Pinsent Masons in France

Introduction Our French office is based in Paris, in the heart of the business and economic centre. Whether you are an international company, a bank or a fund investing and operating in France and across Europe, or a French client wanting advice on regional and international matters, our team combines local knowledge with an international perspective to help you achieve your commercial objectives. Our team has considerable experience of working on cross-border transactions. We are market leaders in Franco-German transactions, as well as having significant expertise working on legal and commercial cross-border matters for UK, US and Asian clients. Our cross-border service is enhanced by the skills and resources of over 1,600 lawyers operating across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. We combine an understanding of Europe’s commercial and cultural diversity with broad European law expertise, national French, German and English law qualifications and technical experience. This enables us to put our advice into context to match your strategies and aspirations.

A sectoral approach

A distinct feature of Pinsent Masons is our sector approach to the delivery of legal services. This is a particular strength of our offering. Working with our global teams, we focus on advising clients in a number of key sectors including:

yy Advanced manufacturing & technology services – our

clients are rich in intellectual capital: manufacturing specialised products, selling technology related services or having a high value service delivery proposition. They require complex legal solutions facilitating their strategic and operational needs. Our lawyers have specific expertise in the automotive, telecoms, software, gaming, railway and chemical industries.

yy Financial services – we support clients across the financial services sector to achieve their strategic and commercial goals while managing legal and regulatory risk. We offer combined multi-disciplinary expertise from global teams including banking, insurance, pensions, private wealth, restructuring and tax teams. In Paris we regularly advise banks, funds, stock exchanges, regulators and law makers. We also advise the European Commission and the European Parliament on a regular basis.

yy Infrastructure – as the world’s leading infrastructure firm we have unparalleled experience working with major contractors, delivery partners, owners and operators in the sector’s diverse key markets including transport, energy, social infrastructure, education, municipal waste management, water and sport & leisure.

yy Energy & natural resources – as industry experts we

have a track record of providing strategic consultation and commercial advice on energy projects, working with clients on major oil and gas, power, utilities, renewable energy, clean development mechanism issues, nuclear and pipeline projects.

Pinsent Masons | In France

Corporate & M&A

Commercial

Our corporate team advises clients operating in all the key global markets.

Our commercial team helps clients achieve their commercial objectives whilst managing business risk and provide support when a breach occurs.

We advise on complex cross-border and domestic transactions and matters. Our French lawyers are supported by an international team of over 300 lawyers leveraging their sector experience to frame their advice. Our services include: yy Corporate – advising on general corporate transactions: corporate housekeeping, outside general counsel, compliance and shareholder disputes.

yy M&A – advising in relation to corporate acquisitions and

disposals, cross-border transactions, auction sales, public to privates, mergers, shareholders’ agreements and group reorganisations.

The team has experience of advising on the full spectrum of commercial arrangements from advertising and promotional work, agency and distribution, business process outsourcing, facilities management, franchising, joint ventures, logistics agreements, managed services and manufacturing agreements to sponsorship agreements, strategic alliances, the supply chain management and tender processes. We advise on all compliance and regulatory issues including advice on anti-money laundering, data protection and employment regulations, as well as regulatory disputes and investigations.

yy Equity capital markets – advising companies, investors,

TMT & eCommerce

yy Private equity – advising on private equity transactions ,

Our TMT and eCommerce team’s approach allows us to anticipate all legal constraints to address operational needs.

funds and banks in respect of all aspects of transactions for listed companies. from large leveraged buy-outs to venture capital deals, for a mixture of private equity houses, private equity-backed companies and management teams.

yy Competition – advising clients on compliance, M&A and

joint ventures (multi-jurisdictional merger controls and filings), abuse of dominant position matters and monopoly inquiries/market investigations.

Tax Our tax team provides a full range of tax services to our clients. Our team has extensive experience in cross-border employee share schemes and management packages, business transfers, international mobility and international tax planning for individuals and organisations. The team also regularly advises on tax aspects of real estate matters and multi-jurisdictional property work.

The team supports a wide range of public and private companies as both vendors and buyers on all aspects of IT projects, including technology procurement, outsourcing of IT, support and business functions, software licensing and development, distribution arrangements, eCommerce – website contracts, domains, advertising, consumers protection and regulation data protection and cyber crime and gambling restrictions.

Intellectual Property Our IP team provides expertise on both contentious and non-contentious commercial affairs, both nationally and internationally. We advise clients on the protection and exploitation of brands and know-how, and on diverse intellectual property portfolios. Our services include all aspects of advice on the management of national and international patent litigation, trademarks, potential collaborations with third parties including research and development and all aspects of technology transfers and licensing agreements of industrial and intellectual property.

Banking & Finance Through a global team and network of relationships we advise international clients on their strategic objectives across multiple jurisdictions. Our dedicated team advises on the whole range of banking and financial products, including acquisition and leveraged finance, asset finance, corporate restructurings and workouts, debt instrument public offerings or private placements, project finance, real estate finance, recapitalisations, regulatory compliance and syndicated and bilateral lending.

Real estate Our real estate team advises on the full range of real estate and property requirements from both an international and local perspective. Our team is supported by a global property team of over 240 lawyers. Our advice is not limited to just clients in the real estate sector, but extends to all organisations with real estate requirements, such as retailers, manufacturers, hotels and leisure businesses and other corporate occupiers.

Employment & Benefits Our employment lawyers advise on all aspects of both contentious and non-contentious individual and collective labour and employment law, including employment contracts, structuring internal policies, share options, free shares and other incentives, foreign employees, transfers, redundancy and confidentiality obligations. The team works closely with other specialist teams to support our clients’ commercial needs with regard to complex M&A and restructuring transactions.

Restructuring & Insolvency Our restructuring and insolvency team advises a wide range of high profile clients who are working with businesses in financial difficulty to rescue those businesses, improve recoveries and save jobs. Our lawyers work with all parties to identify opportunities and risks and to deliver tailor-made innovative strategies to achieve our clients’ goals. They also draw upon a wealth of expertise and market contacts to introduce new business opportunities to clients.

Litigation & Arbitration Our dispute resolution lawyers are experienced in every established form of dispute resolution, including domestic litigation, cross-border litigation, international commercial arbitration, mediation and adjudication. Our experienced litigators advise on a full range of French and multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes, and on enforcement and recognition of foreign judgements and arbitration awards.

Construction Advisory & Disputes Our construction advisory and disputes team are experienced in managing, avoiding and resolving contractual and legal issues on construction projects. We have extensive experience in relation to all aspects of contracting and its related forms. We are used to developing innovative solutions to enhance project deliverability. We advise claimants and respondents in all aspects of adjudication, arbitration and litigation. Our team have particular expertise in international construction arbitrations. We have close links to most major arbitral institutions and are well versed in their arbitration rules.

Pinsent Masons | In France

International reach As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our reach and client service, in 2012 we opened full service offices in the two major continental European jurisdictions and economies, namely in Germany and in France. In 2013 we also opened an office in Istanbul. In addition to our European offices in Paris, Munich, Istanbul, our international headquarters in London and regional offices across the UK, we work in the following jurisdictions.

Asia Pacific

We work closely with colleagues based in our offices in China – Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing – and our association in Singapore. More than 100 lawyers based in these offices operate across the Asia Pacific region including in Macau, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, Cambodia and Korea.

The Middle East

From our offices in Dubai and Doha we offer the full range of legal services, including construction, projects, real estate, corporate, outsourcing and technology law. Through the legal advice we give, our fluency in English and Arabic, and the commercial approach of our lawyers, we make doing business in the region as easy as possible for our clients.

Americas

To ensure our clients obtain access to the highest quality advice, we co-operate with a network of well-established and specialist US law firms. This approach allows us access to the highest quality US law advice, tailored to our clients’ needs and coordinated through us to meet commercial objectives and timelines. We have also been involved with numerous transactions in South America, in recent years working in ten countries across the continent, including Brazil, Chile, Guyana, Panama and Venezuela.

Our offices worldwide Paris 21-23, rue Balzac 75008 Paris France T +33 1 53 53 02 80 F +33 1 53 53 02 81 London 30 Crown Place (Headquarters) Earl Street London EC2A 4ES UK T +44 (0)20 7418 7000 F +44 (0)20 7418 7050 5 Old Bailey London EC4M 7BA UK T +44 (0)20 7054 2500 F +44 (0)20 7054 2501 Aberdeen 13 Queen’s Road Aberdeen AB15 4YL UK T: +44 (0)1224 377 900 F: +44 (0)1224 377 901 Beijing 10th Floor Beijing China Resources Building No 8 Jianguo Menbei Avenue Beijing 100005 PRC T: +86 10 8519 0011 F: +86 10 8519 0022

Correct as of 1 January 2014.

Belfast Arnott House 12-16 Bridge Street Belfast BT1 1LS UK T: +44 (0)28 9089 4800 F: +44 (0)28 9089 4801 Birmingham 3 Colmore Circus Birmingham B4 6BH UK T: +44 (0)121 200 1050 F: +44 (0)121 626 1040 Dubai Level 8 The H Hotel, Office Tower (formerly known as The Monarch Office Tower) One Sheikh Zayed Road PO Box 115580 Dubai United Arab Emirates T: +971 (0)4 373 9700 F: +971 (0)4 373 9701 Edinburgh Princes Exchange 1 Earl Grey Street Edinburgh EH3 9AQ UK T: +44 (0)131 777 7000 F: +44 (0)131 777 7003 Third Floor Quay 2 139 Fountainbridge Edinburgh EH3 9QG UK T: +44 (0)131 225 0000 F: +44 (0)131 225 0099

Falkland Islands 56 John Street PO Box 21 Stanley Falkland Islands T: +500 22690 F: +500 22689

Manchester 3 Hardman Street Manchester M3 3AU UK T: +44 (0)161 234 8234 F: +44 (0)161 234 8235

Glasgow 141 Bothwell Street Glasgow G2 7EQ UK T: +44 (0)141 567 8400 F: +44 (0)141 567 8401

Munich Ottostrasse 21 80333 Munich Germany T: +49 (0)89 203043 500 F: +49 (0)89 203043 501

123 St Vincent Street Glasgow G2 5EA UK T: +44 (0)141 248 4858 F: +44 (0)141 248 6655 Hong Kong 50th Floor Central Plaza 18 Harbour Road Wan Chai Hong Kong T: +852 2521 5621 F: +852 2845 2956 Istanbul Büyükdere Caddesi No 173 1. Levent Plaza 7th Floor Levent Istanbul Turkey T: +90 212 386 3258 F: +90 212 386 3288 Leeds 1 Park Row Leeds LS1 5AB UK T: +44 (0)113 244 5000 F: +44 (0)113 244 8000

Qatar PO Box 22758 Tornado Tower West Bay Doha State of Qatar T: +974 4426 9200 F: +974 4426 9201 Shanghai Room 4605 Park Place 1601 Nanjing West Road Shanghai 200040 PRC T: +8621 6321 1166 F: +8621 6329 2696 Singapore 16 Collyer Quay #22-00 Singapore 049318 T: +65 (0)63 050 929 F: +65 (0)65 343 412

Pinsent Masons LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales (registered number: OC333653) authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the appropriate regulatory body in the other jurisdictions in which it operates. The Paris office of Pinsent Masons is a branch of Pinsent Masons LLP duly registered with the Paris Bar pursuant to Directive 98/5/CE dated 16 February 1998. The word ‘partner’, used in relation to the LLP, refers to a member of the LLP or an employee or consultant of the LLP or any affiliated firm of equivalent standing. A list of the members of the LLP, and of those non-members who are designated as partners, is displayed at the LLP’s registered office: 30 Crown Place, London EC2A 4ES, United Kingdom. We use ‘Pinsent Masons’ to refer to Pinsent Masons LLP, its subsidiaries and any affiliates which it or its partners operate as separate businesses for regulatory or other reasons. Reference to ‘Pinsent Masons’ is to Pinsent Masons LLP and/or one or more of those subsidiaries or affiliates as the context requires. © Pinsent Masons LLP 2013.

For a full list of our locations around the globe please visit our websites:

www.pinsentmasons.com/france

www.Out-Law.com