Private equity in France: Preferred structures and protection mechanisms available to investors

Florence Grangerat, Esq.

In the unprecedented context of the health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, private equity transactions slowed down sharply. Many funds have opted for a strategy aimed at focusing on their existing investment portfolio and supporting their investments to meet increased cash flow requirements.

This crisis also provides an opportunity to take a look back at a particularly dynamic year in 2019 for the French private equity investment market and to identify trends, both in terms of the investment methods hitherto favored by investors and in terms of the protection afforded to investors.

COVID-19 – Criminal liability of employers: A real mitigation or a simple reminder of the principle of individualization of penalties?

Charlotte Desfontaines, Esq.

On May 11, 2020, the state of health emergency was extended through the adoption of Law No. 2020-546[1] which supplemented existing provisions. One of the purposes of this legislation is to mitigate the employer’s liability in the event of infection or exposure to infection by the Covid-19.

Indeed, many companies had to continue operating since the outbreak of the crisis, thereby exposing employees to the risk of infection. In the event of infection of one of them by the virus, the employer, i.e. both the natural person who is at the head of the company and the company itself as legal entity, may be held liable.

It is in this context that the French Government has undertaken to mitigate the criminal liability of employers. However, is this really a mitigation or simply a reminder of the principle of individualization of sentences?

International Corruption: Issuance of a circular on France’s criminal policy

Anaëlle Idjeri, Esq.

On June 2, 2020, the French Minister of Justice sent to all competent public prosecutors a circular for immediate application specifying France’s “criminal justice policy in the fight against international corruption”.

This circular sets out guidelines for legal action at all stages of criminal proceedings, from the information gathering stage to the determination of the mode of prosecution.

International Perspective: Brexit happened – what will occur to your EU IP rights?

We are pleased to feature a contribution entitled Brexit happened – what will occur to your EU IP rights? authored by Helena Nilsson, Lovisa Dahl Nelson and Anna Hildingsson from the Swedish law firm Setterwalls.

After years of delay, Brexit came into effect and the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. Brexit will have wide-ranging implications for business, and highly regulated industries such as the life sciences industry will need to anticipate and mitigate a variety of changes. This article highlights some of the critical changes regarding IP rights and provides some guidance for future planning.

“Most Popular Article, France April 2020” Award

We are pleased to announce that our Firm has received the “Most Popular Article, France April 2020” award from Mondaq, one of the largest global online advisory content suppliers, for the article entitled Covid-19: Update on the latest measures relating to partial activity (short-time work) authored by Fabien Pomart.

Every month, Mondaq publishes thousands of articles by contributing firms from over 80 countries around the world and analyses its usage logs to identify which contributors and which articles were most accessed for that calendar month.

COVID-19

All of our publications on COVID-19 and on the steps and measures taken by the French government to support jobs and help businesses are available in our COVID-19 Information Center.

At the international level, the World Law Group, a network of 59 leading independent law firms with more than 400 offices in major commercial centers worldwide, to which our Firm belongs, has set up a Global COVID-19 Resource Center centralizing all the articles and insights of its members on the local impact of COVID-19 and the measures to support businesses adopted by the various countries where World Law Group member firms are present.