Practices
FARTHOUAT AVOCATS systematically uses its high-level expertise in litigation to offer its clients, in all areas of business law, pragmatic, effective and innovative solutions. a different perspective on its consulting activity and to quickly inform its clients of potential risks that they cannot spontaneously detect.
FARTHOUAT AVOCATS is organized into areas of expertise:
Criminal law
Ever since its foundation, the firm’s work has been dominated by criminal defence and after thirty years’ practice it has a very strong reputation in this field, covering all the fields of criminal law, which the firm has divided into five units:
- corporate criminal law (all types of offence in the financial, economic, stock market and industrial fields, including insider dealing, misuse of corporate assets, money laundering, price manipulation, presenting fraudulent balance sheets, obtaining by false pretences, extortion and internal corruption),
- cybercriminality,
- criminal law in respect of attack on persons or property (e.g. liability for collective accidents (marine, rail or air), disasters and pharmaceutical products,
- criminal law in respect of the environment, health and work (environmental liability, discrimination, health & safety, psychosocial risks, psychological / sexual harassment, offence of hindering staff representation, personal freedom and privacy at work),
- international criminal law (financial criminal law, international corruption, asset recovery, cross-border disasters and extradition),
- criminal law in the media.
We are in constant touch with investigating magistrates specialising in financial matters and appear regularly before the courts and independent authorities such as the financial markets authority and the data protection board.
Our French and foreign clients are public sector players, private businesses, senior executives, employees, shareholders, self-employed professionals and other individuals involved in criminal investigations or proceedings as accused or victim. We also assist our French and foreign clients with preventive analyses of the corporate criminal risk and regularly organise in-house training courses, for which the firm is regularly honoured (Trophées du Droit)
Economic and commercial law / Contract law / IP & IT
The Firm has, during its growth, developed a very solid expertise in business litigation.
Its practice is based on a permanent experience of litigation related to the life of his clients' businesses: their restructurings, takeovers and changes of majority, their activities and their liability, the defense of their image.
We support our clients in the negotiation, drafting and implementation of their contract portfolios (particularly in the defense, retail, industry and health sectors).
A growing part of our activity is devoted to the commercial relations of our clients with their suppliers and to their support in the event of breach of contract, abuse of a dominant position and abuse of economic dependence.
Company law
The Firm has recognized expertise in all pre-litigation or litigation issues related to the field of corporate law. Conflicts and crisis situations destabilize societies and require pragmatic analysis and great responsiveness.
In terms of advice, we support our clients in:
- the legal structuring of their operations, negotiation, drafting and monitoring of contracts for the sale of companies,
- the development of pre-contractual documentation (letters of intent, confidentiality agreement, memorandum of understanding, due diligence, etc.),
- the choice of governance, the negotiation and drafting of shareholder agreements,
- their capital and equity operations, transformation operations, mergers, contributions, TUP, voluntary dissolution,
- in the solutions to be provided in the event of financial or economic difficulties encountered by the company (mediation, conciliation, collective proceedings).
In partnership with the teams of Cabinet Berry Law, we support our clients in all their private equity transactions, investments and LBO financing, the negotiation and drafting of bank guarantees and various sureties, as well as in all their tax and heritage issues.
We regularly organize training for our French and foreign clients, managers and senior executives, on the subject of their responsibilities with the criminal and social department.
Ethics and compliance
Strongly committed to its membership of professional associations and institutions, our firm enjoys an excellent reputation in litigation over ethics and compliance.
Our clients are regulated professionals and businesses that have to deal with ethical issues (conflicts of interest, putting internal procedures in place and monitoring them, vigilance obligations in respect of preventing money laundering / corruption and other high-risk practices such as promotional operations and gifts) and issues of corporate liability, social responsibility and environmental liability (compliance with codes of conduct and ethical charters, responsibility for governance and compliance with environmental regulations) before the courts, regulatory bodies, supervisory bodies (e.g. the prudential supervision authority and the financial markets authority) and professional bodies.
We support our clients with preventive management and the growing problems of compliance:
- ethics (fraud auditing, drafting, advice, assistance with defining and implementing internal procedures, risk mapping, internal control procedures, internal rules, ethical charters and issues involving social responsibility / environmental liability),
- putting procedures in place and organising training courses for the prevention of money laundering and corruption.
We regularly organise internal training courses on such issues for our French and foreign clients.
Employment law
Employment law offers many solutions to business needs but implementing them is very often complex from the legal viewpoint and they have to be tailored to each business’s economic objectives. We advise our clients on all issues involved in the individual and collective management of work relations:
- drafting and implementing contracts of employment (hiring, disciplinary law, employee assessment, etc),
- procedures for terminating contracts of employment (dismissal, individual / collective compulsory redundancies, voluntary redundancies, etc).
- organisation of working hours,
- collective negotiations and operation of staff representation bodies,
- collective negotiations and operation of staff representation bodies,
- health at work,
- employee savings,
- retirement management systems,
- drafting ethical charters,
- criminal labour law,
- national insurance law(industrial accidents, occupational diseases, disputes with the Urssaf (national insurance and family allowance contributions collection agency), etc),
- supplementary welfare cover law(pensions, contingency insurance, medical expenses, etc)
Relying on its very extensive experience of litigation, the firm defends businesses every day across the entire field of employment law :
- employment tribunal cases (dismissals, individual redundancies, applications for judicial termination of contracts of employment, acknowledgement of contract termination, discrimination, etc.),
- litigation over collective disputes (collective agreements, operation of staff representation bodies, challenges to staff representative elections, etc.),
- national insurance disputes (challenges over accidents and occupational diseases, contribution reassessments, etc.),
- administrative labour disputes (appeals against labour inspectorate decisions, civil service status, etc.),
- charges of criminal liability against corporate entities senior executives or their representatives in matters of health and safety, operation of staff representation bodies, etc.
Our clients are French and foreign employers (SMEs, international groups, public sector corporations, professional bodies and voluntary sector organisations). We regularly organise training courses for our French and foreign clients on employment law and their responsibilities in conjunction with the criminal and company law department.
Civil liability and insurance
The firm has built its reputation over several decades in the field of civil liability litigation and insurance law.
For some thirty years we have been advising and assisting insurance companies and mutual societies, mutual and welfare protection groups, brokers, companies and individuals in the management of serial litigation, natural disasters and major accidents (rail, air, marine, fires, etc).
Property
For some thirty years we have been offering clients advice and representing them in court in the fields of property law, notably building and condominium law, commercial leases and business leases.
Our recurring practice means that we are familiar with the players in these sectors, while our effectiveness in the property law field is enhanced via regular, active cooperation with experts (notaries, chartered surveyors, values and architects). We also assist our clients with their property sales, purchases and investments.
Law of persons
In the course of its growth, the firm has developed solid expertise in issues relating to the law of persons, notably in transnational cases. We support our clients in their disputes arising in France or abroad over divorce, filial status, inheritance, matrimonial regimes and children’s rights.
We favour a pragmatic, people-friendly approach to enable alternative settlements of the stressful situations of conflict that our clients experience.
Senior executives and managers
Senior business executives and managers are finding themselves in ever more complex legal situations due to:
- the constant broadening of the scope of their personal civil and criminal liability,
- the legal and organisational constraints on the performance of management duties,
- new relationships of law and governance between, on one hand, the employer and management teams and, on the other, corporate supervisory bodies, shareholders and potential investors.
Ensuring a separation and a balance between the protection of senior management and the corporate interest is a key factor in good governance. We support senior executives and managers with:
- choosing their corporate status (corporate officer, employee, etc) and defining their role (delegation of powers, etc),
- putting appropriate welfare cover in place (national insurance, supplementary pension, employee share ownership, redundancy compensation, severance pay, etc.),
- managing disputes involving them personally against their company, its employees or third parties.
INTERNALÂ INVESTIGATIONS
The Firm supports its clients (legal entities and managers) in the prevention and management of their risks, in France and abroad. It advises his clients on issues of compliance with national and extraterritorial regulations relating to the fight against corruption, the fight against money laundering, international sanctions or even embargoes.
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The Firm is regularly appointed by its clients, alone or in partnership with other French or foreign law firms and audit firms, to conduct internal investigations. The Firm also assists executives interviewed in the context of French and international internal investigations.
Arbitration, mediation and conciliation
The firm has extensive experience of alternative dispute settlement processes (arbitration, mediation, conciliation and settlements) before institutional and ad hoc arbitration bodies, both domestically and internationally.
We also support our clients with their post-arbitration court litigation (proceedings for the enforcement or annulment of arbitration rulings in France).
