Spitz Poulle Kannan stands out as France’s only law firm dedicated to the financial regulatory and litigation industry. The firm has large resources which allows for a broad coverage, spanning a range of financial products (derivatives and structured products). It also provides strategic support during M&A and corporate deals undertaken in the financial services field. Clients include leading French, US and German banks as well as asset management firms and corporations developing financial activity such as payment and gift card offers. The practice is jointly headed by Arut KannanJean-Baptiste Poulle and Nicolas Spitz. Counsel Sandra Kahn provides key support.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Available and responsive.’
  • ‘Very knowledgeable and easy to work with - practical and real-time advice on emerging financial services issues.’
  • ‘A very knowledgeable team that understands the regulatory environment in order to deliver the best advice.’
  • ‘Jean-Baptiste Poulle is excellent. He has a broad knowledge base, is commercial, provides accessible advice, knows market practice and gets very positive feedback from clients. ’
  • ‘Very responsive and very proactive team with a lot of anticipation of consequences/risks.’
  • ‘Nicolas Spitz: very good strategist. Sandra Kahn: very rigorous and precise in her arguments and approaches’.
  • ‘Competence, collaboration, anticipation of customer needs and service well suited to needs.’
  • ‘Always trustworthy advice and a solid relationship with the team.’

Key clients

  • Deutsche Bank
  • Euroclear
  • Ripple
  • Edmond de Rothschild
  • BNP Paribas
  • UniCredit
  • Morgan Stanley
  • Natixis
  • Groupe BPCE
  • Total Energies
  • La Banque Postale
  • Crédit Mutuel Arkéa
  • Crédit Agricole
  • MUFG Bank
  • Siemens Financial Services
  • Itau Unibanco
  • Proparco
  • Groupe Exane
  • Crypto.com
  • Alipay
  • Bytedance
  • Tencent
  • Government Investment Corporation (Singapore)
  • SMBC
  • Uber
  • Temasek Holdings

Work highlights

  • Advising Société Générale on the regulatory aspects of their joint venture project with Alliance Bernstein.
  • Advising Bundesverband Deutscher Banken on a legal opinion covering the enforceability of the close-out netting provisions of the derivatives documentation published by the Fédération Bancaire Française.
  • Advised SoftBank Group and the Hedosophia group on the regulatory aspects of their acquisition of  the shares and voting rights of PrimaryBid Limited.

Lawyers

Leading associates
Leading associates with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Arut Kannan, Jean-Baptiste Poulle, Nicolas Spitz

Other key lawyers

Sandra Khan