Philippe A. Grumbach was born in Geneva in March 1959. He regularly advices Swiss and foreign clients on dispute resolution (contract and commercial law, family law, estate law, civil liability, social insurances and white collar crime) as well as general corporate matters.
Philippe completed his high school and university studies in Geneva (Collège Calvin and University of Geneva). After graduating from the University of Geneva Law School in 1982, he was called to the Bar in 1985. He also studied English language and legal studies in London and Columbia University from 1985 to 1986. As early as in his student days, he demonstrated a keen interest in international affairs by participating in the Student United Nations movement in Switzerland, playing an active role in mock sessions of the General Assembly held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. In 1987, Philippe joined the firm of BRUNSCHVIG BADEL & LINDENFELD where he became a partner as of 1 January 1989. In 1998, he joined ZIEGLER & PONCET, which then became ZPG ZIEGLER PONCET GRUMBACH CARRARD LÜSCHER. When ZPGCL merged with the Zürich firm of CMS von Erlach Henrici in 2013, Philippe became a Partner of CMS von Erlach Poncet until he left to start Grumbach Avocats in November 2020
He championed the cause of human rights particularly by campaigning against racial discrimination in all its forms, including anti-Semitism. It was thus only natural that as a member of the Swiss Committee of LICRA (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism) he took part in the successful campaign for the adoption of the new provisions of the Swiss Criminal Code (art. 261 bis CPS) outlawing specific forms of racial and anti-Semitic conduct. A particular source of satisfaction in his law practice was the successful recovery in the Geneva courts of a rare Judaica manuscript plundered by the Nazis on Crystal Night (10 November 1938) from the Jewish Museum of Berlin.
This took seven years of complex international negotiations involving Germany, Poland and Israel as well as a protracted legal battle at all levels of the Swiss legal system. Philippe also acted as attorney in a series of lawsuits which resulted in the banning of the notorious anti-Semitic forgery known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He is currently engaged in legal proceedings banning distribution of a text by racist authors seeking to deny the events of the Shoah (Holocaust).
From 1988 to 1994 Philippe was a member of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Community of Geneva serving in the capacity of vice-president from 1992 onwards. From 1992 to 1994 he also joined the Central Committee of the Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities. From 1988 to 1990 he was a member of the Committee of the "Young Bar" of Geneva. He was re-elected in 1997 as a member of the Swiss Committee of LICRA for a further three year term. He is also a member of the Committee of the Swiss-Israel Chamber of Commerce for the French speaking region of Switzerland. In November 2001, Philippe A. Grumbach was elected as President of the CICAD (Coordination Intercommunautaire contre l'Antisémitisme et la Diffamation) which is an independent association that combats Anti-Semitism in all its forms and teaches the history of Anti-Semitism and the Shoah.
