Franco-German relations
Our expertise
Our expertise
We help German companies to set up and develop their business in France. Our dedicated lawyers are fluent in German and familiar with Germany’s economic, social, and cultural environment. As a result, they are able to better understand and thus to anticipate the needs and expectations of clients, and they work closely with the law firm’s other legal specialists in order to benefit from their strong expertise in their respective fields.
What we do
- We counsel companies looking to set up an establishment in France: defining business orientations and choosing the appropriate structure (company, simple branch, employee posting, etc.).
- We help organize distribution networks: drawing up and negotiating distribution, franchise, and agency contracts, defining business co-operation and pricing policies.
- We help set up subsidiaries: advising on the most appropriate form according to French-specific tax and labour constraints (private limited company, public limited company, simplified joint-stock company, EIG, etc.).
- We take care of all legal aspects of corporate life in the ordinary course of business (approval of annual accounts, changes in management, capital development, formalities and other steps taken with the French commercial courts and competent authorities, etc.).
- We provide advice on employment matters: organizing management, taking care of the company’s ordinary labour-law needs (drawing up contracts, dealing with the specific issues posed by human resources management), assisting with individual dismissals (judicial litigation, out-of-court settlements), planning reorganisation operations, and liaising with the employees’ representatives.
- We represent companies in litigation before the civil and commercial courts as well as before the arbitration courts: ICC, CFACI (the new arbitration rules of which were co-authored by Christian Connor, a permanent member of its arbitration centre).
Among our files
- Corporate and employment reorganization of the French establishments of a European leader in the handling equipment industry: elaboration and implementation of a severance plan (PSE) for a mass lay-off
- Employment counsel to the subsidiary of a car parts manufacturer and to an automobile importer for the purpose of reorganizing the group in France, transferring employees, and adapting to the market
- Reorganisation of the French management of a German tour operator
- Tax and employment optimization for the managers of the French subsidiaries of several German groups
- Employment and corporate reorganization of international groups in the chemical, metallurgy, life sciences, and packaging industries
- Counsel to those same groups and their insurers in judicial proceedings before the civil and arbitration courts relating to industrial claims involving technical expert appraisals and criminal proceedings
- Counsel to a major German group in the chemical industry setting up a joint venture in France
- Counsel to French industrial or service companies setting up establishments and investing in Germany