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Alain Garnier

Alain Garnier

Linklaters

Alain specialises in private M&A and private equity domestically and internationally. He has market leading practice in the banking and insurance industry, where he advises on M&A, group restructuring, and, jointly with the firm financial regulation and litigation teams, industry specific issues, including regulatory investigations. Alain is the lead relationship partner for a number of the firm’s French clients in the financial sector.

Anne Wachsmann

Anne Wachsmann

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Anne is a Partner in our Paris office, widely acknowledged for her leading expertise in competition law. She advises on cartels, abuse of dominant position, vertical restraints and merger control, from the administrative investigation stage to the procedure before domestic and EU jurisdictions, as well as antitrust follow-on actions. Anne’s experience spans many sectors, notably the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. Anne co-leads the firm’s consumer sector. She is a member of the Corporate Responsibility Commitee. Earlier in her career, Anne was based in Brussels, where she gained significant insight into the operation of the European Commission and developed extensive contacts with competition regulators.

Arnaud de La Cotardière

Arnaud de La Cotardière

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Arnaud is one of the most renowned corporate litigators in France. Having acted for 30 years alongside his clients on their most sensitive matters, he is recognised for his determination and sense of strategy. He regularly pleads before French courts (civil, commercial and criminal) and the AMF (French stock exchange authority). He also regularly acts, whether as counsel or as arbitrator, in arbitral proceedings. First and foremost concerned for his clients’ interests, Arnaud systematically includes the possibility of a settlement within his strategic approach. He is also very experienced in mediation. His clients praise his “quick and pugnacious mindset” and reckon he is “a great listener” as well as describing him as a “bright and without pretention” and an “outstanding professional”. They also add that Arnaud is “very business-oriented; he finds the key points very quickly” and “is senior enough to know what we can manage and what to negotiate”. Although he now devotes all his time to his matters, Arnaud was Managing Partner of the Paris office for 10 years and member of the Executive Committee of the Firm for 4 years. This management experience is greatly helping him to understand his clients concerns.

Aymar De Mauléon

Aymar De Mauléon

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Aymar, the partner in charge of the Restructuring & Insolvency practice at Linklaters Paris, has long-standing experience in operational and financial restructurings of distressed companies, both in the context of out-of-court and formal insolvency proceedings, where he advises all types of stakeholders. His expertise covers all aspects of restructurings, including insolvency-related litigation.

Bertrand Andriani

Bertrand Andriani

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Bertrand is Head of the Energy & Infrastructure department in the Paris office. He specialises in structured finance, including major project financings, leveraged finance, banking, secured and unsecured syndicated loans, derivative products, insolvency and corporate restructuring. Bertrand is also Head of the Francophone Africa Desk.

Bruno Derieux

Bruno Derieux

Linklaters

Head of the Corporate/M&A practice in Paris, Bruno advises corporates, financial sponsors and banks on a wide range of complex, cross-border corporate transactions, including public and private M&A, private equity law.

Carole Nerguararian

Carole Nerguararian

Linklaters

Carole joined the firm in 2009 as an Associate before being promoted to the position of Counsel in 2018. Carole has in-depth expertise in the French restructuring and insolvency arena. She specialises in complex domestic and cross-border restructurings, both in the framework of out-of-court and formal insolvency proceedings, where she advises all types of stakeholders. Her practice covers all aspects of financial and operational restructurings, including insolvency-related litigations.

Cyril Boussion

Cyril Boussion

Linklaters

Cyril is active in all tax aspects, both in domestic and international matters. He is especially active in M&A transactions, for listed and non-listed companies, including LBOs. Cyril also advises on the setting up of private equity and real estate investment funds.

Cyril Abtan

Cyril Abtan

Linklaters

Cyril is a partner in the banking practice of Linklaters in Paris notably involved in secured and unsecured syndicated loans, acquisition financings (private and leveraged) and real estate financings.

Edouard Chapellier

Edouard Chapellier

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Édouard is widely recognised as one of the leading tax practitioners in France and heads the firm’s French tax practice. Édouard advises corporates, private equity firms and investment banks on domestic and international tax law, especially on the tax structuring of complex cross-border corporate, banking and capital markets transactions, including Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs), joint ventures and real estate acquisitions. Édouard also has extensive experience in structuring private equity and real estate investment funds in a range of jurisdictions, including Luxembourg, Jersey and France.

Florent Mazeron

Florent Mazeron

Linklaters

Florent is one of the Linklaters’ global Financial Sponsors group leaders. He is consistently recommended as a leading private equity lawyer by Chambers and is described as “very effective” and “esteemed among clients for his solution-driven style”.

François April

François April

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François is widely regarded as a leading renewables and energy & infrastructure practitioner in France. A Partner in the Energy & Infrastructure practice in the firm’s Paris office, François focuses on project financing in the energy, mining and infrastructure sectors. He also has in-depth knowledge of infrastructure assets, including airports, ports and roads and power distribution. François advises sponsors, investors (including investment funds) government entities and lenders on all aspects of projects, including finance and contractual arrangements, as well as regulatory issues, on projects in France, Francophone Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Canada, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. He is actively involved with the firm’s initiatives surrounding Canada, including developing and maintaining Canadian client and institutional relationships.

Françoise Maigrot

Françoise Maigrot

Linklaters

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.

Géric Clomes

Géric Clomes

Linklaters

Géric is an Employment and Incentives Partner in the Paris office with more than 15 years of experience. He focuses on strategic cross-border and multi-jurisdictional work for international clients such as banks, private equity funds and corporates. Géric has a strong experience on strategic transactional employment advice for international clients (including coordination work for multi-jurisdictional projects, managing information and consultation procedures, transfer of employees, etc.), crisis-management matters (e.g. moral/sexual harassment cases, investigatory work, negotiation of departures of senior executives, assistance during negotiation with trade unions) and strategic employment-related litigations (e.g. involving trade unions and works councils). Géric also developed the Incentives side of the Paris practice and plays a key role across the Linklaters network in assisting international clients on their global issues with respect to compensation and benefits.

Jean-Charles Jaïs

Jean-Charles Jaïs

Linklaters

Jean-Charles specialises in pre-contentious and litigation matters ranging from financial and banking disputes, financial regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings (in particular in relation to market abuse offence), contentious competition, white collar crime, post-completion disputes, and private international law to general commercial law disputes (such as abusive termination of commercial relations and unfair competition). In this respect, he regularly appears before Civil and Commercial Courts as well as the French Financial Markets Authority (“AMF”). Jean-Charles often works in close collaboration with lawyers from the firm’s other market-leading practice areas, including Corporate, Competition, Financial Regulation, in cross-office, multidisciplinary teams. As well as France-based clients, Jean-Charles represents corporates and financial institutions in the firm’s Brussels and London offices. He spent four months on secondment to the firm’s Madrid office in 2010.

Justin Faye

Justin Faye

Linklaters

Justin is a Partner in Linklaters' Paris Energy & Infrastructure team with significant experience on transactions across the African continent. Justin’s practice spans all areas of transactional activity in the energy, infrastructure and natural resources sectors. Technically proficient, versatile and solution-oriented, he has significant experience providing seamless advice to sponsors, lenders, multilateral institutions, contractors and host governments on the structuring, financing and development of major projects in France and across Africa as well as regularly supporting the firm’s premium clients on corporate transactions in the energy, infrastructure and natural resources sectors. Justin has been involved in a number of ground-breaking mandates in Francophone Africa, including the Scaling Solar projects in Senegal and Togo and the Congo bridge project. Before joining Linklaters, Justin worked for two years in another international law firm in Paris. In 2015, he was seconded for six months to the Energy & Infrastructure team in the London office.

Kathryn Merryfield

Kathryn Merryfield

Linklaters

Based in Paris for more than 20 years, Kathryn has extensive experience of advising both lenders and borrowers on many different types of financing transactions, including public and private investment grade and leveraged acquisition financing. She also advises on corporate syndicated lending and restructurings. Kathryn was seconded to HSBC in 2003, to the bank’s EMEA syndicated finance origination desk, and to BNP Paribas in 2005, in the bank’s French corporates syndicated finance team.

Lionel Vuidard

Lionel Vuidard

Linklaters

Lionel Vuidard joined the Paris office of Linklaters in March 2014 as a Partner and head of the French Employment practice. Lionel Vuidard is recognised as one of the best employment lawyers in the French Employment market. He is known as a proactive attorney providing clients with hands-on, pragmatic advice and strong representation in litigation matters. Lionel Vuidard was ranked as “excellent” in the last annual ranking published by Décideurs Juridiques, the French leading legal review, and as a “4-Star lawyer” in the last Option Finance ranking. In litigation matters, Lionel Vuidard represents companies before courts regarding sensitive employment disputes, such as high-profile individual cases, collective litigation, labour-related criminal litigation, and mass actions. Lionel Vuidard also has a strong experience in dispute resolution and the negotiation of settlement agreements.

Luis Roth

Luis Roth

Linklaters

Partner Luis is a respected debt and equity practitioner who has been based in Linklaters’ Paris office since 2001. He specialises in offerings by foreign private and sovereign issuers, whether registered with the SEC or conducted pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S. He often advises issuers and underwriters in French, Spanish and Italian equity offerings (IPOs, rights offerings, block trades) and debt transactions (high yield, Yankee bonds, MTNs and commercial paper). He also has significant experience in mergers and acquisitions and structured finance.

Nicolas Le Guillou

Nicolas Le Guillou

Linklaters

Nicolas is a Partner in the Corporate/M&A practice of Linklaters Paris. He regularly advises financial sponsors, private equity houses, insurance companies and corporates on their M&A transactions, with a particular focus on energy and infrastructure sectors.

Patrice Doat

Patrice Doat

Linklaters

Partner Patrice leads the firm’s Paris office structured finance group. He advises investment banks, private equity and debts funds, fintech companies and asset managers on structured finance deals, covered bonds and securitisations. These deals include Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS), Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS), Asset-Backed Securities (ABS), Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP), project bonds, and whole business and synthetic securitisations. More recently, Patrice has advised on portfolio sales. Patrice also has in-depth knowledge of European regulation applying to securitisation deals.

Pierre Zelenko

Pierre Zelenko

Linklaters

Pierre advises on complex competition issues, including merger control, cartels, vertical restraints, abuses of dominant position, damage claims and State aid. Pierre’s experience spans many industry and business sectors, in particular the, energy, banking and food & beverage sectors. As a former top civil servant and administrative judge, Pierre has a good understanding of the way regulators (particularly the French Competition Authority) work and enjoys good relationships with them. Holding a PhD in Economics, Pierre also has in-depth understanding of competition economics. Pierre worked in the firm’s Brussels office and continues to have in-depth knowledge of the European Commission (EC) as well as longstanding relationships with key DG Comp members to assist clients in their representations in competition matters.

Pierre Thomet

Pierre Thomet

Linklaters

Pierre specialises in private and public M&A, joint ventures as well as corporate law. He regularly advises large industrial groups, institutional investors as well as leading investment funds on their M&A transactions. Pierre lectures on “Group Corporate Strategies” at HEC.

Pierre Tourres

Pierre Tourres

Linklaters

Pierre advises corporate clients on public and private M&A transactions and corporate restructurings. Pierre is co-head of the firm’s automobile sector and has significant experience in the pharma sector.

Rhéa Christophilopoulos

Rhéa Christophilopoulos

Linklaters

Rhéa is specialised in acquisition and investment grade financings, including LBOs and debt restructurings. She acts for lenders, financial sponsors and borrowers. Rhéa is recommended by several leading international directories such as Legal 500 describing her as “technically excellent” and Chambers Global 2023 which highlights the following clients’ quote: "She is extremely efficient, dedicated and gives excellent advice on all commercial and technical matters." Rhéa has also been ranked in the Top 10 Rising Stars category of the CAC 40 TOP 40 Lawyers’ ranking published by Forbes France and la Lettre des Juristes d’Affaires (LJA) in 2021 and in 2022.

Roland Ziadé

Roland Ziadé

Linklaters

Roland has acted as counsel in approximately one hundred international arbitration cases (ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, ICSID, AAA, SCC, OHADA, PCA, and ad hoc) and has represented and advised private companies (from the United States of America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa), states, and international organisations. Roland has also acted as arbitrator in over 45 international arbitrations (ICC, LCIA, ICSID, UNCITRAL, SCC, Swiss Chambers, DIAC, DIFC-LCIA, AFA, CRCICA). He was a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration for 9 years. Roland is distinguished by Chambers Global and Chambers Europe, The International Who’s Who on Commercial Arbitration, Best Lawyers, as well as the Guide to the World's Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration, for his experience and expertise in international arbitration. In 2011, Global Arbitration Review named Roland as one of the 45 top arbitration lawyers under the age of 45 and in 2017, Global Arbitration Review ranked him in the top three worldwide of partners below 45. In 2018, he was selected by Who’s Who Legal among the 10 leading and most highly regarded arbitration counsel and arbitrators in France and in 2019 he was identified among the top 15 Global Elite Thought Leaders for the EMENA Region. According to Chambers, Roland is consistently considered as  “a bright lawyer” and “skilled arbitrator.”   He “attracts high praise from clients, with one saying: ‘I appreciated his ability to understand how corporate clients view the law, rather than looking at it as a purist - this is actually rarer than you think.’ Other sources describe him as ‘an outstanding lawyer; he is extremely talented and very efficient.’ He is highly experienced on acting in Middle East-related cases.” He is also “well respected for his work in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, with considerable experience of investment treaty arbitrations.” Roland is “highlighted by clients for his attention to detail and precision in risk assessment.” Interviewees also say that he "looks at the file from all angles and doesn't leave any part of the puzzle unfilled" and that "he is able to quickly factor in the client’s expectations and to adapt to complex situations."  He impresses sources  as “a very, very good and very very accomplished guy”  with “considerable experience of investment treaty arbitration.”  Clients appreciate his ‘excellent knowledge of the procedural aspects of an arbitration, as well as his broad knowledge of international jurisprudence,’ with one enthusing that he is a “star."  (Chambers Global). According to Who’s Who Legal,  “the eminent Roland Ziadé is described as an ‘outstanding negotiator’ with significant experience on the international scene.” “Described as a ‘star’”, he “emerges as one of the titans of the arbitration market in Europe” and is “regarded as one of the most sought-after counsel for international arbitrations, particularly in reference to ICC arbitration.” He “has extensive experience sitting as arbitrator in major disputes and draw praise for ‘his multicultural mindset and excellent knowledge of commercial arbitration’” (Who’s Who Legal). Legal 500 considers that he “stands out for being very knowledgeable, sharp and passionate. Each new case is treated as if it was the case that will change his career. He has great capacity to anticipate and address the moves of the adverse party and to predict the expectations of the tribunal. He is definitively a top arbitration lawyer and someone to better have on one’s own side when facing an arbitration dispute” (Legal 500).

Sonia Cissé

Sonia Cissé

Linklaters

Sonia is heading the Technology, Media and Telecommunications team of Linklaters in Paris. Sonia’s practice covers the full range of TMT legal areas, with a focus on contracts, data protection, internet and telecommunications. Sonia has strong experience in advising companies from diversified sectors (IT editors and service providers, banking, insurance, transportation, telecom, energy, retail, luxe, etc.) across all aspects of major commercial contracts, sourcing and complex procurement transactions, regulation of data and networks, e-business and IT security, telecoms and media projects. Her experience has led her to advise on both service providers and clients’ sides.

Stephen  Le Vesconte

Stephen Le Vesconte

Linklaters

Stephen is an Energy and Infrastructure Partner with nearly 20 years of experience advising on large-scale, cross-border project development, project finance, joint venture and M&A transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors (including oil and gas, petrochemicals, power and renewables). He has particular expertise in structured finance and multisource project financings including Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) and other international financial institutions. Stephen set up the firm’s Seoul office in 2013 and was Seoul office Managing Partner 2016-2018, and continues to lead the firm’s relationships with many Korean corporates, ECAs and banks in Seoul. Stephen previously worked for nine years in the firm’s London office, for three years in the firm’s Moscow office and for six months in the firm’s Hong Kong office. He joined our Paris team in September 2018.

Thomas Elkins

Thomas Elkins

Linklaters

Thomas is a partner in Linklaters’ Antitrust and Foreign Investment Group. He has expertise in all aspects of competition law, including merger control (before the European Commission and the French Competition Authority as well as coordinating multi-jurisdictional clearances), behavioural practices (cartel and abuse of dominance cases) and private damages claims. Thomas is a longstanding advisor to clients in the automotive, healthcare, tech and retail sectors.

Véronique Delaittre

Véronique Delaittre

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Partner Véronique specialises in debt capital markets work such as debt issuance programmes, all kind of bonds issues (hybrid bonds, regulatory capital, Euro-PP), liability management deals and equity linked products. Véronique joined Linklaters in 2001, having previously spent two years with Credit Commercial de France (now HSBC) and three years with Société Générale.