Founding partner of the firm, assists and defends clients in criminal, civil and administrative matters, in particular in domestic and international litigation.
His areas of expertise cover criminal law, white-collar crime, international criminal law, corporate liability, tort law and contract law.
Sylvain Savolainen also has recognised expertise in human rights, in particular in business and human rights issues.
He represents Mr. Abd Rahim al-Nashiri, who faces death penalty, and was tortured and detained incommunicado for four years in different « black sites » around the world, then at the Guantánamo detention camp since 2006 where he has been detained unlawfully and without judgement since then.
He is Vice-President of the International Criminal Defence Commission of the UIA (International Association of Lawyers), member of the Human Rights Committee of the ECBA (European Criminal Bar Association), member of the Advisory Committee of VOCAL (Victims of Crime Association of Lawyers), and former member of the Human Rights Commission of the Geneva Bar Association.
Sylvain is regularly invited to speak and give lectures at international congresses as well as at various universities.
In 2015, Sylvain Savolainen won the first prize of the prestigious Michel Nançoz trial advocacy competition organized by the Geneva Bar. The same year, he was awarded the third prize of the eloquence competition Prix Paris-Montreal de la francophonie. In 2012, the University of Geneva awarded him the prize for best Masters in Law thesis for his work on the corporate criminal liability.
Before becoming a lawyer, Sylvain Savolainen was a photographer and a reporter for ten years; he collaborated with the international press and various national radio stations (New York Times, GEO, Figaro Magazine, Herald Tribune, La Repubblica, La Stampa, El Mundo, L’Hebdo, RTS, France Inter, France Culture).
In 2007, he received the Swiss Press Photo Award for the best feature of the year conducted abroad for his reporting on the post-war situation in Sierra Leone and international criminal justice.