Publication of the World Law Group 2021 Venture Capital Guide

We are pleased to announce the release of the World Law Group 2021 Venture Capital Guide.

This guide was composed by the members of the Venture Capital Group of the World Law Group (WLG), a network of 59 leading independent law firms with more than 400 offices in major commercial centers worldwide, to which our Firm belongs.

The objective of this publication is to serve as a Q&A-style multi-jurisdictional guide to venture capital law in 33 countries where WLG member firms have offices. The guide intends to provide a high-level overview of the venture capital market, including key sectors, preferred investment structures, regulatory approval requirements, limitations on acquisition of control in portfolio companies, restrictions on investment, investor protection, and exits.

Jean-Luc Soulier and Florence Grangerat have authored the chapter France of this Guide.

Entry into force of the new ICC Arbitration Rules and ICC Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunals

Anaëlle Idjeri, Esq.

The International Chamber of Commerce has unveiled a revised version of its Rules of Arbitration. This new version, which came into force on January 1, 2021, applies to arbitration proceedings initiated on or after that date, unless otherwise agreed by the Parties. Although it does not introduce major substantive changes, this revision corresponds to the stated objective of the ICC President to “mark a further step towards greater efficiency, flexibility and transparency.”

An amended version of the Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunals on the Conduct of the Arbitration under the ICC Rules of Arbitration dated January 1, 2021 has also been circulated.

Online gambling: An experienced poker player remains a “consumer” according to the CJEU

Pauline Kubat, Esq.

Does a player who is a little too experienced and victorious for an online poker site – this player having won 227,000 euros in less than a month and a half – retain the status of non-professional “consumer » within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of December 22, 2000 (known as the Brussels I Regulation)?

In a judgment issued on December 10, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union answered yes to this question.

COVID-19: What measures are still available to distressed companies?

Sophia El Makhoukhi, Esq.

Law No. 2020-1525 of December 7, 2020 on the acceleration and simplification of public action (often referred to under its French acronym “ASAP” Law) has extended until December 31, 2021 a number of derogations that adapt French legal provisions governing distressed companies to the COVID-19 health crisis.

The adoption of this Law provides the opportunity to recall the various measures that remain applicable to date.

This article is also available in our COVID-19 Information Center.

Firm news: "Mes mille et une vies”

We are pleased to announce the upcoming release of the book authored by our founding partner André Soulier entitled “Mes mille et une vies” (My thousand and one lives) published by Cherche Midi.

Tracing the career of André Soulier means revisiting sixty years of French judicial and political history.

Member of the Lyon Bar, considered by his peers as one of the best criminal lawyers in the country, André Soulier discusses in that book some of the cases he handled: that of Jean-Marie Devaux in 1963 and 1969, which led to the adoption of an Act providing for the indemnification of people wrongly sentenced to jail; that of the victims of the fires at the Feyzin refinery in 1970 and at the 5-7 discotheque in 1972; and that of Cardinal Barbarin in 2019.

At the same time, André Soulier was fully involved in political life, first with Pierre Mendes France and then with François Mitterrand. At the Lyon City Hall, he was deputy to Francisque Collomb, and later to Raymond Barre. He was also a member of the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council and of the European Parliament.

To these commitments, André Soulier added another one: that of a soccer lover who chaired the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee of the French National Soccer League and then the Legal Committee of the current Professional Soccer League.

From these intertwined lives, André Soulier forms a story that is both intimate and emblematic, with that taste for words and advocacy that makes great lawyers.

Award

We are pleased to announce that our Firm has received the “Contributor Most Read in France, December 2020” award from Mondaq, one of the largest global online advisory content suppliers.