French Desk

Our Paris office opened in January 2019 and is headed by Vladimir Rostan d’Ancezune, is an important hub for international insurance work and strengthens the international presence and support we offer our clients, focused on both global and domestic Insurance and Industrial Risks sectors.

In the UK, our French Desk is led by Matthew Darling, complements our Paris office with the provision of corporate UK legal expertise to businesses from French-speaking jurisdictions such as France, francophone Canada and Africa, Belgium and Luxembourg in French – in collaboration with international offices, trusted local partnerships and other designated international desks.

Our global team of lawyers with French language capability from across the firm can help you weather the challenges posed by, and maximise the opportunities arising from, Brexit and Covid, as well as supporting you in creating and maintaining strong alliances with the UK.

Our expertise

• Regulatory Strategy / Post-Passporting
• Financial Services and Insurance
• Immigration
• Real Estate
• Employment
• EU / Competition and Regulated Markets
• Corporate Finance
• Restructuring and Insolvency
• UK Financial and Trade Sanctions Regime
• Health
• Commercial Disputes

Our full-service law firm has many more specialisms, such as commercial contracts and Intellectual Property, insurance and reinsurance litigation and cyber risk / data breach – whatever your requirements, please get in touch to discuss how we can help.

Our team

A member of the Desk will familiarise themselves with your business and aspirations and act as your main contact within the firm, putting you in touch with lawyers across all relevant disciplines.

We will guide you through any regulatory challenges and cross-border commercial dealings, as well as helping you establish and run new offices and operational bases for expansion across the UK.

Our work

• Acting for French based multi-national Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield in relation to the leasing of its UK-based assets.
• Advising on a complex fourteen-country restructuring project for the world’s largest cyber security technology group (involving works councils in France and employees across EMEA, including Switzerland and Belgium).
• Representing a joint venture between SNCF and the Go-Ahead Group on the first ever rail merger clearance before DG COMP.
• Advising French global investment management company Mirova on the Irish merger control aspects of its acquisition of joint control of telecommunications infrastructure subsidiary Axione SAS.
• Advising Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB S.A. in relation to the operation of its UK-based businesses.
• Acting for L'Oréal in relation to its real estate needs including the pre-letting of its new HQ building, the pre-letting of its new distribution centre, and managing its retail portfolio in UK and Ireland. We work closely with the L'Oréal team based in both the UK and Paris.
• Supporting a French branding and media enterprise with placing a new French Managing Partner in their UK subsidiary.
• Advising manufacturers of medical devices on a range of issues including the evolving regulatory requirements for medical devices post-Brexit, along with the business as usual approach of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
• Obtaining a multi-million dollar award in ICC arbitration for a major oil and gas company in connection with an international energy joint venture in a French-speaking African country.