Racine significantly strengthened its offering in March 2023 with the addition of Guillaume Fabre, who brings notable expertise in merger control and high-profile antitrust litigation to the team, from his own practice. The firm is renowned for its expertise in state aid, where it advises on complex cases relating to technology and green energy projects, but has broad experience across merger control, antitrust cases, follow-on damages claims and distribution law (a specialist area for Sophie Pasquesoone). State aid specialist Bastien Thomas and Valérie Ledoux-Tömek are also key figures.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘One of the best teams in France for European state aid law.’
‘Bastien Thomas is a remarkable lawyer and always keeps in touch.’
‘Valérie Ledoux is a good practitioner with great instincts on these subjects.’
‘Sophie Pasquesoone stands out for her situational intelligence, speed and understanding of the issues, particularly the subtle balance between legal elements and context.’
‘Bastien Thomas is a leader in state aid matters, along with his entire team.’
‘The team is technically excellent and very responsive. They are also very pragmatic and available. Their proactivity in processing files is impressive. They always try to understand the objectives pursued in order to advise intelligently and strategically. They charge very reasonable fees.’
‘Guillaume Fabre is truly excellent both technically and strategically. He also has very in-depth knowledge of our market sector. I call him regularly to discuss issues together and he allows me to resolve our legal issues very effectively.’
‘‘Guillaume Fabre is technically excellent and already has a strong track record.’

Key clients

Airbus
Dassault Systèmes
Constellium
Orano
Dailymotion (Vivendi Group)
X-Fab
Cafeyn Group
IN Group
Knauf
Teledyne
Elogen GTT
RX France
Suez
Symbio
RATP
Maïsadour
Stellantis
TotalEnergies

Work highlights

Advising aircraft manufacturer Airbus on the approval by the European Commission of state aid for the R&D of a microelectronics project.
Acting for Ellisphere, an information provider concerning risk management and data marketing, in the context of an investigation conducted by the FCA into alleged anti-competitive practices in this sector.
Advising TotalEnergies (formerly Total) on its notification to the European Commission regarding state aid for a project consisting of developing a green hydrogen production plant for industry and mobility end users in France.