Digitising a law firm is not, first and foremost, a technical project. It is a project of trust—trust in the tools, in the partners, and in the people behind them. The testimonial of Attorney Kevin Guillet, founding partner of Proxima Legal in Lausanne, illustrates what a firm truly expects when it builds its digital foundation—regardless of its size.
Proxima Legal opened its doors on September 1, 2024, in Lausanne. Three lawyers, an office manager, and a clear positioning: a “boutique” firm specialising in employment law, business law, and new technologies. The firm’s promise can be summed up in one sentence from Attorney Guillet:
“We want to offer tailored services while maintaining close contact with our clients.”
When you set up your firm, you also choose its foundation—not only the tools, but the teams who will bring them to life day to day.
Before co-founding Proxima Legal, Attorney Guillet was already practising in a digitised “boutique” firm. Legacy practice-management software, third-party infrastructure—the environment worked, but without flexibility.
“It worked, but the software was not very flexible. There was little automation in the processes.”
This is an observation that comes up regularly in our discussions with firms: digitisation is not measured by the number of tools, but by their ability to fade into the background of a lawyer’s work.
“When I took over product leadership for ForenSys in 2023 and made my first visits to firms, a paradox struck me: most firms in French-speaking Switzerland have been computerised for a long time. But computerised is not digitised. A truly digitised firm no longer feels the tool. Timesheets are entered without thinking, conflict checks are done in two clicks, fee notes come out right on the first draft. Documents are filed to the right matter—almost—without manual intervention. That is our product obsession: reducing the number of steps between the lawyer and their added value.”
When setting up Proxima Legal, Attorney Guillet surveyed the market. At the end of his analysis, ForenSys stood out—alongside Assymba, an IT infrastructure partner in French-speaking Switzerland that manages the hardware, network, and telephony.
“I was looking for reliable IT partners. Over the past few years in law firms, everything has gone digital, everything has been digitised. As a result, you need someone you can trust and who can support you in your day-to-day work.”
In this context, trust is not a marketing argument—it is a technical requirement. Support that understands why a timesheet must be linked to a matter, why conflict checks must be instantaneous, why a fee note must use the right wording on the first draft: that is what makes the difference between software that is used and software that is endured.
“For me, proximity is not a slogan. It is what makes Swiss software truly Swiss. Having our teams based in French-speaking Switzerland and our support just a phone call away changes everything: at any moment, when a lawyer describes a case, we immediately know what they mean. No need to translate the profession, no need to re-explain what a fee note is, a conflict check, or a bill of costs. This is the continuity we have cultivated for more than 25 years, with over 600 firms in French-speaking Switzerland.”
At go-live, the data migration was completed without disruption. Attorney Guillet was able to work from day one at Proxima Legal on ongoing matters—without disruptive reorganisation, without re-entry.
In day-to-day use, three points stand out in his testimonial:
“Automating the payment and collection of invoices, and having real-time access to the accounts, saves a very significant amount of time.”
Added to this is mobility, which has become standard in the profession. In court, no longer having to carry the entire file changes the lawyer’s posture—and speeds up access to information when it matters.
Digitisation is not a matter of size. A three-lawyer firm can be more advanced than a large practice—because it made structuring choices from the outset. Conversely, an established firm can make a significant step forward by changing its foundation.
Three key takeaways from the Proxima Legal journey:
Digitising a firm depends less on the sophistication of the tools than on the quality of the teams behind them. For Proxima Legal, choosing a 100% Swiss foundation—accessible and supported locally—enabled a smooth start and a more seamless day-to-day. That is the challenge for every firm today—whether it is launching or modernising what it already has.
“I like being able to work with trusted local partners who understand the specificities of our profession.”
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