 years, the topic became prominent in Switzerland. Many Swiss-based corporates had to conduct investigations. The expert knowledge of inhouse counsels and external investigation counsels has therefore increased; plus the top management has discovered and acknowledged the advantages of this instrument outside of investigations driven by authorities as it helps top management take well-founded decisions. Meanwhile, a number of open questions have been debated in legal literature or decided by our courts. Accordingly, the practice of conducting investigations has How does your background heading the GC’s office at FINMA enhance the knowledge, connections and skills you deliver to clients?

I was the Head of the (then) General Counsel’s Office at the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority FINMA during and after the financial crisis, which prompted numerous investigations against Swiss financial institutions. During that time, I learned an enormous amount, in terms of substance, interactions with other authorities, supervised entities and their attorneys. First and foremost, however, I learned to understand FINMA’s role and needs as a regulator and enforcer. This experience is very valuable in helping clients determine their strategy in interactions with FINMA and other authorities.

How do you effectively prepare for multijurisdictional investigations?

Since we are a small boutique law firm, reliable, collegial partner firms with an equivalent expertise in other jurisdictions are key for us.

Other than that, it is paramount to perform some conceptual homework at the beginning, for instance we need to understand where data is stored, moved to, moved away from, processed and potentially produced. Other key considerations are disclosure limitations due to applicable Swiss blocking statutes and other restrictions.

What roles do you see new technologies having in investigations in the coming years?

My hope and believe is that innovative technologies (e.g. predictive coding) will make data reviews a lot more time and cost efficient for the client, a development that we, as a firm, fully embrace and support. Being a small firm with limited resources we are keen on testing and applying innovative technologies that will make us more efficient and allow us to take on more or bigger investigations for our clients.

What challenges accompanied founding ENQUIRE, and how does it stand out in the market?

ENQUIRE stands out in the market with its small team of dedicated experts, its lean organisation and, most and foremost its independence. Given our clear business focus on investigations and whistleblowing we do not take on any other mandates (e.g. litigation, transactions, advice) from clients. This underlines our independence in investigation mandates and lends our investigation products a high degree of credibility which is known and recognized in the market and by authorities.

Founding a new firm is the opposite of “plug-and-play”. It requires that the team be proud and takes pleasure in building, step by step, something great from scratch.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own firm?

There are a couple of things I would advise to someone starting their own firm:

Take the time to elaborate a clear vision of your business and set goals that you strenuously follow. At the same time be open and grasp opportunities that come your way, be agile and also expect that things sometimes take unexpected turns.

Never expect from yourself to be perfect but expect from yourself to grow and become better every day.

You will be sleeping well if you take a calculated risk, meaning that you set milestones for your journey and check periodically (but not constantly) where you are.

If you start your own firm, it is helpful if you have a client or two who are ready to grow with you.

Ultimately, there is nothing like trustworthy and experienced colleagues and sparring partners. I was and am very fortunate to have such a partner in Urs Zulauf. He was my manager and mentor at FINMA and has since been a person whose opinion I value highly. Urs has been supporting our journey since 2017 as of counsel with ENQUIRE, for which I am very grateful and am looking forward to many years to come.

WWL says: Claudia Fritsche impresses clients and peers with her “exceptional ability to structure and conduct internal investigations in a very targeted manner”.