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Tobias Zuberbühler

Tobias Zuberbühler has over 25 years of experience in dispute resolution and has acted as arbitrator and counsel in more than 100 international and domestic arbitration proceedings under various rules (ICC, Swiss Rules, DIS, CEPANI, VIAC, HKIAC). He has also rendered over 400 UDRP decisions as WIPO Domain Name Panelist.

Tobias is a former member of the Arbitration Court of the Swiss Arbitration Centre, co-editor of the Commentary on the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration (3rd ed 2023) and co-author of a leading commentary on the IBA Rules of Evidence. He is recognized as one of the leading international arbitrators (Chambers Global, Who’s Who Legal Thought Leaders).

After 17 years as partner in an arbitration/litigation boutique, Tobias Zuberbühler has started his own practice as independent arbitrator in order to focus more on his arbitrator work.

Tobias graduated from the University of Zurich Law School (lic. iur.) and holds an LL.M. degree in International Legal Studies from Golden Gate University, San Francisco. He is fluent in German, English (7 years USA) and French.

Experience & Education

2023 - today

Zuberbühler Arbitration, Winterthur

2005 - 2023

Partner at Lustenberger + Partners, Zurich

2011 - 2012

Anti-Corruption Officer, Credit Suisse AG, Zurich

1999 - 2005

Senior Associate at MME Partners, Zurich

1997 - 1998

Junior Associate at Wyler & Lustenberger, Zurich 

1999

Zurich Bar, Admitted to all Swiss Courts

1996

LL.M. International Legal Studies, Golden Gate University, San Francisco

1994

lic. iur., University of Zurich

July - Album of the Month

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BAND – The Magnetic Fields

Album – 69 Love Songs

This month’s album is one of the greatest achievements in indie rock history. As I have written here before, writing good songs and lyrics is very hard. Stephin Merritt, the songwriter and singer of The Magnetic Fields, took this difficult chore to another level with “69 Love Songs” published in 1999.

The album contains – you might have already guessed – no less than 69 love songs. In more than three hours of music, Merritt (with his trademark ultra-low bass voice and many guest singers) sings about hetero- and homosexual love (including everything in-between and a song about dogs in heat), which was already not so common in those last days of the 20th century. The music styles are equally eclectic, ranging from punk to country to songs which – for lack of a better label – I would call baroque. One could even imagine many of the songs forming the soundtrack of a theatre play.

What we also tend to forget is that, back in 1999 (when Napster was just created), music actually had to be published by a label to find an audience – much to the opposite of today, where everyone can publish music at home and knock it out on Youtube to try and hit the jackpot. In other words, the label of The Magnetic Fields took a big risk in producing such a long album with a yet unknown indie band. Luckily for us music lovers, the album became quite a success.

What really makes these songs stand out, however, are the lyrics. Stephin Merritt’s sense of humor and sensitivity are unmatched. My absolute favorite (and a great wedding song) is The Book of Love:

“The book of love is long and boring, no one can lift the damn thing.
It’s full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing.
But I, I love it when you read to me, and you, you can read me anything.
The book of love has music in it, in fact that’s where music comes from.
Some of it is just transcendental, some of it is just really dumb.”

Last but not least the vinyl package of this album: The 6-disc vinyl edition comes in an 11-inch format – that is a rare size between a 12 inch (30cm) LP (playing at the speed of 33 ⅓ rounds per minute) and a 7” single (playing at 45 RPM) – a further confirmation of this artist’s refined taste.

I do not expect you to listen to the entire album, but please everybody listen to The Book of Love a few times (it’s an absolute beauty of a song) and take it from there.

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