Public Commercial Law

Our team consists of experienced lawyers with a long practice in public law. The diversity of our team’s profiles allows us to provide a practical and tailored response to our clients’ problems. We are active in all areas of public law relevant to the business and corporate world. Our extensive litigation experience enriches our advisory work.

Public law contracts

Whether it is public procurement, service concessions, partnerships or agreements on the use of public property, our team assists our clients in the legal aspects of each and every stage of the contractual relationship: from the actual design of the structure of the contractual relationship with public entities, through the award, negotiation and execution of the contract, to the termination of the contractual relationship. We represent our clients in disputes arising from the conclusion of the contract (e.g. pre-contractual summary proceedings), from the performance of the contract (e.g. contractual liability, challenge of billing transactions) and from the termination of the contractual relationship.

In contract matters, our team also has two special areas of expertise:

Contract management
We support our clients in the management of their public law contracts in order to anticipate and manage all economic, legal and technical risks that may arise from the contractual terms. To ensure that a project is carried out in accordance with the contract, in particular respecting the financial and time milestones foreseen in the contract, we have created a specific offer based on multi-phase support and the creation of specific tools.

Legal advice to building owners on tenders

We support economic operators in the preparation of their application and bid as well as in compliance checks. Our legal team ensures the correct conduct of the procedure and anticipates the risks of litigation.

Property of legal entities under public law

Our team assists its clients in operations to enhance the public property’s value. Our clients vary from managers of state assets (in particular local authorities or associations, concessionaires for public works) to economic operators carrying out their activity on public property.

Regulation

Our team has been involved in the regulation of the opening of network activities to competition since the second half of the 1990s. Its activity covers all sectors affected by the process of opening up to competition: electronic communications, postal services, energy, railways and airports. Depending on the sector, the team either assists or represents the regulator, the operator of the network or essential infrastructure, the incumbent operator or new players. This cross-cutting activity allows us to take into account the expectations and constraints of each market player.

Public sector

Our team advises economic actors in the public sector (in particular institutions and public corporations and mixed-economy companies) on both restructuring and the development of new activities. Together with our corporate & M&A team, we provide our expertise in institutional law, in particular local law, public accounting and competition and regulatory law applicable for public entities.

Public data

Our team supports the development of various projects for the reuse and valorisation of public data. This support, together with our IT Law & Intellectual Property Law team, starts from the very conception of the project in order to analyse its feasibility and assist our clients in dealing with the different public actors involved (data-holding authorities, French data protection authority CNIL (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés), French Commission for access to administrative documents CADA (Commission d’accès aux documents administratifs). Our team’s expertise also extends to the difficulties that may arise during implementation.

General and special administrative law

Our team has developed multidisciplinary litigation expertise in all areas of public law. This expertise covers proceedings against decisions of administrative authorities directly affecting the business activities of companies (decisions relating to administrative authorisations and approvals, including in the field of labour law; decisions on sanctions, etc.) as well as appeals against government regulations (Prime Ministerial decrees or ministerial orders) before the Conseil d’État (Supreme Administrative Court) and litigation relating to administrative liability. Our team defends its clients before the Conseil constitutionnel (Constitutional Court) in relation to issues of constitutionality.