INTERIM LEGAL · EMPLOYMENT LAW · HR LEGAL
Interim employment lawyers for HR legal work in your company
Alpinum Solutions provides companies in Switzerland, Germany and Austria with interim employment lawyers: for employment contracts and departures in day-to-day HR, for works agreements and staff regulations, and as restructuring legal support in reorganisations and integrations. The professionals range from junior to senior and work via staff leasing or freelancing, part-time or full-time; your HR or legal department decides on tasks and priorities.
Whether the role is called employment counsel, labour law specialist or HR legal: this page is about employment law inside a company, not litigation by a law firm. Alpinum selects the professional by the governing law of the country, languages, industry and seniority, and provides them. Alpinum does not provide legal advice itself. The four employment law assignments below are examples rather than individual client cases.
Typical employment law assignments
Job cuts or site changes
A reduction, relocation or new organisation creates a large volume of documents in a short time: agreements, letters, papers for talks with employee representatives. A project lawyer keeps the timeline and the documents together. Duration: usually a few months. Workload: often full-time during the intense phase, reduced afterwards.
Integration after an acquisition
After an acquisition, employment contracts, pay rules and works agreements or staff regulations need to be aligned. The professional maps the current state, drafts new versions and supports the changeover. Duration: several months. Workload: part-time or full-time.
Introducing new systems and ways of working
HR software, AI tools, time recording or hybrid work require new rules for the workforce and often an agreement with employee representatives. Duration: a few weeks to a few months. Workload: often part-time, coordinated with HR, IT and data protection.
Securing day-to-day HR legal work
If the employment lawyer in the team is absent or the position is vacant, the interim professional takes over ongoing requests from HR business partners. These occasions have their own pages: interim cover for a legal vacancy and parental leave cover for legal counsel.
Interim employment lawyer: what they cover for HR and management
Individual employment law
Employment contracts and amendments based on your templates, questions on working time, holidays and absences, preparing departures and separation agreements.
Collective labour law
Works agreements in Germany and Austria, agreements with staff committees in Switzerland: drafting, preparing negotiations, documenting outcomes. Your company decides who negotiates and who decides.
Staff regulations and policies
Revising regulations on expenses, remote work, secondary employment or codes of conduct, and wording them with HR so that employees understand them.
Interfaces with data protection and compliance
Employee data, workplace monitoring and whistleblowing channels touch several practice areas. If data protection is the main topic, see project lawyers for data privacy and IT law.
Interim lawyer or employment law firm?
The interim professional handles the volume in-house and knows your processes. Employment tribunal proceedings and contentious individual cases stay with your law firm; the professional prepares them and keeps an eye on costs.
Employment law profiles from junior to senior and what your company directs
- Junior (0–2 years): employment contracts and letters based on templates, research, deadlines and documentation in HR projects, maintaining templates.
- Mid-level / experienced (3–6 years): independent support for HR business partners, separation agreements, drafts of works agreements and staff regulations, coordination of the law firm.
- Senior (7+ years): the employment law workstream of a restructuring or integration, preparing and accompanying talks with employee representatives, point of contact for HR leadership and management.
You decide which matters the professional takes on, who they report to and where they need approval. In staff leasing, your company generally gives professional instructions and the professional works within your HR or legal team. In freelancing, they handle a clearly defined mandate on their own responsibility, such as a contract package or a project phase.
Engagement models for employment lawyers in Switzerland, Germany and Austria
In employment law, staff leasing and freelancing are both possible, at a workload between 20 and 100%, as an individual or as a small team for a restructuring. If the professional works with personnel data and internal systems, staff leasing is usually the simpler set-up.
Switzerland
Personalverleih (staff leasing) through Alpinum Solutions AG, or freelancing. Clients often ask for knowledge of Swiss employment contract law and German, French or English.
Germany
Temporary agency work (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) via Alpinum Solutions GmbH, which applies the collective agreements of the DGB/GVP bargaining association, or freelancing. More on the market: interim lawyers in Germany.
Austria
Freelancing, or staff leasing via the German or the Swiss Alpinum company.
Limits
Alpinum is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Personnel decisions, signatures and the position towards employee representatives remain the responsibility of your company.
Process: from HR project to the right professional
01 · Clarify the need
We clarify which law applies (CH, DE, AT), whether it is day-to-day work or a project, who the professional works with and what workload is needed.
02 · Review profiles
Within 48 hours you have selected profiles with employment law experience. You talk to the candidates and choose; we set the start date together, and it is not guaranteed.
03 · Get started
Templates, staff regulations, contacts in HR and among employee representatives, and the project plan are ready on day one.
04 · Adjust
When the intense phase of a restructuring ends, the workload can be reduced or the assignment ended; extensions run through Alpinum.
What an interim employment lawyer costs
Daily rates by market and level, excl. VAT, as of 18 October 2026. The German ranges apply in Austria.
- Switzerland: junior CHF 600–800 · experienced CHF 800–1'200 · senior CHF 1'200–1'800+
- Germany and Austria, staff leasing: junior EUR 480–720 · experienced EUR 720–960 · senior EUR 960–1'440+
- Germany and Austria, freelancing: junior EUR 720–960 · experienced EUR 960–1'360 · senior EUR 1'360–2'000+
In a restructuring, costs depend mainly on the duration and workload of the intense phase. A comparison with permanent hiring and law firm fees is in the guide cost models in interim legal and compliance.
FAQ on interim employment lawyers
Can an interim professional negotiate with employee representatives?
They prepare negotiations, draft texts and attend the meetings. Whether they speak at the table is up to your company; HR leadership and management set the negotiating position.
Does the professional know the employment law of the country?
We select by the law that applies to your workforce. For groups with employees in several countries, state in the requirements profile which countries must be covered.
We have no legal department. Does this still work?
Yes. The professional then works directly with HR leadership. Where a case becomes contentious or may go to court, you involve your law firm as before.
Is it worth it for a single works agreement?
A clearly scoped project suits a part-time workload over a few weeks, as a freelance mandate or via staff leasing. If further topics come up, the assignment can be extended.
Can the professional stay with us afterwards?
A move into your team (temp-to-perm) is possible. Raise it when the time comes.
Related services: covering a peak workload in legal and HR · project lawyers for data privacy and IT law · Interim Head of Legal. All practice areas: interim legal support.
Discuss your needs: support in employment law
Tell us the country, the project and the workload you need. Within 48 hours we send you selected profiles.