France

Founded in 1992, Simon Associés is a well-established business law firm with 22 offices in France.

The firm mainly focuses on all forms of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises or Industries, Intermediate-Sized Enterprises, and investment institutions and banks, carrying on all types of business in a variety of sectors. It currently has more than 100 professionals.

Close to its clients and aware of their economic concerns, Simon Associés has developed a comprehensive range of legal services within a chain of centres of expertise.

The initial development areas of the firm, which are still its core business, are: mergers and acquisitions, investment capital, banking and financing law, under-performance, turnarounds and ailing companies, franchises, networks and distribution, and of course, consultancy and litigation.

Simon Associés has expanded its competencies from these areas of expertise, with the creation of complementary departments specialising in tax law, real estate and labour law, and the law of information and communications networks.

Simon Associés assists and advises its clients, in consultancy, litigation, mediation or arbitration, so as to meet all their needs in business law, whether in France or abroad, through its structured network of correspondents.

The firm is a human-scale company and has a number of strengths: first and foremost, its teams and legal expertise; second its reaction capability and availability; and finally its thorough knowledge of the business community, its practice and power relationships, in an increasingly competitive economy.

These strengths are part of the culture of Simon Associés which has developed a cross-sectional approach to prevent both legal and judicial risks, through qualified procedures and a structured organisation.

The implementation of actions and tools that take account of the technical, economic, human, legal and operational environment of companies guarantees clients a reduced level of risk.

Being an actual stakeholder in the legal sphere, Simon Associés is also involved with many organisations in the economic world to which it belongs, regularly publishes articles on business life and releases a monthly newsletter devoted to legal news.

SIMON Associés has implemented a dynamic international strategy, focused on the principle regions  in the world coveted by French SMEs and ISEs. The firm develops its activities through written transnational agreements reached with colleagues enjoying established reputations in each country:

Algeria / Armenia / Azerbaijan / Bahrain / Belgium / Brazil / Bulgaria / Cameroon / China / Chile / Cyprus / Colombia / DR Congo / Egypt / Estonia / Hungary / Indonesia / Iran / Italy / Ivory Coast / Luxembourg / Mauritius / Morocco / Oman / Paraguay / Peru / Senegal / South Korea / Thailand / Tunisia / United Arab Emirates / United States

• Cooperate, Finance, Private Equity, Financing, M&A
• Tax : companies and individuals
• Litigation, Mediation and Arbitration
• Distribution, Competition and Consumer products
• Ailing Companies and Special cases
• Real Estate, Construction and Urbanism
• International
• Brands
• Labor and Human Resources
• Health
• Digital Technologies, Information and Communication
• Insurance

Simon Associés is consistently ranked among the best French law firms for its expertise in major areas of business law in the annual French and European reference rankings:

• Capital Innovation (Private Equity) : top ten law firms (“Option Droit & Affaires”, 2018)

• Capital Investment – LBO taxation (Strong Reputation, “Décideurs”, 2017)

• Distribution law (N°1, « Le Monde du Droit » ; « Excellent », « Décideurs » 2017)

• Franchise law (N°1, « Décideurs » 2017)

• Transactions taxation (Strong Reputation, “Décideurs”, 2017)

• International groups taxation (Well-known practice, “Décideurs”, 2017)

• Litigation and pre-litigation assistance(« Décideurs » 2017 ranking, N°1)

• Patrimonial taxation (Well-known practice, “Décideurs”, 2017)

• European Law, Competition and Distribution (Legal 500)

• Labour Law (Legal 500)

• « Décideurs » 2017 ranking, N°1 in Distribution law (« Le Monde du Droit » 2017 ranking) ;

• Insolvency & Restructuring (Silver Trophee, Décideurs/Leaders League 2018 ; “N°1”, Le Monde du Droit 2017)

• Health Industry / Health and Life Science (Legal 500)