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FRANCE
– Leading tax law firms
www.taxdirectorshandbook.co.uk
76
A
lthough an established leader
for decades, France’s largest
tax team (172 tax lawyers
including 61 partners) at
CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre
has never
ceased to be at the cutting-edge of tax
practice. Following the introduction of
the preliminary constitutional question
in 2010, Stéphane Austry has brought
four out of the seven tax matters referred
to the Constitutional Council and was
also involved in the first recovery cases
of tax exemption considered as state
aid by the EU Commission. Serving a
large number of the CAC 40, the firm
has sound experts in all areas of tax,
and handled more than 400 matters
in 2010 regarding the abolition of tax
havens through Pierre Dedieu, Luc
Jaillais, Olivier de Saint Chaffray and
Richard Foissac. Stéphane Gelin, Bruno
Gibert, Bruno Gouthière, Jean Guilmoto,
Edouard Milhac, Pierre-Sébastien Thill,
Lionel Lenczner, François Charpail,
Michel Collet and Pierre-Jean Douvier are
all leading tax specialists.
The tax boutique
Arsene Taxand
,
chaired by Frédéric Donnedieu de Vabres,
is made up of 13 partners including
Michel Taly, Antoine Glaize, who leads
the transfer pricing practice, Denis
Andres, who is in charge of the tax M&A
and private equity practice, and the ‘
very
well experienced and pragmatic
’ François
Lugand, who supervises the tax property
division. In 2010, the firm continued
to make significant hires, including
former tax adviser to the Finance
Ministry Nicolas Jacquot, and Mirouna
Verban and Frédéric Teper, who joined
respectively from
Dechert
and
Ernst &
Young Société d’Avocats
. The firm’s
portfolio is made up of leading French
(Total, Danone) and foreign (Accenture)
groups and private equity funds (PAI,
Rothschild). Highlights included assisting
Schneider Electric on structuring in 20
countries, Sebia managers on the LBO
by Cinven, and Simon Property and
Ivanhoe Cambridge on the sale of assets
to Unibail.
‘
Exceptional firm
’
Bredin Prat
has a
‘
first-class
’ 13-lawyer team, which has
unmatched expertise for corporate M&A
work, and benefits from its ‘
very good
relationships with the tax authorities
’.
The practice is led by the ‘
remarkable
’
Renaud Streichenberger, whose ‘
legal
opinions are the authority
’, and includes
Edouard Sicot, Sébastien de Monès,
Pierre-Henri Durand, the ‘
very creative and
innovative
’ Yves Rutschmann and newly
France – Leading tax law firms