She stood in front of closed doors for a long time: Then the head of the Bratschi law firm opened them herself

When Germany faces Denmark and later Poland faces Sweden at the Women's European Football Championship on July 8, Sandra De Vito will be watching the games at the public viewing area in the fan mile on Zurich's Europaallee.

As a child, she also wanted to be a footballer. Today, the Managing Partner of the Bratschi law firm supports women's football as an ambassador for the network organization "Football Can Do More in Switzerland," which includes former footballer Lara Dickenmann, football coach Urs Fischer, and former Federal Councilor Ruth Metzler-Arnold.

She skillfully blends the responsibilities of an ambassador with her professional life. In 2021, Sandra De Vito was unanimously elected Prima inter Pares by the partners' meeting—the first woman to head a major Swiss law firm since then. In her new position, she soon realized that the end of a quarter often dampens the mood of both clients and lawyers.

"If the numbers were good, it put everyone under pressure. Because now everyone had to start from scratch for the next quarter. If the numbers were bad, the mood was bad anyway. But I wanted everyone to have something to look forward to regardless of the result, which is why I introduced "the Qs" a year ago," she explains.

"The Qs" are networking parties that she hosts at the end of each quarter, inviting "interesting people from all industries and sectors." These include politicians, artists, business leaders, but also athletes, coaches, officials, and sponsors, explains De Vito. Starting at 6 p.m., there's dancing, chatting, eating, and networking at Zurich's "Club Bellevue." Everyone enjoys this event, says De Vito.

Anyway, joy. De Vito emphasizes how important it is to her to "create joy." An unusual phrase from a lawyer, and even more unusual for a leader. Ordinary, however, isn't a word one associates with this lively, warm-hearted, and broadly interested woman. Even visually, she stands out from afar in the otherwise mostly conservative, darkly dressed crowd of lawyers.

De Vito's roots lie in southern Italy. Her grandfather came to Switzerland as a seasonal worker. De Vito describes herself as a "typical seconda." Back home in Dübendorf, the focus was on her education and on her and her younger brother working hard to take advantage of the opportunities in Switzerland, she recalls. Money was tight, but the family was part of the large Italian community, where parties were often held and her father was a DJ.

For a long time, Sandra De Vito's career followed a very straightforward path. She did well in school, and after briefly flirting with acting school and journalism, she decided to study law. "My father said law would give me a good foundation in how government, business, and politics work."

She then studied at the University of Zurich and the Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg, followed by a master's degree at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. During her studies, she worked in the legal department of an international biotechnology company, after which she joined a renowned major law firm in Zurich as an associate in the litigation/arbitration practice.

But then De Vito became pregnant in 2005. The plan was for her and her then-husband to reduce their workload slightly; for him, this would have meant being laid off, so she reduced her hours to 60 percent. "That was the end of my ambitions to become a partner at that firm," she recalls. Times were different back then, of course, De Vito says, but she couldn't accept that, as a mother, her ambition was suddenly being taken away. She handed in her resignation and joined a medium-sized law firm. But when she became pregnant with her second child, she was again told that she could not become a partner.

De Vito resigns again – and now becomes a partner at the small law firm Rohner Rechtsanwälte. Louis Rohner promises her no income, but a deficit guarantee: "If I couldn't fully cover my share of the costs at the end of the year, he would cover the deficit. A promise his father had made to him many years earlier. That was a huge leap of faith for me," says De Vito. She seizes the opportunity; she never runs a deficit. After three intensive years, however, she realizes that the firm is too small for her area of ​​expertise. And when Bratschi comes knocking on her door in 2012, she moves.

De Vito is an expert in international arbitration proceedings. As such, she serves in various roles, either as chairperson, party arbitrator, sole arbitrator, or as a consultant to companies. If two internationally active companies have a civil dispute, they can turn to an arbitration tribunal instead of a state court, where constantly changing international panels of judges often rule on cases in camera.

Switzerland is one of the most important locations for international arbitration proceedings. In such cases, it is extremely important that the name of the firm and its lawyers are visible in the market, says De Vito. Lawyers are not allowed to advertise in Switzerland, so networking is crucial. However, she also noticed that important doors remained closed to her at Bratschi. "Because Bratschi's brand wasn't what it is today in 2012," says De Vito.

The firm has only been operating under this name since 2008, with offices in Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, St. Gallen, Zug, and Zurich. Bratschi emerged from the merger of several medium-sized firms. At the time, venerable law firms derided the "motley crew." Today, Bratschi, with over 100 lawyers and approximately 200 employees, is one of the largest firms in Switzerland.

De Vito subsequently knocked on the door of every arbitration conference, hoping to be on a panel herself. But she was met with a barrage of rejections. So she decided to open the doors herself. With her colleague Simon Gabriel, she began organizing conferences around the world. Initially, the two of them paid for the fees with their personal credit cards. But from now on, she was on stage as an expert herself, becoming increasingly visible and well-known both nationally and internationally. The Swiss Arbitration Centre's Innovation Conference on International Arbitration, which she and Gabriel founded, remains one of the most well-known conferences on the subject, and she also sits on several international committees. Now the contracts started coming in, and De Vito became one of the firm's top-earning partners, which also gained visibility.

The woman knows what she's capable of and seems at peace with her decisions. "I always have a thousand thoughts in my head at once," she says. You rarely find her on the couch with a book; she prefers exercising or producing a documentary with Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter. "History Makes You Strong" aims to show young people "in an honest and non-didactic way what an incredible treasure we have here in Switzerland, with our fundamental rights and our economic and political stability," says De Vito.

Despite her diverse commitments, she says she's not a machine, and she also has self-doubt. She deals with these in her own way: For two years, she's been taking flying lessons in Mollis in a single-engine two-seater, a Breezer B 600. "Knowing that I would be flying to certain death if someone wasn't available to take over immediately makes me humble," says De Vito. Flying shows her that, as a boss, she must try not to react to an emergency situation, but rather anticipate the next maneuver, the next problem.