Hall of Fame
The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.
François Bonteil specialises in all areas of real estate work: Real Estate M&A (acquisitions and disposals of property-owning companies and portfolios of real estate assets), Real Estate Private Equity (joint ventures / shareholders' agreements), Real Estate services (including commercial leasing, development and asset management) and Real Estate Finance (acquisition / mortgage financings , corporate and funds financings).
Aubry d’Argenlieu joined Fairway as a Partner, in June 2012. He has extensive experience in matters concerning complex real estate investment, acquisitions and property transfers, property development and letting, implementing real estate joint ventures and real estate funds. He advises both French and Anglo-Saxon institutions as well as industrial groups.
Eric Martin-Impératori has been a member of Gide's Real Estate Transactions & Financing practice group since 1990. He specialises in real estate investment transactions and development, town planning law, construction law, and acquisitions and project financing. Well versed in all aspects of real estate deals, Eric Martin-Impératori has a wide and solid experience in large-scale projects. Thus, Eric assists clients with the construction, development and commercialisation of shopping centres, and investors from the design through to the commercialisation of office buildings. He regularly advises a sovereign fund from the Middle East, Générale Continentale Investissements and its partners, SMA, Société de la Tour Eiffel, Altaréa Cogedim and Goldman Sachs.
Frédéric Nouel specializes mainly in M&A, real estate and financing transactions for both listed and non-listed operators on the European hotel and real estate markets and on investment funds. Frédéric advises on headline deals for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Accorhotels, ADEO (Leroy-Merlin), Icamap/Icawood, Swiss-Life, Domus-Vi, BNP-Paribas, KKR, EDF, Eurazeo, Aermont, SFL, Engie, Goldman Sachs and PSA Peugeot-Citroën. He played a crucial role in the creation in France of non-listed REITs named OPCIs, which now represent around 90 billion euros of assets. He has developed significant expertise in investment fund creation and development of professional alternative investment funds (FIA) in all sectors of the real estate and hotel industries. A Gide partner since 1994, Frédéric Nouel is the firm's Senior Partner and chairs the firm's Executive Committee since January 2021. Frédéric holds a postgraduate degree (DEA) in Business Law (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1985) and an honours degree (Maîtrise) in Management (University of Paris-Dauphine, 1983).
Rising stars
Rising stars with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
Constantin Miliotis assists French and international players with all legal issues related to the real estate value chain: investments & arbitrations, structuring of joint ventures and investment vehicles (regulated or not), real estate project set-up and development, construction, asset management and financing. He works on all types of real estate assets (offices, retail and shopping centres, hotels, residential, student, senior and nursing homes, leisure centres, etc.), for a wide variety of players in the real estate industry (real estate companies, investors, developers, fund and asset managers, first tier users, etc.). In 2022, Constantin assisted the Icawood fund with all its acquisition, development and leasing operations; AOG with the sale of a majority stake and the establishment of a partnership to develop the "Pointe Amont de l'Île Seguin" in Boulogne-Billancourt; BNP Paribas Real Estate with several of its real estate developments; and Novaxia with numerous joint ventures ("copromotions"). Constantin holds a Master's degree in real estate and construction law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas.
She is a partner in the Real Estate Legal Department. She works in real estate law and in particular in the following areas: commercial leases, hotel leases, off-plan leases, building leases, business leases, transfers of lease rights, sales of operating assets, property sales, property development contracts, delegated project management contracts. She provides advice, drafts legal documents and acts in disputes.She has been advising both French and international clients for nearly 20 years. For 5 years, she has been a lecturer on the “Property Law” Master's degree course at the University of Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne and in the Paris Bar School, teaching commercial leases. She is part of the editorial team of Francis Lefebvre's Commercial Leases and Property Management Handbook. She was a member of the Hauts-de-Seine departmental Bar Council from 2013 to 2015. For several years she has been listed in the Chambers Europe rankings.
Leading individuals
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Partner Renaud Baguenault de Puchesse is a member of Gide's Real Estate Transactions & Financing practice group. He has widely acknowledged experience in advising on acquisitions of buildings (offices, retail outlets, businesses) and companies with underlying real estate assets. Over the last ten years, he has been instructed in connection with more than 100 transactions, each worth at least 15 million euros. He is the regular advisor to several German investment funds as well as French and international institutional investors in the structuring of complex transactions. His practice includes construction and planning law, commercial leases and legal and tax structuring for asset acquisitions and financing in France. In 2019, Renaud was involved in two major transactions which are worth in total 1 billion euro. He in particular advised BNP on the sale and lease of their future headquarter in Boulogne-Billancourt and Bouygues Immobilier in the sale of a large office building in Issy-les-Moulineaux rented out to Canal + and sold to Sogecap.
National Managing Partner, Head of Real Estate As the head of firm’s real estate practice in France, Françoise advises French and international investors, property funds, end users and developers in all areas of French real estate, construction, environmental and planning law. She often works in collaboration with the firm’s real estate practitioners in other European offices to advise clients on their most significant pan-European real estate transactions that require joint real estate, corporate, financing and tax input. The deals on which she advises range from pure investment work to development and the letting of operational space. She also has extensive experience in real estate deals in the retail and leisure sectors. Over the years, Françoise has developed long standing and trustworthy relationships with a number of real estate players and has become their trusted advisor. She is regularly involved in their strategic and high-level discussions.
Christopher Szostak is UK- and French-qualified. He has been with the Gide real estate team since 2000. Christopher advises clients in a wide breadth of industry segments including offices, retail, residential, logistics, self-storage, hotels and serviced residential. He advises on all issues involving real estate with an emphasis on investment (acquisitions and disposals of portfolios and individual assets, joint ventures), and large-scale development work. He also has a lease and litigation practice. He acts on behalf of investors (listed property companies, funds, financial institutions), operators and end-users. Key clients include AEW, Allianz, Bluespace, Fiminco, Ghelamco, Hammerson, Humanis, Kerzner, Klépierre, Macquarie, Medici Living Group, Mercialys, Mindston, Orange, Sonder, The Student Hotel, Urban Campus, Viacom and a prominent middle-eastern sovereign wealth fund. Christopher is fluent in French, English and Polish.
Maxime Simonnet is a Real Estate Partner in the Dentons' Paris office and advises his clients on both transactional and litigation issues. He advises an international clientele of investors (investment funds, real estate companies, and operators), in the context of real estate transactions: due diligence and negotiation of sale and purchase agreements. Maxime also works alongside his clients, notably major users, on their complex negotiations regarding commercial leases and construction contracts. He assists on a wider scale his clients in the context of their discussions on legal measures allowing risk anticipation, costs and incomes optimization related to their real estate assets. In addition, Maxime has a specific and sustained practice in real estate litigation: commercial leases, construction law, sales litigation, co-ownership, and environment. He is a member of the Institut Français de l'Expertise Immobilière.
Leading individuals: Real estate finance
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Yannick Le Gall is a partner of the firm and member of the Finance Group. His practice focuses primarily on leveraged finance (senior and junior) and capital market transactions. He advises both MLAs and sponsors as well as banks, private equity/debt funds and other institutional investors in both private and publicly traded companies. In addition, he regularly advises clients on real estate finance transactions (alongside with the firm’s Real Estate Group) and on debt purchase transactions (performing or non-performing portfolios). Last, alongside with the Restructuring Group, he advises clients on financing aspects of restructuring transactions.
Laetitia Lemercier was admitted to the Paris Bar in 2001 and specialises in structured finance. She is a member of Gide's Banking & Finance practice group and has significant experience in real estate finance, project finance, acquisition and corporate finance, as well as in debt restructuring. She regularly advises financial institutions or borrowers and investors at all stages of the structuring or restructuring, drafting and negotiation of complex financing transactions. Laetitia Lemercier co-authored the model Euro PP credit agreement and is an external speaker at Science Po Paris. She holds a postgraduate degree in business law and taxation and a master's degree in business law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, as well as a master's degree in management sciences in finance from the University of Paris IX Dauphine. Laetitia Lemercier is recommended in banking and finance law by the international legal guide Legal 500 EMEA.
Rémi Tabbagh is a partner in the Gide Banking & Finance practice group in Paris. He specialises in structured finance, particularly in real estate structured finance transactions. He advises clients (mainly French and foreign credit institutions, private equity funds) on structuring, drafting, negotiating and restructuring complex debt transactions. Rémi Tabbagh has broad experience in all types of assets and real estate structured finance transactions, including acquisition financings, construction and development financings, hotels financings, portfolio and pan-European financings, SIIC and REITs financings, Shariah-compliant financings, real estate financings to be refinanced through the issue of Pfandbriefe, mezzanine financings, restructuring of real estate structured debts, transfer of real estate debts portfolio, and financings of sale & lease-back transactions.
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Contribution fromClifford Chance LLPClifford Chance LLP
