Protecting.
Expertise
LWA’s ambition is to firstly be a true partner for our clients for the management of all types of risks. We have for preoccupation to warn, assist, advise and defend our clients by having perfect knowledge of their business sector, its players and its perspectives. We develop our networks, improve our knowledge, while ensuring that we fully comply with professional ethics and requirements to serve your interests.
Protecting.
Expertise
LWA’s ambition is to firstly be a true partner for our clients for the management of all types of risks. We have for preoccupation to warn, assist, advise and defend our clients by having perfect knowledge of their business sector, its players and its perspectives. We develop our networks, improve our knowledge, while ensuring that we fully comply with professional ethics and requirements to serve your interests.
expertises
High Strategic Stakes For The Company
Ignoring these stakes triggers consequences that can lead well beyond the severe financial sanctions incurred: this could lead to a major destruction of value for the company, the loss of key markets or serious reputational damage susceptible of compromising its future
While being aware of these stakes and of the complexity that they generate for the company, our Compliance practice has for concern, by focussing on anticipation, prevention and assistance over time, to change compliance regulations from no longer being a constraint but a growth lever, company dynamics
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
TRANSVERSALITY
• A transversal and dedicated cluster formed of lawyers from our various teams and our expert partners, working in common to apprehend all the legal, financial, HR, digital and communication dimensions of compliance.
INDEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF ADMINISTRATIONS AND PUBLIC AUTHORITIES
• Other than our knowhow in the fields of counselling and litigation, we have in-depth knowledge of how administrations operate and benefit from a network of top level contacts with the public authorities and the independent administrative authorities.
FOREFRONT EXPERT PARTNERS
• Our expert partners in the fields of IT, finance, human resources, crisis communication or change management have been carefully selected and interact with us in the same manner as if they formed part of an integrated team
SCOPE
• Prevention :
– Audits and internal investigations regarding compliance, the mapping of the legal risks, HR, criminality & ethics (performed in strict compliance with labour law).
– Training : Counselling and training regarding compliance (Sapin II law, FCPA, UKBA, conflicts of interests/illegal acquisitions of interests, GDPR, etc.) Awareness tools regarding compliance (e-learning, etc.) Training of the senior managers & associates on the inspections of the authorities in the premises of the company or at home as well as on the interviews and procedures to be complied with Impact studies regarding personal data, Training,
– Action : Code of conduct, internal Charter and sanctions regime. Compliance governance: executive management, Compliance Officer, Data Protection Officer, etc.Control plan for the anticorruption measures and measures implemented to avoid influence peddling, conflicts of interests or illegal acquisitions of interests. Declarations filed with the HATVP: obligations to declare interests and estates & possible criminal prosecutions. Surveillance plan. Accounting procedures for the verifications. Internal procedures for collecting and processing warning alerts. Delegations of authority. GDPR compliance. Fighting cybercrime, data protection. Crisis protocol and action plan for the continuation of the company.
• Defense
– Settlement of disputes, fighting corruption, fraud, investigations and litigation before the French anti-corruption agency (AFA) and possible criminal prosecutions. Securities law: the French financial markets authority (AMF), the French prudential supervision and resolution authority (ACPR) and possible criminal prosecutions. Liability of the senior managers: civil and criminal jurisdictions. Anticompetitive practices: the French competition authorities (Autorité de la Concurrence), the French Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Prevention of Fraud (DGCCRF) and possible legal proceedings. Labour law: French labour inspectorate, criminal jurisdictions, labour law jurisdictions, TAA, mediation…Illegal acquisitions of interests / conflicts of interests: criminal jurisdictions, HATVP, the French financial markets authority (AMF), the French anticorruption agency (AFA).
– Relationships with the public authorities.
– Internal & external crisis communication.
CONTACT LAWYERS
Hervé
CASTELNAU
Partner
Chantal
CORDIER-VASSEUR
Partner
Partner
Pauline
DE LANZAC
Partner
Amélie
D’HEILLY
Partner
Thibaut
KAZEMI
Partner
Jean-Luc
MARCHAND
Partner
Partner
Coline
WARIN
Partner
OUR MISSION
Making competition an asset for your projects. Being alongside you, in French and European law, to elaborate with you innovative and tailor-made legal strategies in counselling as well as litigation matters.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
ANTICOMPETITIVE PRACTICES
• Identifying reprehensible practices: arrangements, abuses of dominant position, abuses of economic dependency
• Elaborating competition compliance programs
• Assisting in litigation proceedings
• Practice in the area of alternative procedures for settling disputes (clemency, undertakings, settlements)
• Implementation of undertakings or injunctions imposed by the competition authorities
• Assistance provided in compensation proceedings for the damages suffered by reason of anticompetitive practices
TRUSTS
• Analysis of the notifiable characteristic of the transactions for the cooperation of companies or incorporation of joint ventures
• Notification formalities to the French or European competition authorities
• Assistance in performing notifications in States that are third parties to France and the European Union in relation with foreign law firms with which we are accustomed to work
STATE AIDS
• Qualifying subventions and other advantages granted by public entities in the form of State aids
• Assisting in the state aids notification to the European Commission
• Assisting private companies with complaint proceedings raised before the European Commission
REGULATION AND LIBERALISATION
• Counselling of the historical operators in their diversification activities and practices implemented in a context of liberalisation
• Assisting new participants on the liberalised markets
• Regulatory or dispute formalities before the sectoral regulation authorities
DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMPTION
• Drafting partnership or distribution agreements
• Assisting in the reorganisation of distribution networks
• Establishing and monitoring exclusivity agreements
• Advertisement campaigns, organisation of free competitions
• Advertisement agreements with advertisement departments or advertisers
Contact details of the lawyers (photographs/emails)
Pauline
DE LANZAC
Partner
Partner
Coline
WARIN
Partner
Counsel
OUR MISSION
Preventing, assisting, discussing and solving: we are specialists in preventing and managing the conflicts with which companies, their shareholders and senior managers can be faced in the business world; we perfectly master all negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution techniques.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
INTERNAL OPERATIONS OF THE COMPANY
• Conflicts among shareholders, performance of shareholder agreements, commitments, investment agreements, protection of minority shareholdings
• Liability and revocation of senior managers
• Disputing decisions adopted by the senior managers and bodies of the company
EXTERNAL GROWTH OPERATIONS OF THE COMPANY
• Breakdown in the negotiation process, letters of intent and preliminary agreements
• Disputing the exchange ratio for the merger, the value of the shares
• Additional price, liability guarantee…
AGREEMENTS AND LIABILITIES
• Cancellation, non-performance and termination of agreements
• Liability by reason of the defective characteristic of the products
• Liabilities of the statutory auditors, banking institutions and financial intermediaries
• Protection and recovery of receivables
• Litigation relating to loan agreements, guarantees and securities
• Litigation relating to commercial leases
RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMMERCIAL PARTNERS
• Breakdown in the commercial relationships
• Delisting, abuse of economic dependency
• Relationships with competitors
• Poaching of employees, solicitation and client poaching, economic parasitism
• Disparagement, defamation
CRIMINAL BUSINESS LAW
• Embezzlement of corporate assets, submission and publishing of inaccurate accounts, confirmation of misleading information
• Misleading advertising, breach of trust, fraud, forgery and uttering of forged items, corruption
• Stock market offences: price manipulations, insider offences, spreading false or misleading information
CONTACT LAWYERS
Chantal
CORDIER-VASSEUR
Partner
Coline
WARIN
Partner
Claire
DECOUX-LAROUDIE
Counsel
OUR MISSION
Assisting the senior managers of French and international companies, their legal and financial management departments with all their transactions and corporate matters.
“The firm is highly skilled in the coordination of multi-jurisdictional transactions, with assertive, efficient, having finesse and creativity lawyers to be , with real technical experience and a deep understanding of our business.” (Chambers 2022)
Private Equity
We assist French companies (start-ups or small and medium size companies (PMEs) or intermediate-sized companies (ETIs), international groups and French or foreign investment funds with their M&A, Private Equity and stock market transactions when performing French of multijurisdictional transactions. We operate in a perfectly integrated manner with the other practices of LWA (tax, labour, digital, IP/media, public, environmental, competition, real property and litigation practices). Our experience is recognised in the telecommunications, media, new technologies, health, real property, transportation and energy areas.
A broad spectrum of intervention
LWA assists with small and mid-cap transactions for companies valued between 10 and 300 million euros.
We advise many French and foreign funds (institutional, independent or corporate funds) in connection with transactions in which they are involved alone or in the context of a co-investment.
We regularly provide assistance, in particular, to management teams in connection with the negotiation of management packages.
M&A and securities law
We assist our French and foreign clients with all types of transactions, in particular: acquisitions, transfers, mergers, privatisations, restructurings, joint-ventures, public bids and other market transactions.
We are active in all sectors and have a recognised experience in the areas of telecommunications, media, new technologies, real property, transportation, energy and natural resources.
Cross border transactions
We have established ties over the years with foreign independent law firms that are recognised in their jurisdiction and share the same values and quality requirements. Our clients therefore have a guarantee to benefit from a global and efficient assistance for the international aspects of the transactions that they entrust us with.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
CORPORATE
• Incorporation of companies, groups and joint-ventures
• Legal follow-up (ordinary and extraordinary general meetings…)
• Transactions dealing with the share capital (issuance of simple or composite securities, preference shares)
• Choice of incentive mechanisms for the senior managers and employees
• Restructurings
PRIVATE EQUITY: RISK CAPITAL, DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL AND LBO
• All transactions and legal instruments relating to shareholdings and acquisitions
• Choice of appropriate securities
• Incentives of the managers (in relation with LWA’s tax law practice)
• Negotiating and drafting loan agreements
• Build up
M&A/JOINT VENTURE
• Structuring of the transaction
• Organising data rooms and carrying out audits (for the purchaser or seller)
• Drafting and negotiating the documentation: letter of intent, acquisition agreement, asset and liability guarantees, implementation of securities
• Formalities with the French and European administrative authorities (in relation with LWA’s competition, regulation and distribution law practice
• Formalities with the staff representative bodies (in relation with LWA’s labour law practice)
• Assistance provided in connection with foreign investments
SECURITIES LAW
• Assisting issuers with all their annual stock market obligations
• Drafting reference documentation and annual reports and preparing the annual general meetings
• Financial communication
• Corporate governance
• IPOs
• Offers to the public and private investments
• Issuance of complex financial instruments
• Incentives of the senior managers and employees
CONTACT LAWYERS
Partner
Thibaut
KAZÉMI
Partner
Pierre
LAFARGE
Partner
Godefroy
LE MINTIER
Partner
Christian
WOLFROM
Partner
The difficulties that can be encountered by any company can be anticipated and processed.
We assist companies that are undergoing a crisis situation, both during the prevention stage (warning, credit mediation, the French inter-ministerial committee in charge of industrial restructuring (CIRI)) and during amicable proceedings (ad hoc mandate, conciliation) or judicial proceedings (safeguard, recovery, liquidation).
We advise and represent the senior managers, shareholders and creditors of underperforming companies or those encountering actual difficulties as well as groups of companies that require to be restructured. We have, in particular, perfect knowledge of the social risk that is attached to such situation.
We participate in the determination and implementation of the safeguard, recovery and transfer plans, transfer pre packs, restructurings, renegotiation of debts, transfers of assets, implementation of trusts…
Being a true task force that is capable of providing sound and legally secure assistance at any time, we have recruited a team of lawyers with skills in the law governing collective proceedings, business litigation, corporate law, financings, and labour law. Other skills, in the field of environmental law or tax law, in particular, can be relied upon for the purpose of adapting our expertise to the situations with which our clients are faced.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
PREVENTION
• Counselling companies when faced with the turmoil of the market and deficiencies of partners and debtors
• Assistance in connection with warnings (CACs, staff representative bodies), mediations or in the relationships with the CIRI or the Committee for the French département in charge of reviewing the financing problems of companies (CODEFI)
• Assistance in the recovery of receivables
AMICABLE PROCESSING
• Counselling provided to a company, senior manager or shareholder regarding the most appropriate processing measure
• Assistance on the occasion of an ad hoc mandate or a conciliation
• Counselling provided to a creditor that has to participate in an ad hoc mandate or a conciliation
• Assistance in the performance of agreements
COLLECTIVE PROCEEDINGS
• Counselling a company, senior manager or shareholder when conceiving and implementing plans (safeguards, turnarounds or transfers)
• Assistance in the submission of takeover offers
• Assistance provided to creditors (declarations of claims, implementations of guarantees)
• Defence of shareholders, senior managers or creditors in the framework of liability cases (extension of procedures, liability payments, abusive financial support, bankruptcy, etc.)
OPERATIONAL/FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURINGS
• Performance of company transfer or merger transactions in a context of economic difficulties
• Counselling in connection with transactions for finalising or closing production sites
• Assistance on the occasion of corporate restructurings
• Assistance in connection with the restructuring of debts or the renegotiation of financing agreements
• Assistance provided to investment funds and managers faced with distressed LBO transactions
• Defence of creditors, in particular debenture holders and protection of the receivables (obtaining security interests, implementing trusts, in particular)
CONTACT LAWYERS
Chantal
CORDIER-VASSEUR
Partner
Pierre
LAFARGE
Partner
Coline
WARIN
Partner
OUR MISSION
Assisting you in projects with respect to practices that are constantly evolving regarding digital environments, digital transformation and the dematerialisation of processes, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, the law governing robotics, connected objects, cybersecurity or even smart cities.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
IT
• Drafting and negotiating the most diverse agreements (info management, facilities management, cloud, development, integration, transfer of rights, maintenance, distribution, on premise license, ASP, SaaS…)
• Evaluation of the risks and analysis of the operating rights with respect to open-source solutions
• Audit on the compliance of licenses: anticipation, up-grading to standards, litigation, settlements
• Monitoring of IT projects and amicable and judicial expertise proceedings
• Litigation proceedings: software infringement, performance of agreements
• Training on IT agreements
TELECOMS
• Infrastructures and broadband and superfast electronic communication networks (FTTH)
• Broadband and superfast (FTTH) public service (DSP) or Public-Private Partnership agreements
• Digital territorial layout masterplans (SDTANs)
• Establishing and operating mobile, satellite, Wimax telephone networks…
• Leasing of bare fibres, leased lines, indefeasible rights of use (IRUs)
• Leasing of high points, sharing of infrastructures, acquisition of equipment
• Litigation: local loop unbundling rates, public domain occupancy fees, use of special numbers, use of radioelectric frequencies, contributions to the universal service fund and administrative taxes
PERSONAL DATA
• Creating and implementing compliance programmes (French data protection general regulations (RGPD)) and the French IT and liberties law (loi informatique et libertés)
• Compliance audits, identification of the parts to be played by the parties and drafting of the corresponding agreements (controller, co-controller, processor, third party addressee…)
• Impact analysis and consultation of the French national IT and liberties commission (CNIL)
• Defining the data management policy (rights of access, cookies, retention periods, safety measures…) and drafting of charters
• Drafting data transfer agreements, BCRs, data management in cloud agreements
• Risk management for marketing, human resources and other departments…
• Crisis management in the event of a safety breach
• Implementing internal warning devices (French Sapin II law)
• Assistance provided in connection with verifications and penalty sanctions initiated by the French national IT and liberties commission (CNIL)
• Training provided in compliance with the regulations
ONLINE TRADE
• Drafting and negotiating Internet/mobile site creation agreements
• Creating shopping malls, intermediation platforms, market places
• Drafting listing agreements
• Online distribution (drafting of terms and conditions, selective distribution agreements…)
• Liability of the players (de jure liability of the online merchant, liability of the technical service providers such as the hosting companies…)
• Payment services
• Electronic proof and signature
• French consumer law applied to digital environments (unfair commercial practices, distance selling regulations…)
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
• Blockchain agreements
• Connected objects
• Artificial intelligence
• Robotics
• Drones
CONTACT LAWYERS
Terence
CABOT
Partner
OUR MISSION
Being along your side, in counselling and litigation, to help you protect and value your intangible assets, your creations and your contents, whatever may be the arts and media, in relation or not with new technologies, while adopting a strategic approach.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
TRADEMARKS AND DOMAIN NAMES
• Audits of trademark and domain name portfolios
• Filings, renewals, trademark and domain name oppositions
• Nullity, infringement and unfair competition actions
• Practice of the alternative methods for settling disputes (mediation, arbitration, conciliation, UDRPs…)
• Drafting and negotiating agreements (licenses, transfers, coexistence of trademarks, domain names, trade names…)
PATENTS AND KNOW-HOW
• Auditing patent portfolios in connection with the transfer or acquisition of companies, in particular
• Transferring employee rights on patents
• Drafting and negotiating agreements (licenses, co-ownerships, transfers of patents…)
• Acquisition and use of know-how
• Infringement actions
• Actions for claiming patents
COPYRIGHT, IMAGE RIGHTS, DATABASES, SCHETCHES AND MODELS, OPEN DATA
• Drafting and negotiating agreements (in the literary, artistic, fashion, advertising, publishing and other sectors)
• Infringement and unfair competition actions
• Implementation of intangible asset valuation and protection strategies
• Public data protection and provisioning policy
ADVERTISING
• Sponsoring, patronage
• Agreements for the completion of advertisement works
• Relationships with the controlling or regulatory authorities (CSA, ARPP…) and the professional associations (UDM…)
• Image rights, transfers of rights
• French Sapin law, sales and purchase of advertisement spaces
MEDIA
• Music and radio: distribution, editing, licenses, artist agreements
• Audio-visual and television: production agreements, verification of the copyright chain, streaming platform management, anti-Peer to Peer piracy strategies
• Press and publications: publishing agreements
• Online: podcasts, blogs, social networks
• Video games
• Online games: approval applications and relationships with the French national games agency (ANJ) (previously named the ARJEL)
• Litigation in all these fields: defamation, right of reply, infringement, plagiarism
CONTACTS AVOCATS
Térence
CABOT
Partner
Hervé
CASTELNAU
Partner
OUR MISSION
With the help of our acute analysis of each matter and our proactive and creative approach, we offer you a global, specific, educational assistance that is adapted to your expectations and the requirements of your activities.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
COLLECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS
• Implementation and operation of the staff representative bodies
• Negotiation of collective agreements of all sorts (work duration, salary, incentives, profit sharing, shareholding plans, gender equality, seniors, arduousness of work…)
• Statuses of protected employees
Unlocking of crisis situations (trade union claims, strikes)
RESTRUCTURING AND EMPLOYMENT
• Definition and implementation of a labour strategy that is adapted (restructuring, delocalisation, outsourcing, transfer of companies and activities)
• Assistance with the implementation of the labour strategy (transfers of staff, employment safeguard plans, voluntary departures, collective contractual terminations, collective performance agreements, employment and skills predictive management agreements)
• Acquisition or transfer audits, compliance audits
• Harmonisation or negotiation of collective statuses
INDIVIDUAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Definition and implementation of the contractual relationship
• Management of conflict situations and terminations of employment agreements (disciplinary law, dismissals, negotiation of the consequences of a departure, assisting the employer before the labour inspectorate)
• Career management of the executives and senior managers (both as incumbents of an employment agreement and as corporate officers, terms and conditions of compensation, social protection, criminal and civil law liability)
• Global mobility (secondments, expatriations)
COMPENSATION AND SOCIAL PROTECTION
• Negotiating and establishing employee savings devices (incentives, profit sharing, employee savings plan),
• Negotiating and establishing employee shareholding devices (stock options, allocation of free shares),
• Negotiating and establishing pension plans or additional pension plans
• Assisting in the management of the auditing operations of the URSSAF (French union in charge of recovering the social security and family benefit contributions)
HEALTH AND SAFETY
• Defining and establishing occupational risk prevention actions (single document for assessing risks, inhouse regulations, the health protocol)
• Managing psychosocial risks
• Carrying out inhouse enquiries (harassment, discrimination, compliance…)
ETHICS
• Defining and establishing the regulations for using information technologies
• Defining and establishing the verification and monitoring regulations for employee work
• Advice and assistance with respect to data processing and compliance with the French general regulations for data protection and the French IT and liberties law (in relation with LWA’s digital practice)
LITIGATION
• Individual litigation (dismissal disputes, wage claims, harassment, etc.)
• Collective litigation before civil courts of general law, labour courts and administrative jurisdictions
• Alternative dispute resolution processes: mediation and arbitration
CONTACT LAWYERS
Amélie
D’HEILLY
Partner
Partner
Councel
OUR MISSION
Assisting all actors, whether public or private, in the elaboration and implementation in full safety of their complex projects, in the infrastructures, building, telecoms, environmental and other regulated sectors.
“Latournerie Wolfrom Avocats has an experienced public law team advising both public institutions and key corporate clients. The law firm offers notable expertise in the negotiation and execution of government contracts. (Chambers 2022)
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
PUBLIC CONTRACTS
• Procurement contracts
• Private-Public Partnership Agreements
• Concessions and public service delegations
• Public domain occupancy agreements
• Administrative emphyteutic leases
• Incorporation and operation of SEMs (sociétés d’économies mixtes), SPLs (sociétés publiques locales), SEMOPs (société d’économie mixte à opération unique)
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PROJECTS
• Assistance to the project management of public bodies: from assisting in the determination of the management mode to the negotiation and finetuning of agreements and sub agreements
• Assistance to economic operators: from the preparation of the candidacy files and tender documentation to the negotiation and drafting of the agreements
• Feasibility studies, legal and financial structuring of the project (contractual elaborations, project companies, consortiums)
• Conversions of public establishments into companies, outsourcing of activities, incorporations of subsidiary companies and acquisitions of stakes
GENERAL PUBLIC LAW
• Assistance in the transfer of authority
• Territorial communities (collectivités territoriales) law
• Public establishments law, specialty principle
• Public finances law
• Public service law
TOWN PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
• Building permit audits
• Elaboration of town planning projects and regulations
• Partnership town planning projects
• Classified installations, waste
• Management of contaminated sites and soils
• Environmental risks
• Real property environmental standards
• Implementation of public policies that are incentives for developing good environmental practices
• Management and monitoring of administrative procedures (public debates, impact assessments, public inquiries, expropriations)
• Expertise and litigation
THE LAW GOVERNING REGULATED SECTORS
• Telecoms law
• Energy law
• Transportation law
• The law governing gambling and games of chance
LITIGATION
• Representation before administrative and judicial jurisdictions
• Public procurement prelitigation and litigation
• Accelerated proceedings (référé), expertise proceedings
• ultra vires recourses
• Full remedy actions
• Negotiations, mediations, settlements
CONTACT LAWYERS
Terence
CABOT
Partner
Partner
Jean
LATOURNERIE
Partner
Pauline
LEDDET-TROADEC
Partner
OUR MISSION
Providing assistance to you for the identification, structuring and securing of your real property arrangements, being a player accompanying you as well as for the purpose of assisting you in your town planning, real property, construction and domain valuation projects.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
PUBLIC DOMAIN AND REAL PROPERTY :
• Public domain law, reallocations, declassifications
• Transfers and acquisitions
• Arrangements, creation of porting structures and land tenures
• Tendering procedures
TOWN PLANNING AND LAYOUT :
• Permit audits, feasibility analysis of the projects
• Determining and modifying town planning regulations
• Pre-emption and expropriation, litigation
• The law governing easements
• Zones d’activités concertées (ZAC), projets urbains partenarials (PUP), planning concessions
REAL PROPERTY AGREEMENTS :
• Commercial leases and professional leases
• Off-plan sales (VEFA)
• Real property development agreements
• Memoranda of agreements
• Undertakings to sell (promesses de vente)
• Contracting authority assistance agreements
• Construction, project management
• Asset and property management
CONTACT LAWYERS
Térence
CABOT
Partner
Partner
Partner
LATOURNERIE
Partner
Claire
DECOUX-LAROUDIE
Counsel
OUR MISSION
Assisting you in mastering the tax aspects of your company, activities and estate.
FIELDS OF INTERVENTION
CORPORATE TAXATION
• Structuring of company groups
• Equity capital transactions
• Complex real property transactions
• Determination and optimisation of the tax result of companies and groups
• Tax integration
• Structural optimisation, transactions of groups, mergers & acquisitions, LBOs, OBOs, MBOs…
• Optimisation of the taxation of dividend flows, interests, IP rights
• Transactions for the financing or refinancing of assets
• Mastering and valuation of the research tax credit, employment competitiveness tax credit (CICE)…
• Acquisition audits
INTERNATIONAL TAXATION OF COMPANIES
• Transfer prices
• Structuring of investments in France performed by foreign companies, permanent establishments, practice regarding double taxation prevention agreements
• Transactions for the reorganisation of transborder groups, location of intangible assets
• Partnerships with correspondents abroad
PERSONAL TAXATION OF THE SENIOR MANAGERS
• Financial incentive tools for the senior managers, stock-option plans, bonus shares
• Wealth tax, outil professionnel quallification, pacte Dutreil, disputing tax reassessments and valuations
• Estate transmissions: tax structuring and valuation of assets (real property assets and economic assets),
• Optimising the departure of senior managers in private equity transactions
TAXATION OF PUBLIC PLAYERS AND NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS (OBNLs)
• Public service delegation and other transactions, wealth tax, VAT and property taxation impact
• Public-private partnership agreements
• Taxation of subventions – financing VAT impacts, optimisation of VAT deductibility
• Accounting and taxation regulations applicable to public players
• The boundaries of non-profitability for non-profit organisations – sectorisations, conversions into subsidiaries
• Patronage, sponsoring, foundations, endowment funds
AUDITING AND TAX LITIGATION
• Assistance during and following the audit
• Answers to reassessment notifications
• Assistance during meetings with the services and commissions having jurisdiction
• Claims, litigation proceedings before the French Administrative Court, the Regional Court (TGI) and the Courts of Appeal.
CONTACT LAWYERS
Jean-Luc
MARCHAND
Partner
Geographic coverage
Our team has been advising its clients for more than 20 years in almost all the countries of the African continent.
Diversity of the covered sectors and services offered
One of the specificities of our Africa team is that it covers the entirety of the economic business sectors, well beyond the traditional energy and mining sectors. To act as an example, our team has intervened in the following sectors, in particular: telecommunications, financial institutions, water and waste management, infrastructures, the pharmaceutical industry, the agro-food industry, private equity and growth companies.
We assist our clients in the following areas:
TRANSACTIONAL OPERATIONS
• Mergers & Acquisitions, private equity, joint-ventures, restructurings, privatisations.
PROJECTS / INVESTMENTS
• Acquisition, financing and restructuring of project portfolios; Expertise in mining and petroleum projects, renewable energies, the telecoms, port and airport sectors; joint venture agreements and industrial agreements (engineering, turnkey agreements, service agreements…).
LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY ASSISTANCE
• Counselling provided to the African States for setting-up, reviewing and enforcing legislation texts, regulatory texts and standard agreements.
INFRASTRUCTURES (PPP)
• Assistance provided in connection with responding to call for tenders made by public or parapublic principals.
LITIGATION AND ARBITRATION
• Commercial law and/or corporate law (joint-ventures…);Protection of foreign investors (expropriation, unfair treatment).
Paris: a natural 'hub'
For historical and cultural reasons (proximity, language and similarity of the legal systems), Paris is a natural ‘hub’ for our French and international clients that would like to be assisted in connection with their investments on the African continent.
Over the years, our lawyers have gained an excellent knowledge of the various African legal systems, which are most often inspired by French or English law.
The expertise of our London correspondents is an asset for issues involving Anglophone or common law jurisdictions.This double expertise enables us to cover most African countries (including from a linguistic standpoint, which is a particularly important aspect in these jurisdictions).
Essential local contacts
SOLID AND LONG-LASTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMPETENT AND RELIABLE LOCAL COUNSELS
In each of the jurisdictions in which we intervene, we have developed an important network of reliable and competent legal counselling firms that are qualified to provide an opinion on local law issues (although they are insufficiently staffed and experienced to carry out transactions in accordance with international standards).
POLITICS AND LOBBYING
We have also established relationships with the Bar Associations, the local regulatory and governmental authorities and rely on these relationships – a key element of business life in these countries – to succeed in performing the objectives of our clients.
CONTACT LAWYERS
Hervé
CASTELNAU
Partner
Thibaut
KAZEMI
Partner
Partner
Pierre
LAFARGE
Partner
Godefroy
LE MINTIER
Partner
sectors
LWA is a player that is fully devoted to the design and construction of tomorrow’s cities, around the idea of a committed city, which is resilient, economical with respect to energy, connected, social, long-lasting and active.
While being alongside the public contracting authorities and private operators, project managers and developers while not forgetting the layout contractors, energy contractors, data managers or even property companies, LWA’s lawyers are dedicated to serving your projects from their initiation up to their implementation.
We have developed an extensive engineering line in real property contractual law, data law (personal and public), public-private arrangements, construction law, energy law, real property tax and corporate law to support projects that are complex and mixed in essence.
Our know-how is recognised and relies on several fields of expertise with a process that is intentionally global and not side lined.
LWA is particularly active in the mobility sector where it assists its clients both with the implementation of new displacement policies and with the creation of transportation infrastructures.
Our interventions are varied and are intended to clarify the legal regimes and procedures that are applicable to our clients and for assisting them all along the rollout of the projects.
One of LWA’s assets is to have the ability to mobilise diverse fields of expertise, which proves to be particular necessary in the transportation sector given the diversity of questions that are susceptible of being raised (public law, taxation of transportations, use of personal data, IP, state aids, environment…).
LWA’s current interventions deal with the opening of competition in the railway sector, projects for the implementation of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), or even the management of public contracts that take into account the sanitary crisis relating to the COVID-19 epidemic and the stakes of the energetic transition in this sector.
In a political and societal context that is characterised by the necessity of having to comply with the growing challenges of environmental protection and having to promote a sustainable development, the industrial groups, real property and layout players, as well as public entities must apprehend the issues of environmental and sustainable development.
During this sanitary crisis linked to the COVID-19 epidemic, it has become essential for all players to become resilient so as to anticipate and optimise the management of environmental, energetic and sanitary risks and firmly engage themselves on the energetic transition path.
In this context, LWA, which is an engaged player in the area of sustainable development, assists its private and public clients both with counselling – in contractual or auditing matters – as well as administrative or judicial litigation, in connection with the dynamic management of their real property assets, the environmental risks relating to their activities, or even the definition and implementation of measures for reducing the ecological footprint of economic, industrial or even institutional activities.
Therefore, LWA’s lawyers have developed fine expertise to assist with the energetic efficiency refurbishment of buildings, the sustainable valuation of real property assets and development of innovative arrangements in the area of renewable energies (methanisation, hydraulic energy, biomass…), as well as with the mastering of the technological, sanitary and environmental risks of the projects.
Here again, LWA reinforces its trademark of agile law firm by providing you with the availability of dedicated project teams grouping all required fields of expertise for your complex projects (energy law, environmental law, competition law, civil, commercial and criminal litigation, tax law…).
In these times of digital transition, sometimes forcibly imposed, so as to face the sanitary crisis linked to the COVID-19 epidemic, in particular, all players, both private and public, have to face the legal challenges of digital technology.
LWA was created at the beginning of the ‘Internet bubble’ and is perfectly aware of them.
It has been involved since this era in the profound changes that have affected the activities of the most diversified players, whether they be domestic or international large companies, start-ups or public establishments. Some are players for which digital technology is the core business (start-ups, software editors, websites or mobile applications, vendors, suppliers of e-health services…). Others are private or public players and were pioneers or forced, for their requirements, to digitalise their professions (off-the-shelf software solutions or specific software, HR management departments wanting to rollout an HRIS…).
This multidisciplinary vision, which is always offered and provided in a pragmatic manner, is our added value: your safety asset.
In a sector that is constantly changing, companies and organisations in the life sciences and health sector (healthcare establishments, pharmaceutical industries, medtechs/biotechs or even investment funds) have to face an increasing number of technological, legal and legislative challenges.
Whether your project integrates a digital dimension, artificial intelligence, in particular, or whether it is subjected to medical liability law, LWA assists you and is able to offer you cross disciplinary skills both in the area of counselling and litigation, regarding the contractual, tax, corporate, social, personal data, intellectual property, public, competition law and State aid aspects.