Gide Loyrette Nouel's Paris and Brussels based team consists of over 30 practitioners led by Stéphane Hautbourg and Benoît Le Bret. The firm moves up a tier this year thanks to consistent positive feedback from the market, attesting to an active and quality practice....
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Gide Loyrette Nouel's Paris and Brussels based team consists of over 30 practitioners led by Stéphane Hautbourg and Benoît Le Bret. The firm moves up a tier this year thanks to consistent positive feedback from the market, attesting to an active and quality practice.
Innovation and pragmatism are among the firm's attributes. "We have worked together on a number of projects since 2009 and I would say that they are very innovative and professional," says one client. Another adds: "I think they are quite good [and] they are quite pragmatic when finding various solutions we had not thought of."
In some of the highest profile cases in Europe, the firm secured clearance for the €4 billion partnership between its client Exeltium, a joint-venture founded by Solvay, UPM, ArcelorMittal and Rhodia among others, and EDF Energy. In June 2010 it got the green light from the EU commission on SNCF's cross-border merger with other international rail companies including Eurostar.
In early 2010 the firm also won a landmark ruling for its regular client France Telecom, which annulled a previous decision from the EU commission regarding state aid issues. The case has reached the European Court of Justice with €9 billion of state aid resting on the outcome.
The firm also helped France Telecom reject an abuse of dominance claim by Vivendi, which has since launched an appeal.
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