Wesley Lainé

Wesley Lainé is dual-qualified to practice in the U.S. and EU. He advises corporations on a wide range of U.S. and EU regulatory matters, as well as investors on French foreign investment control in the context of corporate transactions.

Mr. Lainé regularly counsels clients on U.S. anti-money laundering and economic sanctions laws and EU sanctions and export control regulations in connection with investigations and compliance matters. These representations frequently involve investigations brought by, among others, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Department of Justice and the French Treasury. Mr. Lainé also assists clients on the development and implementation of related corporate compliance programs, day-to-day compliance counseling and other aspects of economic sanctions laws.

In addition, Mr. Lainé has extensive experience securing foreign investment clearance before the French Ministry for the Economy, having served as counsel in corporate transactions involving numerous clients and various industries.

Mr. Lainé’s experience in U.S. and EU regulatory matters includes advising:

• SDCL Edge Acquisition Corporation, an NYSE-listed SPAC, on the sanctions compliance aspects of its business combination with cunova GmbH
• Société Générale on investigations relating to U.S. sanctions and embargoes that led to settlements with U.S. authorities
• a major French financial services company and its parent company in connection with the resolution of a seven-year investigation by various U.S. authorities into its historical compliance with U.S. economic sanctions laws
• Renault Group on the EU regulatory aspects of the sale of a 67.69% interest in AvtoVAZ to NAMI and the sale of 100% of Renault Russia to the City of Moscow
• a major corporation on various EU sanctions matters

Mr. Lainé’s experience in French foreign investment matters includes advising:

• Platinum Equity on its majority investment in Kohler Energy, a separate, independent business formed by Kohler Co.
• Juniper Networks, Inc. on its $14 billion acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• Trimble Inc. on its $2 billion joint venture with AGCO Corporation
• Renault in connection with its agreements with Nissan regarding the rebalanced cross-shareholding between the two companies, the reinforcement of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance’s governance and the investment agreement of Nissan, as a strategic investor, in Ampere
• HP, Inc. on its $3.3 billion acquisition of Poly
• Veoneer, Inc. on its $4.5 billion acquisition by SSW Partners and Qualcomm Incorporated
• BuzzFeed, Inc. on its acquisition of HuffPost from Verizon Media
• Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. on its $14.3 billion acquisition by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund

Mr. Lainé frequently writes about topics relating to French foreign investment control and has been published in outlets such as Westlaw, WorldECR and Foreign Investment Watch.

He previously spent seven months on client secondment at a global financial institution where he served as legal counsel on U.S. economic sanctions issues. Mr. Lainé has an active pro bono practice, which has included representing clients in U.S. immigration matters.