Tomorrow evening, the Geneva Bar Association will elect its president as well as its vice-president. While the appointment of Sandrine Giroud is beyond doubt, the position of vice-president is coveted by two lawyers with very different profiles: Me Simon Ntah on one side and Me Daniel Kinzer on the other: a clash in modern and ancient.
Relaxation and enthusiasm on the one hand. Tradition, finesse and composure on the other. It’s fire and ice fighting to occupy the vice-president’s chair. A fight between moderns and ancients.
Simon Ntah came first at the age of 24 in the Michel Nançoz Competition, as well as in the Paris-Montreal international eloquence competition. Son of a Cameroonian father and a mother from Bienne, he pleads in court in sneakers without a tie under the lawyer’s robe. This criminal lawyer, almost 44 years old, notably represented the family of Adeline, the sociotherapist murdered in 2013.
Fiery in his early days, Simon Ntah still has the fire burning inside him
Located in the premises of the new Pont Rouge buildings in Lancy, his study resembles it: modern, without dedicated offices. Fiery from the start, Simon Ntah still has the fire burning within him. “There is always the need to have courage and stand up against things that are unjust. I haven’t lost this passion and I don’t intend to lose it. It is important if we want to make things happen,” he says.
Daniel Kinzer, 52, was born in Austria. After a degree in physics and philosophy, he became an accountant before switching to law. This experienced criminal lawyer has pleaded big cases: the Benny Steinmetz trial in particular and recently that of the wealthy Indian family accused of human trafficking.
Kinzer, a quasi-scientific approach to these files
Recognized for his finesse, the lawyer deploys a quasi-scientific approach to these cases. Daniel Kinzer is best known as a formidable litigator, but not only that, he says. “We must not forget that defense is a matter of the heart. The ardor, the verve, the oratory art, for me these are elements which have a demonstration part. And who says demonstration, makes a little opposition. I try to enter into a relationship with the judge to take him to another way of seeing things,” argues the lawyer, careful to weigh each word.
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
The two candidates agree on the broad outlines of their program. The challenges of the profession revolve around the defense of professional secrecy, the digitalization of the profession, the use of artificial intelligence. But they differ in the execution of these challenges. For Mr. Simon Nath, we must move quickly. “We have already identified the problems, now we must implement them. Because we don’t have the luxury of waiting. We must modernize our profession, declares the criminal lawyer as a candidate who declines the heart of his program.”
“The Bar Association is not a business”
For his part, Mr. Daniel Kinzer preaches the broadest possible consultation. “The bar association is not a business,” he counters. You cannot impose something on our members. Our vocation is to inspire and, above all, to win their support. Without that, we do nothing. We rob them,” says Daniel Kinzer.
The vote which promises to be close tomorrow: the order of lawyers has a little more than 2000 members with on one side a thousand elders who could support Me Daniel Kinzer and on the other another thousand young lawyers tempted to vote for Me Simon Nath. Mobilization will be decisive.
