Commercial Criminal Law

In France, legal entities can also be prosecuted under criminal law. In the normal course of day-to-day business, companies and their managers may therefore be confronted with a variety of situations that expose them to criminal liability. We know how stressful and time-consuming the resulting proceedings can be for our clients, especially in the case of unintentional violations in areas where the criminal law risk is not sufficiently predictable and assessable in view of the extensive and constantly changing regulations (e.g. industrial hygiene, occupational health and safety). Likewise, companies can become victims of criminal offences that can have serious consequences for the reputation and the economic and financial situation of a company. (e.g. cybercrime; goods delivery fraud).

Our team accompanies its clients in these delicate moments, which may lead them to analyse certain areas of their business in great detail.

We accompany our clients at all stages of the criminal proceedings, but also in advance, in order to limit our clients’ criminal risk (audits, advice, structuring of powers of attorney and sub-proxies, training of managers and support functions, etc.).

Thanks to the strong synergy between the lawyers of the different departments and the efficiency of the teamwork that characterises us, our team is able to assist our clients in highly specialised criminal proceedings (cybercrime, white-collar crime, etc.) in addition to the “classic” commercial law cases (misappropriation of corporate assets (abus des biens sociaux), embezzlement, abus de confiance, fraud, CEO fraud, etc.).

General white-collar criminal law
Advice and litigation in criminal proceedings concerning misappropriation of corporate assets (abus des biens sociaux), embezzlement, abus de confiance, delivery fraud, CEO fraud, etc., irrespective of whether our clients are victims, defendants or witnesses.
International criminal law cooperation
Advice and litigation in the French parts of international criminal proceedings, be it the extension of investigations initiated abroad to French territory, interrogation under international agreements, prosecution by a foreign prosecutor’s office, etc.
Criminal labour law/criminal business law
Advice and litigation in the context of official inspections (e.g. by the French labour inspectorate or the French pension funds) and criminal investigations in connection with health and safety at work (e.g. in the case of occupational accidents, occupational diseases, hygiene requirements, breaches of documentation requirements), advice on the documentation required in France (e.g. the document on risk assessment at the workplace (DUER), as well as various internal company guidelines (plan de prévention, plan général de coordination, PGC in short, or a plan général de coordination de sécurité et de protection de la santé (PGCSPS), as well as on the existence of safety protocols); Guidance on issues relating to illegal employment (undeclared work, bogus contracts for work and labour (délit de marchandage), unauthorised temporary work, irregular employment of foreign workers, obstructions in the area of employee representation (délit d’entrave), mobbing, sexual harassment, discrimination).
Environmental criminal law
Advice and litigation in the context of criminal prosecutions relating to breaches of environmental law, which in France can lead to administrative sanctions (e.g. by the Prefect/Regional Office for the Environment, or DREAL) or criminal sanctions (infringements of the provisions of the laws on classified installations posing a particular risk to the environment (ICPE) / the Water Protection Act (IOTA): operation of an installation without the necessary permits, non-compliance with the applicable regulations, illegal recovery, llegal transport of hazardous or non-hazardous waste, pollution of installations and soils, etc.).
Criminal building law
Advice and litigation in the context of proceedings relating to structural installations erected without permits or in disregard of their provisions, in order to avoid the dismantlement of the construction entailing a penalty payment.
Cybercrime
Advice and litigation in connection with attacks on automated data processing systems, cybercrime, ransomware, phishing, etc. (in the investigation, evidence, pre-trial and trial phases).

Accompanying and implementing a range of diverse preventive measures, such as: organisational and technical cyber security analysis with the help of partner experts (intrusion tests, configuration audits, vulnerability analysis/research); the creation of an appropriate remediation plan and the introduction of a digital content security and management guideline.

Partners, Heads of Department *

*in coordination with the partners responsible for the other areas concerned (IT Law & Intellectual Property Law, Commercial, Competition & Distribution Law, Environment & Urban Planning, etc.).

Jean-François Davené Partner

François Klein Partner

Anne-Laure Méry Counsel

Christoph Schödel Partner

Cédric Vanderzanden Partner