Paris

Dechert’s Paris-based corporate/M&A team represents leading French and overseas multinational companies in their domestic and cross-border transactional matters (whether involving France or not), as well as in their growth operations in emerging markets. We are active in the healthcare and life sciences, telecommunications, agri-food, chemicals and business services industries.

To provide our clients with integrated service while advising on their mergers and acquisitions transactions, we work seamlessly with other Dechert lawyers in Paris and globally, particularly in the areas of labor and employment, intellectual property, antitrust/competition, tax, complex litigations and arbitrations.

Our private equity team in France covers the whole spectrum of the investment life cycle, including buyouts, build-ups and exits, for both managers and private equity houses. We work for major financial investors, including private equity firms advising on stock and asset sales and transfers, auction strategies, investments in portfolio companies, refinancing, restructurings and exit strategies.

We also have wide-ranging experience advising on M&A matters relating to portfolio companies financed by private equity clients.

Dechert’s financial services fund formation team in France advises sponsors, principals of private investment and private equity funds, and institutional investors on services ranging from fund formation to new product development and regulatory compliance. We handle corporate matters related to the entire life cycle of investment funds and asset management, from secondary transactions to fund reviews and transactions for management companies. We also have wide-ranging experience advising on M&A and capital market matters relating to portfolio companies financed by private equity clients.

Our team is part of the firm’s leading global financial services and investment funds practice, with depth in both the United States and Europe, including the three key EU fund jurisdictions of London, Dublin and Luxembourg.

Our labor and employment practice handles urgent, complex or sensitive employment law issues. We provide assistance in a collaborative and pragmatic way, frequently in an international or multi-disciplinary context.

Our clients, including boards of directors, legal departments and human resources departments, seek our expertise on transitions, group reorganizations, high-profile litigation, and compensation and benefits issues. We also handle sensitive and crisis cases such as plant closures, reorganizations, social plans, executive departures, health and safety issues at work, and strikes.

Our team identifies issues that our clients have not recognized as potential problems, while keeping a pragmatic approach to heavily regulated employment environments such as France.

Dechert’s intellectual property team in France is a recognized leader in both advisory and litigation matters, with extensive experience in national and international patent pre-litigation and litigation, trademark disputes and a variety of cross-border IP agreements.

Our deep sector knowledge across a wide range of industries, including life sciences, food and beverage, luxury and automobile, enables us to deliver pragmatic commercial judgment to our clients. We advise them on drafting and negotiating contracts (acquisition, licenses, R&D, co-ownership…), auditing of IP rights portfolios and of the technological environment, trademark and designs, models clearance and prosecution, national and international pre-litigation and litigation related to IP rights, as well as setting employee inventors’ remuneration systems.

Dechert Paris based team is best known for its expertise in complex tax structurings on domestic and international leverage buy-out transactions, often involving multi sponsors.

Our team also has a strong expertise in advising sponsors on the creation and structuring of private investment funds and in structuring the carried interest rights of the management teams. Our tax team is one of the few in the French market able to advise not only on the tax aspects but also on the legal and regulatory aspects of this industry. Being able to reconcile these various drivers has allowed us to build long standing relationships with our clients (whether teams of first time funds or already well-established funds’ teams). For international funds, we often interact with their UK or US in-house legal and tax teams. This has provided us with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the asset management and private equity industry whether it is at the fund level, at the level of the targets purchased by the fund, or at the level of the management companies and/or the carried interest holders.

In addition, we have developed a particular expertise in modeling the economics and tax issues spreading over the entire spectrum of the funds’ industry.

Dechert's antitrust/competition team in Paris advises clients during investigations and proceedings before EU and French competition authorities and courts. We have significant experience with matters relating to anticompetitive practices such as abuse of dominance matters and agreements, cartel matters, distribution law and state aid.

Our lawyers perform audits and establishes compliance programs specifically designed to meet our client's business needs and characteristics, particularly the requirements of highly regulated sectors. We have a deep understanding of a wide range of industries, from Financial services to life sciences, as well as luxury goods, consumer products, defense, logistics and press distribution.

The Paris team plays a primary role in Dechert's leading antitrust/competition practice and works closely with the firm's other practices to provide comprehensive, high-value services to French and international companies.

With a focus on the life sciences, telecommunications and energy sectors, we represent clients from a range of industries in multi-jurisdiction litigation, complex corporate and commercial disputes and compliance. Clients rely on Dechert for securities and stock exchange litigation, setting aside and enforcement of international arbitration awards and foreign court decisions, and challenging the appointments of arbitrators.

Recognized for our multi-jurisdictional capabilities and deep expertise, we devise litigation strategy, manage virtual law firms, facilitate pre-trial resolutions to commercial disputes, defeat class certification, manage e-discovery, obtain summary judgments or voluntary dismissal of claims, negotiate favorable settlements and prevail at trial.

Dechert’s life sciences team in France represents companies ranging from multinational giants to emerging companies involving all aspects of the life sciences industry, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, drug discovery, genomics, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices and healthcare. We also assist with investment funds in life sciences investments.

With life sciences lawyers in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East, we are well-positioned to handle the most complex cross-border matters for our clients. Our representation of both large pharmaceutical companies as well as smaller and mid-size biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies is a distinguishing feature of our firm, and our Paris office allows us to structure and negotiate transactions from the perspective of both parties.

Our extensive experience includes:

• M&A and private equity transactions
• Reorganizations and international tax planning
• Antitrust/competition
• Pharmaceutical contractual and regulatory advice
• Corporate law
• Licensing and corporate partnering
• Strategic IP counseling/complex IP litigation
• Litigation and international arbitration
• Corporate finance and capital markets

Dechert’s Paris-based Finance team represents leading banks and investment funds on complex commercial real estate financing transactions both domestically and internationally. We offer our clients a large spectrum of expertise on structured financing transactions, LBO financings (senior, mezzanine and unitranche), or on fund financings (Equity Bridge Facility).

Our team also has deep expertise in the hospitality and leisure industry by working on significant hotel-related transactions involving some of the world’s best-known brands.