With almost 30 years of experience under his belt, Adam Smith is one the most experienced GCs currently active in the French market. Smith joined multinational aerospace and defence corporation...

‘We pride ourselves in the legal department about the fact that we keep things running smoothly despite the fact we are a small team’. Adele Zangs, vice president of legal...

Euro Cargo Rail (ECR), a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn and the first private railway undertaking in France, appointed Agnès Bardel as head of legal in 2009. Having begun her career...

Alexander Lunshof is the chief legal officer of Essilor, a world leader in the production of ophthalmic lenses and optical equipment. The position of chief legal officer is not new...

Solocal Group (previously PagesJaunes), is a leader in three different business lines; content and service provision, media and advertising representation and online media content. Alexandre De Tourtier handles the legal...

Having worked with global companies, such as Saint-Gobain and Volkswagen, for the majority of his career, Alexandre Marcotte is well suited to his current role of director legal for AkzoNobel’s...

Atos is an international information technology company working with clients across a wide variety of market sectors. The challenges for the legal team run deeply through the company’s history, with...

With a PhD in international law at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Asia and a lecturer in Paris and Thailand between 1993 and 1998, Anne-Laure Nguyen-Fitzgerald left her academic...

Anne-Sophie Le Lay is responsible for overseeing Renault’s global legal activities and acts as advisor to the board of directors. She joined the company in 2001 to help oversee the...

Antoine Genevois has over 12 years of understanding of AREVA Group’s business across the USA and Europe, having held a number of roles. During that time he has reorganised the...

Arnold van Eeckhout joined Bouygues group in 1993 and was appointed to the position of general counsel and member of the general management committee in 1995. He has worked on...

Aymar de Franqueville, general counsel at human resources company Adecco, runs his team so that ‘the legal department is a business line as any other’, but one focusing on compliance...

Aymeric Flamant has an impressive academic background holding a Master’s Degree in both business law and public-private partnerships as well as an executive diploma from Wharton University. After graduating he...

Bastien Soret has been leading the legal departments of international companies for over 16 years. Taking the reins at Elis, a leader in the rental of textiles and hygiene equipment,...

Benoit Balmary oversees the 20 legal departments housed within global automotive giant Michelin Group. Balmary took up his current position of group general counsel in 2014 and has since won...

Graduating from the University of Rennes and beginning his career in 1990 with PwC Legal and Tax, Boubakar Dione began his journey with Bpifrance in 2006, when the company was...

Carlos Döring portrays a multi-cultural understanding that has allowed him to conduct M&A projects in more than 20 countries. As legal director for corporate finance and treasury at French telecommunications...

Carol Xueref is one of the most respected in-house lawyers in Europe, having excelled in a number of high-profile roles while contributing significantly to a range of professional legal bodies....

Cécile Russeil first joined video game developer and publisher Ubisoft in 1990, as personal assistant to the CEO. Without a legal background or training she started working on all major...

Beginning her career in-house with Christian Dior, Christine Maury-Panis’ first in-house legal role consisted of supporting the high fashion brand on trademarks and compliance with competition law, at a time...

Learned in Political Science and History of Media, Christophe Dickès started his journey with Press Index, a technology leader in media watch and monitoring, in 1999. Building his career towards...

As deputy legal director for competition, Clémentine Baldon has reorganised the workings of her legal team to take on a more digital form by introducing IT and other collaborative tools....

Cristophe Brie is an accomplished general counsel with particular expertise in compliance and risk management. With a career spanning over 25 years in the law, Brie began his career at...

Delphine Jacquemont has held the combined function of general counsel gas, since 2008, and deputy general counsel international since 2015. She first joined EDF in 1991 to negotiate contracts for...

Groupe Duval is a family-owned company that holds a number of entities across many sectors, some of which are listed on the French Stock Exchange and others that are private....

Dominique Bourrinet is ultimately responsible for all legal matters in each of Société Générale’s markets and oversees a team of more than 1,000 lawyers globally. His role at the French...

‘One of my ambitions as a young lawyer was to show that law and business functions are able to be experienced together’, an ambition that Edouard Picant has achieved by...

Elliott Beard worked for Willkie Farr & Gallagher’s corporate practice group for four years in New York and three years in Paris before joining Becton Dickinson’s EMEA law division in...

Elodie Lalanne-Larrieu joined renewable energy operator Valorem in 2008. The legal department, which she created as one of her first tasks at the company, comprises of four lawyers that manage...

Emilie Montané has an impressive diversity of past experiences, having begun her career in the automobile industry dealing with intellectual property matters followed by multiple roles with Universal Studios Channels...

SODICA is part of Crédit Agricole Group’s Private Equity & Finance Division (CACIF) and Eric Le Cann has been general counsel for the past seven years. SODICA specialises in long-term...

Florence Guéry began her legal career in private practice law firms and also spent time in the legal service of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Making the...

Prior to joining PayPal, Florence Louis-Joseph worked with numerous companies in the telecommunications industry including Global Tele Systems and Global Crossing (now Level 3) in France, the Netherlands and the...

Most of Franck Raimbault’s legal career has been dedicated to Air France, the French flag carrier airline. He joined the company headquarters in 1995 after his role as a researcher...

Franck Tassan previously served as an in-house lawyer at PSA Peugeot Citroen, before moving to Carrefour in 1996 as a senior international lawyer. In 2000 he became the legal director...

Francois-Xavier Olivieri has been part of France’s gas sector since 1998 when he joined the Gaz de France Group (GDF) (which was later turned into GDF SUEZ and now Engie),...

The Champagne Roederer group, a seventh generation family-run business, specialises in the production of fine wines from the iconic region in France. With continuous expansion over the years, the group...

Frédéric Lorin, previously a financial lawyer at Crédit Agricole, is now financial lawyer – EMEA equity capital markets at BNP Paribas, the French multinational bank and financial services company. Since...

Frédéric Vern has been part of the real estate industry since his first role as a lawyer at Freshfields (2002), which he continued at Mayer Brown where he dealt with...

Frédérique Berthier has been instrumental in the successful completion of over 50 M&A projects over a period of seven years covering over 40 countries. ‘Mergers and acquisitions are an absolute...

The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) represents 230 authors’ societies in 120 countries. The legal function has switched focus from internal matters to dealing with worldwide...

‘In France in 1996; if someone said to me I would be general counsel of the entire group I would have said “impossible as I am not a French lawyer”...

Guillaume Hecketsweiler was appointed general counsel at Air-France-KLM in 2014 and holds joint responsibility, alongside corporate secretary Jacques Le Pap, for implementing the group’s legal strategy and policies. Hecketsweiler began...

Guillaume Nonain’s career highlight came during the win of an antitrust claim presented against a major competitor; the victory allowed an entire business line to carry on functioning and flourish....

Despite his many years spent in academia, Harald Peter Knöbl broke away from the normal path of a lawyer and opted to work directly in-house with the German subsidiary of...

Ian Kayanakis’ legal career began as a Paris Bar attorney and at Lazareff & Associés, one of the most reputable names in international arbitration. Given this foundation, Kayanakis was well...

Ingrid Berteyn first joined Decathlon in 2000 as a real estate lawyer, a position she held for eight years after which she was promoted to legal manager for the entire...

Isabelle Misakoglu joined Senoble in 1997 as the first in-house lawyer the company employed since its inception in 1921. Senoble is one of Europe’s largest fresh dairy producers with a...

The departments of legal and compliance of BNP Paribas Personal Finance, a leader in France and Europe for personal loans via its activities in consumer credit and mortgage lending, are...

In 1998 Isabelle Roux-Chenu joined Capgemini, the management consultancy with expertise in technology and outsourcing, when there was no serving in-house legal support. One of her first improvements was to...

Ivan Alamilla graduated as a lawyer in his native Mexico in 1999 (Universidad La Salle). Already fluent in Spanish and English, he added French to his repertoire whilst studying Business...

Jean-Benoit Devauges joined Renault in 2000 after spells at the Foreign Service, where he spent 15 months in India with the French Foreign Minister, completing the bar exam and then...

In 2013 the position of head of litigation and arbitration at Veolia Environment was created for Jean-Marc Guillot. Involved in the re-organisation of the utilities, water and waste management branches...

Jeremy Leach has been vice president, group general counsel and secretary to the board of the global producer of aluminium semi-products Constellium, since January 2011. Since the inception of the...

Jérémy Rousseau joined the litigation department of TF1, a private French television channel, in 2001 where he dealt with the contentious press, criminal offences and the litigation for the business’...

Jérôme Perlemuter joined the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) 11 years ago, and ‘always compares life at the French league to the TV show 24, every day is a new...

Joëlle Simon is the first non-American to receive the US Chamber of Commerce award, presented to her at the 16th Annual Legal Reform Summit for her dedication to the protection...

Johan Gerrese, vice president and general counsel at leading telecoms provider Alcatel-Lucent, is one of the most experienced global counsel working in Europe. Over a period of 20 years, Gerrese...

John Harrison was appointed group general counsel, a newly created position within the executive committee of the Airbus Group, in 2015. His new role consolidates the three functions of corporate...

From 1977 to 1986 Karen Linehan served on the congressional staff for the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. She then moved to work as an associate at a...

Fostering communication between the different services of the Vivendi group, Laetitia Ménasé has put in place a truly effective legal team allowing ‘them to be less isolated in their work...

‘We are living in a challenging period, but also a very interesting evolution, where due to all these new constraints we have to reinvent our function and our way of...

The French Supreme Court granted a landmark decision on product liability and casual link due to the collective effort of a team managed by Laurent Pitet, now general counsel and...

In a previous role in the media and entertainment industry, Lise Pons created the legal function for UGC, one of the largest cinema operators in Europe. Leaving behind a fully...

Managing 105 full-time equivalent employees in 21 businesses scattered across 11 different jurisdictions, is in itself a challenging assignment. Loïc Legouet has implemented an ingenious and efficient legal business line...

Marc Bergmann has offered his services to the in-house part of the legal sector for 25 years, with both international and regional expertise across the technology and energy sectors. He...

Maria Gomri joined Google France in in 2006 as a senior legal counsel and has made noticeable and numerous changes to the technology giant. Gomri has had many promotions during...

Accor Hotels have a portfolio of over 6000 trademarks and they operate in around 92 countries across the world with over 3500 hotels and 5000 domain names under their control....

‘My experience at Cdiscount, and now Cnova, within France and internationally, is certainly one of the richest in my career’, says Marie Even who has been with the company since...

Marilyne Sullet-Duverbecq spent time working at law firms in France, Monaco and Italy, prior to her in-house stint in 2000 where she launched the legal department for the Neurocom Group,...

Mark Rollinger joined PSA Peugeot Citroën (now Groupe PSA) in 2013, taking charge of a legal department that was known for its small size relative to both the company’s market...

Achieving a meteoric rise within the company he joined in 2008, by 2011 Matthieu Bernat was made responsible for the management of a team and in 2014 became the managing...

Maurice Bensadoun joined the water division of transnational water, waste and energy management company Veolia as chief of legal and insurance counsel in 2011, responsible for a team of 200...

‘Among the number of responsibilities I have had to cope with, in my career in and outside the legal function, the most exciting and rewarding of all has certainly been...

‘The lawyer must ensure to be both a generalist open to the world and its cultures and work tirelessly on his technique (as a pianist for example). There is no...

Miguel Videira Pimentão began his legal career as an associate attorney at magic circle law firm Clifford Chance. Based in their Paris office with a working knowledge of five languages,...

Nicolas Petrovic spent eight years at top business law firm August et Debouzy, working in their regulatory, litigation, contract IT and technology departments before moving in-house in 2007. Petrovic joined...

Before moving in-house in 2011, Olivier Kodjo thrived for 10 years at law firms including Coudert Brothers, Lefèvre Pelletier & associés, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Dentons. During this private...

Patrick Remot is the legal director and chief compliance officer at Clear Channel France, the mass media organisation and recently a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. He started his career at a...

‘From my perspective what is significant in a post is the person who manages the post not the post itself. What I want to explain is that the motivation and...

Paul Lanois, senior legal counsel of cross-border legal at Credit Suisse, extends his responsibility to business initiatives across EMEA and guides the development of marketing tools such as online tools...

Philippe Chavasse has, with the assistance of the IT services of Fives Group, interweaved technology modernisation throughout the legal department. A software application allows him to have a clear interpretation...

Philippe Clerc is a distinguished and a well-respected expert in the field of space law, having worked in the somewhat niche market for over 25 years. Currently acting as the...

Philippe Jutard has put in place mechanisms that enable legal to be at the heart of Compagnie des Alpes, providing swift and homogenous guidance to all entities and departments ‘without...

After working as a private practice lawyer in the late 1990s Philippe Prouvost moved in-house to join AXA, the French multinational insurance firm, in 1999. As corporate legal counsel there,...

Rémi Dujon has been part of the legal function at Orange for almost 20 years, having held various positions after first joining as legal counsel in 1997. Dujon has played...

Remi Leonforte’s academic history includes both finance and law which is reflected in roles in banking and financial services prior to joining PPR (now Kering), the French holding company for...

With long-term in-house legal experience covering a number of internationally focussed companies, Renalda Harfouche brings both understanding and a diverse skillset to her current role at Ipsos, the global market...

Sabine Martinon has been a part of the Accor Hotels Group since 2006, with her initial role providing legal support to the marketing and distribution departments as well as real...

Sandrine Rambaud provides the legal assistance needed for IMS Health to provide information, services, solutions and technology to improve the performance of companies operating in the health care market. Having...

Sébastien Niogret joined Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, as a trainee in 2002. After only a few months the then group general counsel offered him...

As general counsel, Sophie Saden has responsibility for the legal aspects of fundraising at Astorg Partners, a private equity fund with offices in Paris, London and Luxembourg. Saden participates on...

Prior to her current role, Stéphanie Le Coq de Kerland spent seven years with the law firm Fidal during which time she was tasked with the incorporation of the firms’...

Valentine Poylo previously worked with the French Navy in the Fleet Support Service, being responsible for the maintenance of ships for the Ministry of Defence. She is acknowledged for her...

Vanessa Hespel-Perin was first offered the opportunity to move in-house to manage the legal affairs of RELX France, the owner of publishers Lexis Nexis, Elsevier Masson and Fricosoft and Reed...

‘Having the benefit of legal privilege is a critical need in our global environment nowadays’ proclaims William Wostyn, who has served investment company Viel & Cie since 1999. In 2004...

The legal department of the renowned shoe designer Christian Louboutin is a surprisingly new entity considering the world-wide fame of the company’s brand. The department was created in 2009 when...

L’Oréal’s group general counsel Yannick Chalme has been with the cosmetics company for 15 years, helping to protect its world-renowned brands in the face of growing infringement globally. His profile...