About

CNES, France’s national space agency, operates under the French Ministries of Defence and Research with a 2017 allocated budget of €2.3bn. Its legal team is headed by Philippe Clerc, head of legal affairs and deputy director since 2007. The two departments Clerc manages comprises of around 20 people: 11 members in the contracts and IPR legal service sub-division, located in Toulouse, covering contractual commitments; and nine the Paris-based corporate legal service sub-team who cover various other legal matters concerning the agency’s governance, programs and operations. Julien Mariez works closely with Clerc, serving CNES as head of the corporate legal department since 2012. According to Clerc, ‘the department has been deeply strengthened for the last 10 years’ by extending its intervention to lobbying, intellectual property rights, procurement, legal advice to CNES President, executive committee and Ministries and handling the relationship with European Space Agency (ESA) and EU at a high level. Today the team’s mission is ‘to protect and promote CNES legal interests, as well as those of the French Government in the Space area’. It achieves this through its overriding duties of ensuring legal conformity of CNES’ activities and innovation by proposing unique legal solutions and supporting the lobbying interests in the Space sector at all legislative levels. The quality and consistency of the team’s work over the years leads Clerc to say, ‘the competence and expertise of CNES’ legal department is acknowledged internally and externally and constitutes an asset for the development of CNES’ relationship with its partners among the private and public space community’.