12/2008

Bruno Lefébure was elected on the Board of the China Department of the French Foreign Trade Advisers. In the presence of his Excellence, the Ambassador of France in China and Minister Adviser for Economic Affairs, Bruno Lefébure, the partner in charge of our office in Shanghai, was elected on the Board of the China Department of the French Foreign Trade Advisers. Furthermore, Xavier Lebray and Bruno Lefébure were elected on the Management Committee of the Franco-Chinese Association for the Economical Law .

Two acknowledgements of our firm’s commitment to the business world and field of French law in China.

07/2008

The firm has signed a partnership with the online site www.droitdutravail.com dedicated to HR and Business Managers.
Our Employment Law Team managed by Antoine Benoit is now responsible for the 'Employee Savings Plan' column.
The first article regarding the contribution of employees to business results is already online. It was co-edited by Antoine Benoit and Camille Tétard Blanquart.

06/2008

Jean-Paul Bignon was elected chair of the Meritas board of Directors, an international network of lawyers with over 164 firms located in more than 64 countries and encompassing more than 6,500 lawyers.

Since its creation nearly 20 years ago, Meritas has always been chaired by North-Americans, and for the very first time it is to be chaired by a European lawyer situated in a country of civil law. Jean-Paul Bignon will replace Ken Kallish, a partner at the Canadian Law firm Minden Gross, and will serve in this elected position for a duration of two years starting from April 2009.

Jean-Paul Bignon is currently a partner at Paris based BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES. He advises medium-sized and major companies and defends their rights in the case of litigation, more precisely in the real estate and commercial domains.

After completing a DEA in Civil Law and a LLM received at the University of New York, Jean-Paul Bignon then joined the American Law Firm Dewey Ballantine, before becoming a law manager at Schlumberger.  He then joined BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES in 1987.

He is a member of the Paris and New York Bars. Since 2001 he is the Mayor of Bermesnil.

See the Meritas website.

04/2008

Philippe Woerner is elected Member of the Management Committee. He will share his responsibilities along with Rémi de Gaulle and Xavier Lebray assisted by Catherine Sauvat for a duration of three years. Philippe Woerner, 53 years old is an attorney at law at the Lyon bar since 1991, and has been a partner of the firm for nearly 18 years. He is based in Lyon where he practices his activity within the mergers, acquisitions and corporate law and Tax law departments. Holder of a DESS in Business Law and a DJCE, he assists a French PME clientele with fusions acquisitions, company law, taxation and contract law. He mainly deals with private clinics.

We are pleased to announce that we have appointed 5 partners who took up their duty as of the 1st January 2008. BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES now has 40 partners.

Claire Baufine-Ducrocq, 36 years old, began her career within the firm 11 years ago. Her main areas of work are based on corporate law and more particularly mergers and acquisition operations, restructuring and corporate finance.

Delphine Nowak, 36 years old, joined the firm in 2003 (when Denis Lequai joined Bignon Lebray & Associés as a partner and with whom she worked for 6 years). Delphine’s skills in distribution and competition law were gained when she successfully advised an important international group.

Matthieu Lochardet is 35 years old. His main areas of work are based on financial operations (capital risk, LBO, capital development, debt) and corporate restructuring. He intervenes on investment funds and assists company directors with acquisition and patrimonial solutions.

Sébastien Rodriguez, 35 , is specialised in French and international employment law (labor contracts, breach of contract, litigation, salary, social security and benefits, retirement, shareholding and contingency) and in the social and tax aspects of international transfers. He will play a key role in the continuing development of BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES international mobility department.

Stéphane Couchoux has joined BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES as a partner. He will be in charge of developing the Corporate Foundations service line.

 Stéphane Couchoux specializes in law and taxation of not-for-profit organizations (organismes sans but lucratif - OSBL). In this regard, he assists corporate officers and managers in the implementation of their corporate sponsorship and foundation projects. He also advises the directors and officers of not-for-profit organizations (i.e. associations, foundations, professional organizations, mutual insurance companies, provident societies, etc…) with regard to any related legal issues (i.e. the setting up of organizations; drafting of the bylaws and articles of association, restructuring, training, etc) and tax questions (including diagnostic reviews of tax compliance, the certification of “not-for-profit” and “sponsor” status and assistance with regard to tax audits, etc…).

Stéphane Couchoux began his career in 1994 with FIDAL before joining the law firm of ERNST & YOUNG Société d'Avocats in 1999, where he was in charge of the “Corporate Foundations” Department at national level.

BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES is settling in China

BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES, one of the main French law firms, has announced the opening of its new office in Shanghai, which affirms its development abroad.

BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES has also entered into a partnership agreement with BEACON law firm, which is present in Beijing and Shanghai. BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES and BEACON are both members of Meritas, the international network of independent law firms.

Through this implementation, BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES wants to play a major role in helping French companies conquer the Chinese market.

BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES also advises Chinese companies which intend to invest in European and French markets. The Shanghai office is headed by François Perruchot-Triboulet, resident partner, who is aided in his task by Patrick de Brisson de Laroche, attorney-at-law, Sha Sha Liu and Rui Wang, legal advisers. In France, the China team is led by Bruno Lefébure, partner, member of the Bars of Paris and Brussels , who spent six years in Shanghai, between 2000 and 2006. He is assisted by Nicolas Coster and two Chinese attorneys.

Jean-Paul Bignon, a partner of BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES, was elected Vice-Chair of Meritas.

At the annual Meeting of Meritas, which took place in San Francisco, Jean-Paul Bignon, a partner of the law firm BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES was elected Vice-Chair of Meritas. He is hence integrating the Executive Committee of Meritas, which is comprised of a Chair and five Vice-Chairs, and presides over the Recruiting Committee whose mission is to recruit new members. His term in office is one year.

Jean-Paul Bignonwas already a member of the Board of Directors of Meritas since April 2006, for a three-year term. BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES is the French representative of Meritas, an international network of independent law firms whose head office is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA).

Meritas is an alliance of 170 law firms in more than 60 countries that cooperate with each other under a common charter, intended to ensure that the best standards will be met anywhere in the world, in terms of quality, techniques, deadline management and coordination of international matters.

Xavier Lebray was elected President of the Management Board of the law firm BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES for three years. He is replacing Jacques Goyet, whose mandate expired.

 Xavier Lebray intends to pursue the development of the firm’s activities at the international level and promote the effectiveness of civil and continental law as a factor of enhancement of the legal security of companies.

 Xavier Lebray, 57, holds a Certificate in Company Management, a D.E.S. in Economics and a D.E.S. in Business Law; he also has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Jurisprudence from New York University. A member of the Paris Bar since 1979, he began his career in 1976 in New York with White & Case, then practiced law at the Parisian office of the latter.

He later joined BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES in 1986. Xavier Lebray mostly advises clients in the areas of Labor Law and Mergers & Acquisitions. Set up 25 years ago, BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES is one of the major independent French law firms which is comprised of 115 attorneys and legal advisers including 34 partners. It has offices in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Aix-en-Provence and Shanghai.

 As part of its global strategy to develop the firm internationally, BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES which has recently obtained its license to practice law in China Chine, is hence able to guide French and European companies with their investments in China as well as Chinese companies with their investments in France.

Florence Dedieu graduated from the University of Paris II (Assas) where she obtained a Master’s Degree in Corporate Law and a DESS in Corporate and Tax Law.

She started her career in 1987 with Arthur Andersen International / Archibald, a law firm which became EY LAW in 2003 (member of the Ernst & Young network) and in 1991, participated as Manager in the creation of the firm’s Company Law Department then in its development as a Senior Manager.

She specializes in corporate law and company restructuring (mergers and acquisitions, asset transfers), including the coordination of the corporate housekeeping of major French and international groups.

Senior associate of BIGNON LEBRAY & ASSOCIES since 2004, she will now continue to reinforce the expertise and know-how of our Company law and M&A departments.