After a new year of growth in 2020, De Pardieu Brocas Maffei announces the appointment of three partners in two strategic departments: Competition and Banking & Finance.
With the appointments of Alexandre Eberhardt and Laëtitia Gavoty Tolot, the Competition Law department strengthens its position as a top-tier player in France, by deploying one of the most complete teams on the market. The department regularly acts in all types of cases related to competition and distribution law for companies, including cartels, abuse of dominant position, State aids, and French and EU merger control procedures.
Ranked Elite in the Global Competition Review since 2020 and in the Tier 1 of Chambers & Partners or Legal 500 since 2019, the team regularly acts on emblematic cases with a French or European dimension, in coordination with a network of high-level international correspondents, thereby covering all the jurisdictions concerned. The team assists leading groups (particularly in the digital, real estate, insurance, automotive, healthcare, retail, food and beverage, and oil industries) in the context of mergers, litigation before the competition authorities, and private enforcement litigation.
“The legal issues related to competition, which are omnipresent in business life, will become even more crucial in the months to come, as the health crisis disrupts the business models of many sectors and will have a profound impact on the strategic issues of our clients. The appointments of Alexandre and Laëtitia as partners are a response to these issues and are a great source of satisfaction: first, it demonstrates the dynamism of our team, which has steadily grown since its creation in 2004, where they both started their career. It also underlines the development of the team’ expertise and the desire to further strengthen the support of our clients, who are facing increasingly difficult legal issues in our field. The fact that they have known of Alexandre and Laëtitia for many years considerably facilitates the working relationship with our clients”, says Philippe Guibert, partner and head of the Competition Law team.
Regularly distinguished and recognized by international guides such as Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 for many years, the Project Finance team, which is integrated into the Firm’s Finance platform, is involved at all stages of its clients’ projects – structuring, bidding, drafting project contracts and financing documentation – in both a French and international context. The team, comprising 7 associates and 2 partners, has developed a specific expertise in the field of infrastructure and energy and relies on a strong expertise within the firm in Public Law, Energy and Urban Planning. The team thus acts as counsel to lenders or sponsors, as applicable, in numerous public infrastructure financings, under concession contracts or partnership agreements, and also in numerous financings of renewable energy equipment (wind, solar, biomass, hydrogen, etc.). In this context, Antoine Payen has acted as counsel to lenders in numerous financings for the deployment of very high-speed telecommunications networks in France, including recently for the Haute-Savoie department and the Auvergne area. He has also advised lenders in the financing of the conversion of several thermal power plants located in the French overseas departments and territories into plants running exclusively on biomass.
For Jean-Renaud Cazali, Partner and Head of the Project Finance team: “The appointment of Antoine Payen is the natural consequence of the continuing development of the activity initiated by Antoine Maffei at the firm almost 30 years ago. His promotion as partner contributes to strengthening the team’s capacity in the practice area of financing and also the industrial contracts of the projects. It allows us to handle a volume of matters which has grown considerably over the last few years and also to dedicate separate ‘financing’ and ‘project contracts’ teams to the most complex projects.”
“We are delighted with these promotions, reflecting the development of our firm’s Financing and Competition activities. The cooptation of young talents trained at the Firm, who combine technical excellence and understanding of our clients’ issues, is fully in line with De Pardieu Brocas Maffei’s strategy consisting in developing a leading independent French firm with a strong international focus. It is also a strong sign of the dynamics and resilience of our activity. It demonstrates the confidence of the partners in our model and our common intention to expand our service offering in strategic areas of business law” underlines Emmanuel Fatôme, Managing-Partner of De Pardieu Brocas Maffei.
With now a total of 150 lawyers – including 34 Partners and 18 counsels – De Pardieu Brocas Maffei Maffei is expressing its intention, through these promotions, to pursue its expansion and to offer its clients a wide range of high added value services.
Biographies:
Alexandre Eberhardt, 38, is a member of the Paris Bar since 2010. He graduated from Sciences Po Paris (class of 2007), mention “Economic Law”, and holds a Masters’ degree in “Economic European Law” from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Européennes of Strasbourg and a Masters’ degree in “International and European law” from the University of Strasbourg.
He specializes in French and European competition law including merger control procedures and antitrust litigation. He also works on distribution law.
He joined the Firm in 2010, year during which he spent six months on secondment in the competition law department of Berwin Leighton Paisner in London, and was appointed as Counsel in 2019.
Laëtitia Gavoty Tolot, 37, member of the Paris Bar since 2008, she graduated from ESCP-EAP and holds a Postgraduate degree in Business Law from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Masters’ degree in Business Law from the University of Paris X Nanterre.
She is a member of the Competition Law team. She regularly advises French and international companies before the French and European regulatory authorities and courts, particularly in merger control, litigation relating to anti-competitive practices (cartels, abuse of dominant position), actions for compensation for competitive damage and State aids.
She also has expertise in restrictive competition practices and distribution law.
She joined the Firm in 2010, and she was appointed as Counsel in 2018, after having worked at the law firm Bredin Prat.
She is an active member of the Competition Lawyers Association (APDC) and is also involved in the International Bar Association (IBA).
Laëtitia Gavoty Tolot is distinguished in 2021 in the “Rising stars” category in the Legal 500 EMEA EU, Competition and Distribution rankings, and since 2018 in the Who’s Who Legal Competition France rankings in the “Future Leaders – Non Partners” category.
Antoine Payen, 37, is a member of the Paris Bar since 2011. he holds a Postgraduate degree in banking and finance law from the University of Paris I Panthéon – Sorbonne and a Postgraduate degree in business law from the University of Paris II Panthéon – Assas.
He started his career by joining the firm in 2010.
He is involved in banking and finance, and more particularly in project and structured finance. He advises financial institutions (bank and institutional lenders) and sponsors (industrial companies, developers, investment funds), in the context of infrastructure financing operations (in particular, concession contracts, public service delegation, partnership contracts) and energy project financing. He is involved in both financing and project-related aspects.