Gide Loyrette Nouel - The Who's Who Legal 100 2013

What is the Who's Who Legal 100?

The firm’s impressive real estate practice provides clients with a range of services including planning, construction, financing, transactional work and dispute resolution and is represented by four of its lawyers, three of whom are based in the firm’s Paris office. Frédéric Nouel is “internationally renowned” for his practice specialising in real estate transactions and financing for both listed and non-listed major institutions. He is “exceptionally talented” and was heavily involved in drafting legislation for the French non-listed real estate collective investment trusts named OPCIs. In Warsaw, Hugues Moreau is singled out for his “superb” real estate practice. His recent work includes advising a listed company on a project of joint venture controlling a key shopping centre in Poland, as well as advising a hotel operator on developing a new hotel complex in Gdańsk and refinancing a hotel in Warsaw.

Dispute resolution emerges as a key strength of the firm; the firm achieves two listings in both the arbitration and commercial litigation chapters. Carole Malinvaud is listed in the arbitration chapter and has acted in numerous international and institutional arbitrations as both counsel and as arbitrator. She is “phenomenal” according to our sources. She is joined in the arbitration chapter by Christian Camboulive, an experienced counsel and arbitrator particularly in disputes relating to investment protection, infrastructure projects, acquisitions and international sales. Pierre Raoul-Duval features prominently in the commercial litigation chapter and is “particularly good for devising litigation strategy”. Michel Pitron is also highly regarded and specialises in contractual, corporate, banking and insolvency law disputes.

In the field of M&A, the firm has acted on many high-profile deals in the last year, including advising King Power Group, a Hong Kong retail conglomerate on the acquisition of Château Bernadotte from Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, part of the renowned Champagne Louis Roederer group. Three practitioners are featured in the M&A chapter, including “corporate guru” Youssef Djehane. Djehane is also listed in the corporate governance chapter and recently advised IBM in connection with its public tender offer for Ilog. Christophe Eck concentrates on M&A, private equity and stock exchange regulation. He is “brilliant” at advising on takeovers and mergers of public and private companies as well as on privatisations. Philippe Xavier-Bender specialises in foreign investments in France and regularly represents German and Anglo-Saxon companies in the car manufacturing, pharmaceutical, luxury goods and apparel industries.

Gide Loyrette Nouel’s IP-TMT practice is “highly regarded”. Three lawyers appear in the trademarks chapter, including Emmanuel Larere, a “trademark specialist” who has represented some of the world’s leading brands in the luxury goods, sports apparel and jeanswear sectors while Arnaud Michel is considered a “first-rate” trademark litigator. Grégoire Triet is acknowledged for his “tremendous skill and talent” in both the trademarks and patents chapters and is experienced in handling patent infringement, validity disputes, copyright and unfair competition cases. Partner in charge of information technology law Thierry Dor features in the internet, e-commerce and data protection chapter and has substantial experience in IT projects, internet, e-commerce, software and database protection and personal data. The regulatory communications chapter sees two of the firm’s lawyers featured: Rémy Fekete and Olivier Cousi. Fekete assists television and radio broadcasting companies, cable, satellite and ADSL distributors, telecoms operators and suppliers of value-added services and is “in high demand”. Cousi has a long-standing experience in the field and has assisted major communications groups and governments worldwide. In addition, he has successfully represented institutions facing disparagement claims. Further recognition goes to François Krotoff, head of the firm’s oil, gas and mining practice. Krotoff divides his time between the Paris and London offices and appears in the mining, oil and gas and project finance chapters. He is widely recognised as a “leading authority” on the funding of infrastructure projects, especially in emerging markets.