Expertises
The team Private Equity/M&A team, led by Mickaël Lévi is recognized for its unique positioning in the market, combining transactional and litigation . With more than 70 transactions completed in less than two years, it stands out for its high-end expertise around a tight and highly responsive team.
It mainly handles:
- • leveraged transactions (LBO, MBO, OBO, etc.) for many major funds and companies
- • venture capital (Venture Capital) and development capital operations alongside funds and companies;
- • support for management teams during Private Equity transactions
- • mergers and acquisitions (M&A), mainly around medium-sized operations, involving small and medium-sized companies or individuals.
And this, at different stages of the operations
- • Investment structuring (LBO, MBO, OBO, LBI, venture capital, development capital, real estate LBOs, etc.)
- • Negotiation and drafting of Management packages
- • The transactional process, from contractual negotiation to post-acquisition operations.
By choosing to intervene for the various players in Private Equity/M&A, whether they are Funds, target companies or management teams, both in the acquisition and exit processes, GWL has an ability to analyze a wide variety of situations.
The Private Equity/M&A team is also enriched by recognized litigation partners to offer dual skills that are rare on the market Thus, GWL supports its clients in anticipating litigation, whether they are commercial, banking, or social, and in resolving conflicts that arise after the operation. A strength that has earned the firm recognition in professional rankings, and to be requested by the big names in French investment for their operations.
Rankings
- • Listed by Le Point magazine in the list of the best law firms in France in Private Equity and Venture Capital (2022)
- • Ranked ** by Option Droit et Affaires in the development capital and LBO category, of which most operations relate to companies from 50 to 300 million euros (2021)
- • "Excellent" by Décideurs Magazine in the Private Equity category - Lower mid & small-cap LBO operations (2020)
Partners: Mickaël Lévi (advisory and transactional) / Éric Gaftarnik (litigation) / Frédéric Chardin (Social Law)
With lawyers having 20 to 30 years of experience and hundreds of cases pleaded before judicial, administrative and arbitration courts, the litigation team led by Éric Gaftarnik offers a high level of legal services.
It regularly takes part in sensitive disputes with significant economic and societal stakes.
Its traditional activities are carried out at the service of French and foreign clients mainly from the transportation sector, the automotive industry, distribution and retail, banking, insurance and brokerage, mutual insurance and the social economy, or the circular economy.
In symbiosis with the PE/M&A team, the litigation team also uses its skills to serve funds and companies involved in the operations carried out by GWL lawers, both in the anticipation of litigation and in the resolution of conflicts.
GWL has also recently developed a mediation activity led by Angélique Laffineur, holder of the mediator certificate issued by the Paris Mediation and Arbitration Center in partnership with ESCP Business School.
Partners : Éric Gaftarnik / Yann Le Douarin / Angélique Laffineur / Frederic Chardin
GWL intervenes from the early stages of difficulties in their negotiations with their creditors in the context, in particular, of ad hoc mandates or conciliation procedures.
The team advises companies in difficulty for the preparation and follow-up of safeguard, reorganization or judicial liquidation procedures as well as their managers in the context of sanction procedures.
The partners also support buyers in the acquisition of industrial or commercial funds of companies in the context of insolvency proceedings (receivership or winding up).
Partners : Éric Gaftarnik / Yann Le Douarin
The firm steps in for its clients in the negotiation and drafting of their commercial contracts, in particular in the fields of distribution and franchising, transportation, reinsurance and the social economy, or even the circular economy.
Clients appreciate that their contractual documents are drafted by litigation lawyers who, through their trial experience, will anticipate the sources of potential disputes and provide specific provisions to prevent them and secure commitments.
Thanks to an excellent knowledge of their clients’ activities, the firm strives to provide them with the best advice to guarantee the legal security of their business but also to offer them ingenious and innovative solutions to support them in their projects and developments.
Partners : Éric Gaftarnik / Angélique Laffineur
