Pierre Servan-Schreiber, head of Skadden’s Paris office as well as the leader of that office’s mergers and acquisitions practice, is one of the leading lawyers in France for mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. He regularly advises prominent European and U.S. corporate entities on major strategic cross-border transactions, and he has assisted clients on some of the most visible transactions involving French companies, such as:
- Société Générale in its defense against BNP Paribas’s hostile takeover bid;
- Arcelor in its defense against Mittal Steel’s hostile takeover bid;
- Air France in its joint ventures with KLM, Delta Airlines and Northwest;
- Renault in its strategic partnerships in Russia (AvtoVAZ) and China (Sanjiang); and
- Goldman Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley and Rothschild & Co. in the defense of Aventis against Sanofi’s unsolicited takeover bid.
Mr. Servan-Schreiber also regularly advises international and French issuers with corporate finance transactions. He has been involved in the privatization and initial public offerings of many French companies, including:
- France Telecom
- Air France
- Autoroutes du Sud de la France and Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône
- EADS
Mr. Servan-Schreiber also advised Gaz de France on the creation of the first trust structure (Fiducie) in France.
In addition, Mr. Servan-Schreiber is frequently involved in advising clients with respect to strategic litigation such as investigations linked to securities regulations and class actions. In particular, he represents Société Générale in connection with a class action in the United States relating to the subprime crisis and the rogue trader’s fraud.
Mr. Servan-Schreiber consistently is recognized in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He also is named in The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers and he is “highly recommended” in PLC’s Which Lawyer? Yearbook 2009.
