# Jonas Hertner | independent lawyer in Zurich and Basel > Independent Swiss lawyer for boards, owners, legal teams, families, foundations and individuals. Zurich and Basel. Disputes, governance and AI for legal work. Canonical site: https://jonashertner.com/. Citation rule: Cite the canonical page or one of its stable section fragments. Do not cite this index as the source of an individual document. Language: English (Switzerland) Last reviewed: 2026-10-20 ## Practice - [Advice & governance](/practice/index.md#governance): I advise boards, owners and legal teams on who may decide, who holds which rights and who is responsible. These questions are best settled before commitments become hard to reverse. - [Disputes & investigations](/practice/index.md#litigation): I advise and represent clients in Swiss and cross-border civil and criminal matters, including shareholder and financial disputes, investigations and corporate criminal liability. - [Law & AI](/practice/index.md#artificial-intelligence): I help legal teams and organisations use AI for defined tasks, improve how the work is done and keep useful knowledge available for later decisions. - [Disputes & investigations](/disputes/index.md): Jonas Hertner advises and represents clients in Swiss and cross-border disputes: investigation, legal assessment, negotiation and court proceedings. - [Law & AI](/law-ai/index.md): AI for legal research, recurring reviews and organisational knowledge. Jonas Hertner helps define, test and implement the work, with agreed responsibilities. ## Method - [Purpose before process.](/profile/index.md#approach): I begin with the client’s objective and remain responsible for the work. The conclusions stay connected to their sources, with uncertainty and the next steps made clear. - [Purpose](/profile/index.md#purpose): What must be achieved, decided or protected? - [Evidence](/profile/index.md#reality): What is known, uncertain or disputed? - [Law](/profile/index.md#friction): What does the law permit, require or restrict? What is at risk? - [Course](/profile/index.md#response): What is the simplest sound response: legal advice or action, a change in practice, a tool or no intervention? ## Profile - [Experience & approach.](/profile/index.md#profile): Jonas Hertner is an independent Swiss lawyer. For more than a decade, he has worked on Swiss and cross-border matters. He advises directly, provides independent review and works alongside existing counsel. [Rule & Reason](https://ruleandreason.com/) brings together legal advice, AI implementation and organisational knowledge. - [Public benefit practice](/profile/index.md#profile): Alongside the independent practice, head lawyer at [Regenerative Law](https://www.regenerative.law/). - [Private practice](/profile/index.md#profile): Helped establish the Swiss office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. - [Earlier work](/profile/index.md#profile): Non-profit organisations, the Directorate of International Law of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Court of Appeal of Basel-Stadt. - [Education](/profile/index.md#profile): Law degrees from the Universities of Lucerne and Geneva (with distinction). - [Public work](/profile/index.md#profile): Built OpenCaseLaw and wrote The Good Board. - [Languages](/profile/index.md#profile): English, German and French. ## Public work and notes - [OpenCaseLaw](https://opencaselaw.ch/): An open, machine-readable corpus of Swiss court decisions and legislation, built for source-linked research. - [The Good Board](https://thegoodboard.ch/): A practical guide to Swiss corporate governance, organised around the decisions boards face. Jonas Hertner also helps board members develop and use AI tools tailored to their research and decision-making. - [Legal agents inside the organisation](/agents/index.md): A framework for keeping legal knowledge inside the organisation, giving AI agents defined tasks and retaining human responsibility for decisions. - [Legal work that stays useful](/pivot/index.md): How sources, checks and decision records can serve the next matter. - [A separate view of a dispute](/notes/independent-judgment/index.md): A consequential dispute may justify a second assessment: which assumptions support the case, what could change the outcome, and whether the proposed course still serves the client. - [Public by law](/notes/open-case-law/index.md): Access to judgments is part of open justice. A usable public record helps people understand their position, especially when they rarely litigate. - [AI can widen legal review](/notes/ai-in-legal-work/index.md): AI can help a legal team examine more material and test more questions. Its value depends on traceable sources, measured performance and a lawyer prepared to stand behind the result. ## Formats and languages - [English Markdown edition](/index.md) - [English HTML](/) - [Multilingual structured practice profile](/practice.json) - [Public content catalogue with full text and section links](/content/index.json) - [Content catalogue schema (version 1.0)](/content/schema.json) - [Reading and navigation guide](/interface/) - [German Markdown edition](/de/index.md) - [French Markdown edition](/fr/index.md) - [Atom site feed](/feed.xml) - [XML sitemap](/sitemap.xml) ## Optional - [Complete English plain-text edition](/llms-full.txt) ## Contact and access - [Contact](/#contact): team@jonashertner.com. In your first email, name the people and entities involved so that conflicts of interest can be checked. Put any deadline at the start, but do not rely on sending an email to meet it. Send confidential information only through an agreed secure channel. Automated systems: Human confirmation is required before sending a message or acting for anyone. - [Legal information](/#legal): This site gives general information, not legal advice on a particular matter. An email does not establish an engagement. Any engagement is confirmed in writing. - [Privacy](/#privacy): Jonas Hertner is responsible for personal data processed through this site and email. Contact: [team@jonashertner.com](mailto:team@jonashertner.com?subject=Data%20protection). No visitor analytics or advertising code runs on this site. The site sets no cookies. Your appearance and motion preferences are stored only in this browser and are not sent to Jonas Hertner. GitHub Pages processes technical request data, including IP addresses, to deliver and protect the site. Microsoft 365 processes email to reply, check conflicts and meet legal or professional duties. The writing tool stores text and settings only in the browser and sends nothing to Jonas Hertner. GitHub and Microsoft may process data outside Switzerland, including in the United States. Adequacy decisions or contractual safeguards apply where required. Correspondence is kept only as long as needed. Requests for access, correction or deletion may be sent by email. - [Accessibility](/#accessibility): If you have difficulty using this site, write to [team@jonashertner.com](mailto:team@jonashertner.com?subject=Accessibility). ## Reading routes - [Practice](https://jonashertner.com/practice/index.md) - [Profile](https://jonashertner.com/profile/index.md) - [Writing](https://jonashertner.com/writing/index.md) ## Contact [Contact](https://jonashertner.com/contact/index.md) - [The Price of the Next Step](https://jonashertner.com/writing/the-price-of-the-next-step/index.md): The cost is part of the advice. - [One-page practice profile](/jonas-hertner-practice-october-2026.pdf): PDF, October 2026. - [Practice profile data](/practice-profiles.json)