Legal Affairs ‒ Presidency ‐ EPFL

The Legal Affairs office provides EPFL’s middle and upper management with expert legal support. We are involved in the School’s strategic projects, ensuring they comply with all applicable legal requirements. We also play a role in drafting agreements, anticipating changes to the law and raising awareness of legal issues, as well as in conflict and risk management.

Other services include publishing laws and directives that apply to EPFL, drawing up new directives, and overseeing the development of new applications (such as for electronic signatures and managing contracts).

The Director of Legal Affairs, who is attached to the General Secretary, coordinates a legal network made up of lawyers specialising in the following fields:

The Legal services of the Vice Presidency for Academic Affairs (VPA) aims to provide legal support to VPA units in their activities related to education, research and technology transfer. Their mission is to provide information on the law, guidelines and procedures applicable to the activities of the EPFL, to establish appropriate legal frameworks for collaboration with external partners (public or private), to prevent legal problems from arising and to provide objective and relevant advice or counsel in order to assist EPFL faculty, students and researchers in achieving their teaching, research and technology transfer objectives.
The objective of the lawyers in the Human Resources department is to ensure the legal compliance of EPFL’s Human Resources policies and practices. Their mission is to inform and educate the EPFL community regarding the laws, policies and processes applicable to staff, to prevent conflicts and to help resolve difficult situations. HR lawyers also support proceedings before the higher authorities and help with implementing all of the processes established by Human Resources.

Data Protection Officer, who is administratively attached to the Legal Affairs unit, is responsible for assisting the EPFL in complying with the legal requirements relating to data protection. That person informs and raises awareness among staff of their obligations in this regard. He or she serves as the point of contact for persons wishing to exercise their data protection rights.