My name is Charline Thiebault and I am a Principal Research Specialist at Chambers, focusing exclusively on France and Francophone markets across Africa and the Caribbean.  

The first trend is a topic that came up in most conversations we had with legal practitioners and that affects virtually everyone, from employment to insurance lawyers to the most obvious environment and dispute lawyers: it is the rise in climate litigation cases and the increased focus on ESG concerns.   

New sets of laws and measures introduced in France in recent years gave way to a new range of disputes initiated mostly by NGOs. The “Duty of vigilance” law - introduced in 2017 applies to large corporations – and their subsidiaries - and requires them to identify and address human rights risks and the impact on the environment that could occur as a result of their business activities.  

Similarly, complaints can be filed by NGOs under consumer protection laws and for deceptive commercial practices, in what are called greenwashing claims.   

Large French corporations – as well as the French state - have faced a steep increase in this type of dispute and no later than last month 3 NGOs sued BNP Paribas on the ground of its non-compliance with the French duty of vigilance law – in what is described as the world first climate lawsuit against a commercial bank.  

Climate Litigation will likely only become more prominent as governments, citizens and companies come to grip with the effect of climate change.   

Another legal trend worth paying attention to is the increased importance of Foreign Direct Investment control in Corporate transactions.  

The French Ministry of Economy and the Treasury – in charge of FDI control at the national level  - have tightened regulations and have continuously brought more scrutiny to foreign investors wishing to invest in French targets operating in ‘sensitive sectors’.  

There has indeed been an increase in the number of files being screened by the French ministry – we saw a 31% increase between 2020 and 2021 – simultaneously authorisation regulations have evolved following the Covid-19 pandemic and the list of sectors considered to be strategic is ever expanding - the last amendments to the list concerning food security, biotechnology and the renewable energy sector.   

The French Ministry of Economy published a set of Guidelines on the authorisation procedure in September 2022, however the definition of what constitutes a strategic sector remains imprecise and this can be seen as a way for the Government to maintain a degree of autonomy and discretionary power over the process.   

Finally, I also wanted to highlight our continued commitment to differentiate the very best legal talents in our legal rankings, and more specifically at the junior end of the legal profession and this commitment is reflected this year with the inclusion of 31 new U and W rankings in our French tables, getting this number to 91 this year, up from 45 in our 2021 guide.   

We are also trialling a new 30 referees' policy for some sections in France and various other European jurisdictions – which I hope would further enables us to discover and highlight the right legal talents – this policy for now only applies to our Corporate M&A: High End and Employment tables for France but we are hoping to expand this to more sections in the coming years.   

We are also opening a new section for submission in the 2024 Guide for France: the Employee share schemes & Incentives section, please do get in touch if you have any questions regarding this new table or our research process.