Compliance & Regulatory Litigation
and Compliance
The firm has a dual expertise in compliance and in regulatory and compliance litigation.
The team’s strengths lie in its long-standing expertise in regulatory matters, disciplinary proceedings and criminal litigations, its thorough understanding of all applicable regulatory and operational constraints, its perfect knowledge of ecosystems, its pragmatic risk management approach, and its ability to dialogue with regulators and authorities.
The firm’s practice in the area of controls, investigations, administrative or criminal proceedings makes it ideally positioned to assist companies in the implementation of their compliance programmes.
The Team is able to assess, redesign and test internal control systems to reduce the risks involved.
The firm regularly advises companies on a wide range of non-compliance risks and financial offences (anti-money laundering and terrorist financing, corruption and influence peddling, financial sanctions, asset freezing measures, embargoes, etc.).
Our lawyers assist companies to identify their risks and to conduct internal due diligence and hearings, to draft internal guidelines and procedures, and to deploy all required compliance tools.
The firm also provides tailored training programmes for its clients’ relevant staff and management teams.
Aware that a “tick the box” approach does not satisfy regulators, our lawyers conduct in-depth compliance reviews, including discussions with employees about the risks they face on the ground and the effectiveness of the measures in place. This allows them to ensure that their recommendations for improvement are sufficient and proportionate.
Some organisations seek legal advice from the firm after being alerted on potential violations by their internal control system or by third parties. The Team then conducts an investigation or audit to assess whether a breach has occurred or could have occurred, advises organisations on their reporting obligations to the relevant authorities, parties or concerned persons, and advises them in the remediation process.
The firm assists its clients in as the following areas:
- Drafting, review or implementation of procedures manuals
- Structuring of governance and internal control
- Assistance in the context of controls and investigations by the competent authorities (ACPR, AMF, ECB, AFA, H3C, CNIL, DGCCRF, etc.)
- Assistance in the event of prosecution by these authorities
- Definition and implementation of remediation plans
Examples include:
- Counsel to a banking group on the group audit of implemented anti-corruption procedures.
- Assisting the legal representative of a company prosecuted before the Sanctions Commission of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA).
- Advising financial institutions on international financial sanctions.
- Assisting a credit institution in the context of an investigation conducted by the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) in connection to a massive fraud involving several other credit institutions.
- Representing an asset management company in proceedings before the Enforcement Committee (Commission des Sanctions) of the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF).
- Counsel to an investment firm in the context of a control carried out by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) and in the negotiation of an administrative settlement (Accord de composition administrative).
- Assisting an audit firm in the context of an investigation initiated by the Superior Council of Statutory Auditors (Haute Autorité de l’Audit – H2A).