Traditional Swiss firms won't take your call unless your case is worth tens of thousands of francs. We built Valken differently — so that serious legal help is available to people who actually need it, not just to those who can afford a 40-hour retainer up front.
"The legal profession forgot that its oldest product was not billable hours. It was a room in which someone could say the whole truth, once, without it leaving that room. Valken was built around that room."
These are not marketing promises. They are the things we've refused to compromise on since the day we opened the firm, and the reason certain kinds of cases only end up with us.
Every inquiry is read and replied to personally by a senior member of our legal team. There are no scripts, no tier-1 filters, no chatbots masquerading as counsel. The lawyer who reads your first sentence is the same lawyer who will sign your opinion.
The moment you open a conversation with us, Swiss professional secrecy — one of the most strictly enforced legal privileges in the world — begins. Encrypted channels are the default, not an upgrade. What happens in that room stays there, by force of Swiss criminal law.
For every common matter we handle, we quote a fixed fee and a clear timeline before you commit. You know exactly what you are paying, what you will get, and by when. If the scope grows, we tell you; we do not silently accumulate billable tenths of an hour.
If you reach out and we conclude you don't actually have a legal problem, we say so — plainly, in writing, without a follow-up invoice for "preliminary analysis." Roughly 92% of travel-check clients walk away relieved. Manufacturing worry to sell service is something we find genuinely offensive.
This is the exact path every matter at Valken travels, from a first uncertain message through a signed written opinion. No stage is skipped. No stage is billed twice. And at any point, you can pause the process without penalty.
You reach us by whatever channel feels safest — email, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, or our secure form. You write in whatever language feels natural. You share as much or as little as you want. From the moment that message lands in our inbox, Swiss professional secrecy applies.
No automated reply. No ticket number. No bot. The message is read, within the hour, by a senior lawyer.
Within four hours during business time — and by the next morning outside of it — a senior Swiss lawyer writes back. The reply is not a form. It addresses the specific facts of your message and asks any follow-up questions needed to assess whether — and how — we can help.
At this point, no fee has been discussed, no commitment has been made, and the privilege still holds. You have not signed anything.
If the matter is something we handle, we send you a short written scope: what we propose to do, what deliverable you will receive, by when, and for how much. If it is one of our standard services, the price is already fixed. If it is more complex, we quote a fee cap.
You read it. You ask questions. If you decide not to proceed, the conversation ends there — with your confidentiality intact.
Payment is made — bank transfer, card, or cryptocurrency — and a short engagement letter is counter-signed. From this moment the lawyer begins the actual legal work: database checks, correspondence with Interpol / CCF / authorities, drafting, coordination with our European consortium where needed.
For fixed-price matters the total cost is set. For hourly matters, you receive an updated estimate every week.
For most of our standard services, you receive an express first assessment within 24 hours of engagement. This is already enough, in the majority of cases, to give you a clear direction: travel is safe, the worry is unfounded, a formal challenge is needed, a specific document should be prepared.
The express assessment is not a guess. It is the lawyer's signed preliminary opinion, based on their own investigation — complete enough to act on, if action cannot wait for the full opinion.
Within 3–10 business days, depending on the matter, you receive the formal deliverable: a signed legal opinion on Valken letterhead, with the findings, the risk assessment, the legal reasoning, and the recommended action. Where formal responses from Interpol CCF, SECO or national authorities are pending, those are incorporated as they arrive.
The document is yours. We retain a copy only as long as Swiss bar rules require, on Swiss-hosted encrypted infrastructure.
For most of our private clients, the written opinion is the end. The worry is answered, the decision can be made, the trip can be booked, the account can be reopened. The file is formally closed, an invoice record is retained, and nothing else happens unless you reach out again.
If the matter needs to continue — a CCF challenge, delisting request, representation at a border, coordination with local counsel in the network — we tell you exactly what comes next, and quote it separately. No automatic renewals. No lock-in.
When we say your conversation with us is confidential, we don't mean "we promise." We mean something more specific — a layered regime combining criminal law, bar-association rules, contractual duty, and a particular technical stack. Here's how each layer actually protects you.
For private clients — especially those reaching us from jurisdictions where the word "lawyer" has been hollowed out — this distinction is not academic. It is the whole reason we exist in Switzerland, and the reason banks, border authorities and foreign counsel answer our letters the way they do.
Any Swiss-admitted lawyer who reveals a client's confidence — even after the mandate ends — commits a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment or fine. The privilege is not waivable by the lawyer: only the client can release it. Your first message is protected by this same article, identically.
◉ Code pénal suisse, art. 321 ("Violation du secret professionnel")Geneva and Zürich bar rules add a second duty layer: client files are handled on segregated systems, legal assistants are bound by the same privilege, and breach constitutes grounds for bar discipline — up to disbarment. Our attorneys are each sworn officers of a Cantonal Bar and personally subject to this regime.
◉ LLCA · Loi fédérale sur la libre circulation des avocats, art. 13Inbound channels — Signal, ProtonMail, encrypted email, Swiss secure video — are end-to-end encrypted. Documents live only on Swiss-hosted servers operated under Swiss data-protection law, behind hardware-key access. We use no third-party analytics, logging, or AI tools on client-side material.
◉ DPA / LPD · Loi fédérale sur la protection des données (revised 2023)Switzerland cooperates with EU, UK and international law enforcement — but is not a member of the EU, not bound by EU data-sharing mechanisms, and retains unilateral authority over when to transmit information. For cross-border matters, that independence is often the structural reason a case can be handled safely from Geneva and not from Berlin or Paris.
◉ Outside EU · Schengen-associated only · independent judicial authorityWe know that reaching out to a lawyer is hard enough without being forced into an awkward format. You choose how we talk — and you can change your mind at any stage of the matter.
Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, or ProtonMail. Type it out in your own time — as much or as little as you need. Best for sensitive or complex situations where you want to think before each sentence. A permanent written record, fully encrypted.
Thirty or sixty minutes with a senior lawyer on an encrypted voice line. Best when you want to hear a human voice — to actually talk something through, ask questions as they come up, and hear the tone behind the legal answer. No transcript stored unless you request one.
When there are documents to walk through together, or you would rather see the lawyer you're talking to. Swiss-hosted secure video — not Zoom, not Google, not Microsoft. Screen-sharing for reviewing letters, bank correspondence, or official documents in real time.
The default, for almost every private matter we handle, is a fixed fee. You know what you pay, what you will receive, and by when — before any work begins. No hourly meter, no "estimated" ranges that quietly double.
Where the matter is genuinely hard to bound — a live extradition proceeding, a multi-year banking dispute — we bill hourly, but always with a written fee cap and weekly updates. You see the meter before the meter runs.
For ongoing representation — typically a repeat client — we operate on a small monthly retainer that covers routine counsel, priority response, and first-hour availability for urgent questions.
Default for almost every private matter. Full price, scope and timeline agreed in writing, up-front. Used for Interpol checks, pre-travel reviews, bank-freeze assessments, sanctions screening.
Only where the scope is genuinely unbounded — typically live extradition, ongoing litigation, multi-jurisdictional coordination. Always with a written ceiling and weekly statement.
For repeat clients who want ongoing counsel and priority access. Small flat monthly fee covers routine questions, document review, and first-hour response for urgent matters.
Some firms compete on price, others on speed, others on volume. We compete on what we refuse to do. Here is the short, honest list of things you will never get from Valken — because we think each of them is why the rest of this market has the reputation it has.
If your situation does not actually require a lawyer, we tell you so plainly — in writing — and send you on your way. We do not invent "elevated risk" to justify an opinion you never needed.
Any lawyer promising "100% Red Notice removal" or "guaranteed bank account reinstatement" is either uninformed or dishonest. We promise effort, craft, and clarity — never a result we don't control.
The lawyer who reads your first message is the lawyer who handles the case. If that ever changes — illness, conflict — you are told, by name and reason, before any work transfers.
Fixed-fee matters are fixed. If we underestimated the work, that is our problem, not yours. If the scope genuinely expands, we tell you, explain why, and you decide whether to authorise the additional work.
Some cases are outside our specialism, ethically uncomfortable, or better served elsewhere. When that is true, we say so — and where possible, we name a lawyer who should take the matter instead.
We are a focused Swiss practice for cross-border private matters. We are not a mega-firm with an office in every capital, a boutique for billionaires, or a data-scraping service in a lawyer's coat. We are exactly what's described on this website.
Write to us in whatever language feels natural — English, Russian, German, French, Ukrainian, Turkish. A senior Swiss lawyer will read your message personally and reply within four hours. No commitment, no form-letter. Just a real conversation with someone who can actually help.