DAVID GUEZ
"Certain decisions cannot be taken alone."
The commitment
You know that moment.
The one where the opportunity is there — but the window closes in seventy-two hours. The one where you sense this acquisition could transform your company — or undermine it for a decade. The one where a conflict is brewing and threatens to unravel what you spent twenty years building.
That is precisely what I work for.
Not to draft agreements. Not to offer a mere opinion. To be present when the stakes are at their highest — whether the moment calls for helping your company seize a decisive opportunity or protecting what matters most.
Background
I was called to the Paris Bar in 2000. I learned my craft in the practices where transactions are structured, nine-figure deals are negotiated, and senior individuals under scrutiny are defended.
I then chose to found my own practice. Not to step away from those matters, but to handle them differently: with greater freedom, closer client relationships, and a more personal commitment. I advised companies acquiring their competitors. Investors structuring complex funding rounds. Families reorganising their affairs. And sometimes those same clients when matters took a difficult turn: a partner who betrays trust, an acquisition that turns to ruin, a reputation under siege.
Twenty-five years. Over one thousand operations. Transactions concluded under impossible deadlines. Crises defused before they could ignite. Not once have I treated a matter as merely a matter. I commit. Entirely.
What has this taught me?
The law accounts for twenty per cent of the work. The eighty per cent that truly matters: sensing the right moment to act; discerning what the counterparty has left unsaid; structuring an arrangement that endures; and when conflict is unavoidable — knowing when to press and when to hold.
Governance
Since 2018, I have served on the board of directors of a European media and e-commerce group. I participate in strategic decisions, growth initiatives, and arbitrations.
I am not an outside consultant. I am in the room when the decision is taken to acquire or divest. When negotiations with investors unfold. When a crisis strikes at eleven on a Friday evening.
That experience changed everything.
I no longer advise from the outside. I advise as someone who knows what it means to sign — and to answer for it.
Alchimie
In 2021, I founded Alchimie in Lausanne. A personal conviction as much as a professional choice. Continuing what I have always done: few clients, considerable depth. Enduring relationships. Total availability, absolute confidentiality.
I do not take every call. But when I answer, I am present. Wholly present.
You do not need a lawyer.
You need someone who knows how to complete a transaction — and to navigate what follows when matters take a difficult turn.
Someone who has encountered a thousand times what you are confronting for the first.
Someone who will speak the truth — even that which you would rather not hear.
If that is what you seek, let us speak.