48 IFLR/May 2015 www.iflr.com The collapse in 2001 of Switzerland’s national airline Swissair, until then regarded as a symbol of the country’s reliability and efficiency, sparked a debate over the need to amend Swiss insolvency laws. Criticism was raised that the Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (DEBL) had proven ineffective in facilitating the restructuring of companies in distress and was not adequate to deal with the insolvencies of large groups of companies.

Continuing with our focus on the issues surrounding insolvency and restructuring, Lawyer Monthly speaks to Daniel Hayek, a member of the management committee of Prager Dreifuss Ltd. Prager Dreifuss is  an integrated law firm  in  Switzerland  with  a  strong  international  focus,  some 40 lawyers, and offices in Zurich, Berne and Brussels.

This article tries to provide a brief overview of the problems which directors of a financially impaired company are facing under Swiss law.