Guillaume Ansaloni, Managing Partner of Bentam Société d'Avocats, a 'boutique' dedicated to financing, explains the firm's differentiating factors and its ability to adapt to customer needs.

1) What do you see as the main points that differentiate Bentam Société d’Avocats from your competitors?

At the heart of our strategy is the corporate culture we are committed to cultivating and transmitting. This culture rests on collaboration: collaboration within and between our teams is fundamental. We have translated this into an internal culture code that I call "Yoda principles", in reference to what Yoda is to Luke in Star Wars. Our promise is that our clients will benefit from this culture of collaboration, and the operational efficiency that goes with it. This is how we help them achieve their ambitions.

2) Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

We have chosen to focus on a few areas of expertise (finance, equity, acquisition, project development), combined with sector-specific practices (renewable energies and-infrastructure, public sector, real estate). Recent health and geopolitical events have proved that this was the right choice, as these sectors are generally resilient in times of crisis.

Moreover, it has become clear that climate change is a priority issue and, even if this is not the only path to take to help slow down or even reverse the process, the decarbonization of energy production, but also consumption (of buildings or vehicles), must accelerate dramatically. We are all players in this paradigm shift.

3) What's the main change you've made in the firm that will benefit clients?

Our relationship with our clients is based on one premise: acknowledge that our clients' expectations are highly diverse, and that it is crucial not to succumb to an over-simplistic categorization of needs. We believe that it is very important, even for the same client, to understand the expectations of the person we are interacting with, especially as these expectations are likely to change over time. It's a human dimension to our business that we really appreciate.

To achieve this, we train in related subjects. As finance is at the heart of our business, we have trained in the fundamentals of corporate finance and financial modeling. This enables us to understand, anticipate and therefore be relevant.

4) Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

The development of social networks and other means of communication has led to an explosion in the amount of information available, which can sometimes be diluted or oversimplified to the point of distortion. This means that we need to take particular care in the way we communicate, while keeping in step with the practices and expectations of our clients. We therefore strive to share useful information with our audience in a way that illustrates our dynamic vision of the law, while taking care to limit information vectors to privilege quality and singularity.

As far as IA is concerned, we are in an exploratory phase, as we do not wish to commit ourselves to communication tools that would be detrimental to our business model. On the other hand, we are conducting several internal projects to exploit AI intelligently and further improve our collaborative processes.

5) Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

There are many ways to help create value for the client. I am thinking of this example where, when our client needed to find an investor very quickly at a critical period in its development, I activated my network. This put the client in contact with an investor who understood and appreciated his vision. The deal went through, and today the company continues to grow successfully, with a harmonious collaboration between the partners. I am particularly happy about this achievement.

More generally, we are very keen to receive candid feedback from our clients at the end of each transaction. We never tire of being thanked for our involvement: it reinforces the idea that we have met our commitments and thus fulfilled our clients' expectations. It also means that we welcome any suggestion for improvement, because, once again, collaboration is at the heart of our corporate culture.

6) Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms - where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

We set out to find out from some of our clients and non-clients what they look for in a law firm. What they have in common is that their objectives are plural! As I said earlier, we think it would be a mistake to try and classify clients into one or more categories.

We have therefore chosen to address specific types of need, in line with our value proposition.

Similarly, we believe that a company's growth should be based on its ability to continue delivering what it has promised ("capabilities"). This is why we have resolutely opted for rational growth because our differentiation will only continue to be achieved by strengthening our core competencies.

Finally, having consolidated our position in the domestic market, we are now structuring ourselves to handle international transaction, which is something we have done until now on an opportunistic basis.