Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

Bertrand Montembault is a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, based in the firm's Paris office. Bertrand is a French law qualified corporate and projects lawyer who has over 30 years of experience advising the firm's clients on their activities in the natural resources and energy sectors throughout Francophone Africa. Bertrand has an excellent knowledge of Francophone Africa's local and regional legal and regulatory frameworks, including OHADA and CEMAC/UEMOA, and a strong network of local contacts. He was ranked in the 6th position of Jeune Afrique's Top 100 Legal Powerlist of the most influential lawyers in French-speaking Africa in 2023. Although Bertrand has spent most of his professional life in Paris, he was also based in Africa for a number of years, including in South Africa where he headed-up the Francophone Africa team in the Herbert Smith Freehills Johannesburg office (from October 2016 to December 2018), but also Gabon where he was based for over two years in the early part of his career.

Emmanuel Ronco

Corporate TMT

Frédéric Chevallier

Partner

Mathias Dantin

Mathias Dantin is a highly experienced energy, natural resources and infrastructure regulatory and public law expert who has a particular focus on the evolving energy transition / decarbonisation sector. He also advises the firm's clients on their litigation and pre-litigation strategy for regulatory and public procurement matters before the administrative courts in France, the European Union and Francophone Africa. Mathias' experience spans onshore/offshore wind, solar, green hydrogen, biofuels, biogas, renewable heat, EV charging stations, carbon capture, Guarantees of Origin (GOs), White Certificates and voluntary carbon credits. He also supports developers on the energy and decarbonization aspects of new gigafactories with green ambitions (EV batteries, green steel, rare earths recycling, etc.). Mathias also offers deep knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework governing sub-surface activities in the geothermal, extractive (notably lithium), gas storage and carbon storage sectors in France. Mathias is a key member of the firm's cross-practice ESG team, with a particular focus on environmental issues. He is the founder of the Paris office Climate Change Hub and co-founder of AFEN (Association Française pour les Émissions Négatives).

Michael Armandou

Michaël Armandou is a partner based in the Paris office of Herbert Smith Freehills specialising in project structuring, development and finance in the infrastructure and energy sectors, acting for industrial sponsors and infrastructure funds, lenders, institutional investors, governments and multilateral institutions. Michaël's experience in these sectors is broad and spans transportation (ports, airports, roads, rail), digital infrastructure, social infrastructure, power generation (wind, solar, green hydrogen, geothermal, gas, co-generation etc) and biofuels. He also advises on the financing and development of new giga factories (EV batteries, green steel, etc.). In addition to his work in France and Europe, Michaël also advises on projects in emerging markets, including in Latin America, the Caribbean, Central Asia and Francophone Africa.

Nina Bowyer

Nina Bowyer is an energy and natural resources partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and Managing Partner of the firm's offices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Nina is based in the firm's Paris office and is dual English law and French law qualified. Nina works with a broad range of clients on single and multi-jurisdictional mergers, acquisitions and disposals, joint venture structuring, project development and related financing arrangements in the oil, gas, power and mining sectors. Although Nina has particular experience in helping clients with their transactions and projects in Africa, she also works on matters in France/Europe (mainly gas related), South America, Asia and the Middle East.

Rebecca Major

Rebecca Major is a corporate partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and head of the Paris office Energy, Mining and Infrastructure practice. She also co-led the firm's energy and natural resources team in Tokyo for 5 years. Rebecca specialises in acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and projects in the energy (oil & gas, renewables, power and energy transition projects, such as batteries, green steel and green hydrogen) and mining sectors. She has many years of experience of doing cross-border work, particularly in Europe and Africa, but also has substantial experience in Asia, South America and the Middle East. Rebecca is a British and French national who is qualified to advise on English and French law.

Thomas Herman

Thomas is an Of Counsel based in the Paris office of Herbert Smith Freehills. He is a French-law qualified lawyer with a public contract law academic background who advises on contractual arrangements and regulatory issues relating to the development, construction (including EPC related disputes), financing, acquisition and transfer of projects and other transactions in France and internationally, including notably North Africa (in particular Algeria) and sub-Saharan Africa and other emerging markets. Thomas has a particular focus on the energy and infrastructure sectors, spanning renewables, biomass, oil & gas, telecoms/digital infrastructure, data centres and transport. He also advises on gigafactories and energy storage projects.

Vincent Denoyelle

Corporate TMT

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