Our expertise

PRIVATE EQUITY

The private equity team at Mermoz is a recognised leader in the French private equity market. Comprised of seven partners and supported by ten associates, the team specializes in all private equity matters, including LBOs, growth capital, distressed buyouts/refinancing and venture capital.

Working alongside our dedicated tax, employment and financing departments, we are able to advise our clients in all aspects of their business dealings, whether it be for financial investors, all the way through to founders and management levels.

Drawing from an array of extensive multi-disciplinary experience, our team advises its clients across all market segments on more than thirty LBO and build-up transactions each year, including highly regulated industries such as health, aeronautics, financing, education and agri-food markets.cPartners: Gilles Roux, Tristan Segonds, Arnaud Levasseur, Thomas Hermetet, Nada Sbaï, Aurélie Bonsch et Martin Kyuchukov-Roglev

Counsels: Virginie Florance, Marina Llobell

COMPLEX COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS (INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC)

Mermoz can assist you in both managing your business relations as well as in the legal formalisation of your commercial agreements (turnkey contracts such as EPC; sales, cooperation, purchasing, and distribution contracts, etc.). We provide dedicated expertise across the full operational contract lifecycle, starting with the structuring and negotiation in the pre-contractual phase, to the drafting and execution of the contract, and including contract management issues throughout the contractual term.

Partner
Régis Mahieu

Counsel
Wahib Geagea

GDPR

Mermoz provides dedicated expertise in data privacy matters and regularly assists clients with their growing needs to securely collect, manage and protect personal data related to employees, clients and business partners.

In addition, our team works with you to ensure your practices and tools are compliant with all personal data protection regulations.

Partner
Régis Mahieu

Led by Jean-Louis Fourgoux and Leyla Djavadi, and with over 25 years’ experience, the Mermoz Competition-Distribution team is, renowned for its expertise in economic and European law.

Due to noteworthy and substantial experience in antitrust practices (merger control, trade agreements, abuse of dominant position, private enforcement actions); distribution law (distribution networks, producer-distributor relations, selective distribution, e-commerce, logistics agreements, distribution law disputes, etc.) and consumer law (consumer disputes, advertising campaigns, general sales conditions, group actions, etc.), the Competition-Distribution team provides leading advice and litigation support before the French Competition Authority, the European Commission and domestic commercial jurisdictions.

Working seamlessly with our M&A and private equity departments, our team also works across all aspects of competition law for strategic transactions (acquisitions, mergers, LBOs), especially in relation to obtaining merger/anti-trust clearance with local or European authorities.

Our team represents key players in traditional mass distribution and digital distribution markets as well as industrial groups. These include the audio-visual, energy, food, health, telecommunications , mass distribution, and specialised distribution sectors. Noteworthy cases include the conviction of SFR alongside Free in the consumer credit affair, and representation of a major energy company whose business practices were criticised.

Partners
Jean-Louis Fourgoux et Leyla Djavadi

Tax

Mermoz acts on behalf of French and international companies and groups, investment funds, financial institutions and family offices in all aspects of taxation.

Our team works hand in hand with our M&A and private equity teams to assist our clients in structuring their strategic transactions, in addition to providing advice regarding real estate, international and personal tax issues, tax audits and litigation.

Partners
Laurent Ragot – Philippe Rolland – Nicolas Privat

LITIGATION

Mermoz supports you to resolve litigation matters of all kinds (commercial disputes, shareholder disputes, enforcement of representations and warranty claims), as well as in defending your commercial interests.

Partners
Régis Mahieu and Olivier Péchenard

FINANCING

Mermoz provides dedicated advice and support across all financial operations for businesses, private banks, equity/mezzanine funds, venture lenders and insurance companies.

Working in conjunction with our other specialty departments at Mermoz, our financing team is able to advise clients on all projects requiring financing (as a lender or borrower or mezzanine loan financing), across M&A and private equity deals, as well as real estate, public-private partnerships (PPP), bonds and structured financing projects.

Partner
Martin Kyuchukov

EMPLOYMENT LAW

At Mermoz, we have established a dedicated advisory and litigation department to advise clients on all aspects of French employment law for their business transaction purposes.

We provide specialist expertise and advice to groups and companies, as well as investors across company-wide bargaining agreement negotiations, employment law in the context of mergers and acquisitions or private equity deals, restructurings and redundancies, international relocations, and individual and collective litigation (inclusive of social security / URSSAF contributions reassessments).

Our dedicated team helps define and implement your human resources and risk management strategies in line with the latest developments in the field.

Partner: Catherine Nahmias-Ferrandini

Counsel: Claire Bourgeois

M&A

We provide specialist expertise in mergers and acquisitions and work in coordination with our financing, tax, employment law, competition and European law, and IP/IT departments to provide exceptional advice and support to our clients.

Our teams provide strategic support to both industrial groups and service companies as part of their expansion plans, mergers as well as disposals, joint ventures and legal reorganization. We work across both regulated and unregulated sectors of activity including health, aeronautics, financing, education, agri-food, insurance brokerage and hospitality.

Partners: Gilles Roux, Tristan Segonds, Arnaud Levasseur, Thomas Hermetet, Nada Sbaï, Aurélie Bonsch et Martin Kyuchukov-Roglev

Counsels: Virginie Florance, Marina Llobell, Wahib Geagea

RESTRUCTURING/INSOLVENCY

Our specialist Restructuring/Insolvency team provides strategic and practical advice to debtors, creditors, private equity funds and more generally any party involved in an insolvency or pre-insolvency situation (court-appointed receivers, experts, etc.), working closely with our other departments at Mermoz where required (in particular the financing, employment law, corporate and tax teams).

Mermoz provides support and advice in both the prevention of business conflicts related to restructurings and pre-insolvency issues (ad hoc mandates, conciliation), as well as any other insolvency proceedings and court-related matters

Partner
Olivier Péchenard

INTELLECTUAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

From ideation through to concept development and marketing, Mermoz provides comprehensive support and guidance in optimising, protecting and defending your creations, brands and copyrights across both intellectual and industrial property fields.

(Filing French, European Union, international and national trademarks, acquisition of rights and their security, defence against counterfeiting proceedings, defending the interests of our clients in the use of their creations or trademarks, negotiations etc.)

Partner
Régis Mahieu

A TEAM OF MORE THAN 40 LAWYERS WITH A BROAD RANGE OF EXPERTISE CATERED TO MID-MARKET PLAYERS

Mermoz is an independent law firm offering a wide range of high-level, dedicated business law services. With a strong transactional focus and renowned private equity expertise in the mid-market segment, Mermoz brings together over 40 professionals to deliver a customer-focused and people-first experience for all clients.

Our teams are specialists in their field of expertise and work cross-functionally where necessary to draw upon the firm’s wide range of skills in corporate law, tax, finance, restructuring, complex commercial contracts, personal data, employment law and business litigation, in order to provide our clients with a comprehensive and complementary service proposition.

Mermoz acts on behalf of financial investors, industrial groups, service companies, founders, managers and entrepreneurs, in all areas of activity and across all aspects of business law. , Our expertise covers regulated and non-regulated industries with particular experience in health, aeronautics, finance, education, agri-food, energy and technology sectors.

A STRONG NETWORK OF INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS

Our multicultural team, together with our strong network of international partners, enables us to assist both French clients with their international projects, as well as support foreign companies and financial investors wishing to invest in the French market.