France’s Gide Loyrette Nouel has unveiled its latest set of partner promotions, with seven Paris-based lawyers making the cut. 

The appointments cover six practice areas and bring the firm’s total partner headcount to 117 across its 11 offices worldwide, but skip over its international network in favour of elevating talent in its Paris headquarters. 

This year’s round consists of three women and four men, marking a slight gender balance improvement on last year when all but one of the four spots were taken up by men. 

Jean-François Levraud, managing partner of Gide, said the promotions reflect its “desire to place the promotion of our talent at the heart of our development strategy”. 

“With the health crisis having made the law more central than ever to the economic issues facing businesses, it is invaluable to have a new generation of partners at our side who are agile and innovative in their practice of the profession,” he said. 

Of the seven promotions, two are banking and finance specialists: Nathalie Benoit and Farah El-Bsat. Together the pair have more than two decades of experience at Gide, both having joined the firm in 2008. Benoit acts for credit institutions, debt funds, sponsors and industrial groups in acquisition finance, corporate finance and debt restructuring matters. El-Bsat handles structured finance matters on behalf of both lenders and borrowers in real estate finance and project finance transactions in France and internationally. 

Benoit and El-Bsat’s appointments replenish Gide’s banking and finance partner roster after it lost five lawyers to Jones Day in May. 

Laura Castex, a European and French competition law expert, was made up in Gide’s economic and European law team. She joined the firm in 2005 and has since built up a track record of acting for domestic and international companies on merger control matters including investments and divestments both inside and out of the European Union. Castex also handles private enforcement litigation and the structuring of commercial relationships and related litigation matters. 

One promotion went to Gide’s real estate transactions group, with real estate litigation expert Antoine Mary getting the nod after 14 years with the firm. He works with institutional investors and other entities on real estate transactions involving asset and share deals, as well as outsourcing matters, commercial leases and real estate development. 

Corporate M&A lawyer Louis Oudot de Dainville made the cut in the firm’s M&A and venture capital group. He joined Gide’s Beijing office in 2009 and subsequently practiced in Shanghai before moving to the Paris office in 2017. His experience covers all aspects of corporate law and M&A, particularly in matters related to venture capital and private equity in the new technologies sector. 

The final two spots were awarded to intellectual property expert Julien Guinot-Delery and regulatory and investment funds lawyer Benjamin Delaunay. Guinot-Delery specialises in media and communication law and copyright law, as well as matters related to the wider technology and digital law fields. Delaunay, meanwhile, has a wealth of experience advising management companies and domestic and international investors on structuring investment funds, with a particular focus in the real estate sector.