Herald, anciennement Granrut is one of the 1st French independent business law firms. With nearly 50 lawyers, 18 of whom are partners, it has recognised specialists in every branch of public and private company law.
Since its foundation in 1957, professional ethics are a core value at Herald. Following in the footsteps of Bernard du Granrut, Jean Castelain is a former President of the Paris Bar Association (2010-2011).
Herald counsels its clients, who include private undertakings, public bodies and individuals, both in relation to defining their objectives as well as developing and implementing the optimal legal or judicial strategy for achieving them.
Our corporate – M&A team advises company managers, investment funds and French and international industrial groups in their M&A, Private Equity and restructuring operations. Experts in the business world, our lawyers offer you the best strategies for all your operations:
– Mergers and acquisitions
– Private Equity (LBO, Venture Capital, Growth Capital, etc.)
– Support in the transfer process of family groups (structuring, optimization)
– Restructuring of groups of companies (legal, financial and tax aspects)
– Social operations : capital increase and reduction, merger, demerger, partial contribution of assets
– Issues of simple and compound securities and buyback of shares
– Joint ventures and agreements between companies
Consulting and corporate governance
The life of a company is also punctuated by numerous legal stages: structuring, capital increases, daily operations, relations between partners, etc. Our firm supports you in the context of the regular monitoring of the life of your company.
– Choice of legal structures and drafting of legal acts relating to the creation and life of commercial and civil companies
– Drafting of statutory or extra-statutory shareholders’ pacts
– Assistance and advice to corporate officers
Restructuring and insolvency
– Alert procedures and prevention of difficulties
– Establishment of action plans (ad hoc mandate, conciliation, safeguard, accelerated safeguard, "pre-pack", debt renegotiation, recovery plans, – Preparation, presentation and implementation implementation of transfer and continuation plans
– Recovery and judicial liquidation
– Management of disputes related to collective proceedings
Company law litigation
Our firm has developed over many years a specialty and expertise in corporate law. We usually intervene alongside listed or unlisted entities and partners/shareholders in disputes between partners/shareholders, in the context of setting up and executing complex operations or statutory or extra-corporate commitments. disputed statutes.
– Protection of minority shareholders
– Absence of majority or minority
– Defense of shareholders, particularly in SEL (Société d'Exercice Libéral)
– Search for evidence
– Post-acquisition litigation of company shares
– Exercise of an option
Led by five partners with complementary skills, the lawyers in the real estate department combine technical and legal knowledge, thus enabling them to provide you with complete solutions adapted to your specific needs. She supports you in all areas of real estate law: construction law, commercial leases or town planning.
construction law
In construction law, our team assists project owners, developers and public service concessionaires in carrying out their projects and managing their disputes.
We advise you at all stages of your real estate transactions, from project design to completion. We represent you in the event of litigation, and help you develop the most relevant legal strategies.
Construction law requires in-depth knowledge of this economic sector, governed by sometimes complex rules, where the role of the contract and its annexes (CCTP, CCAG, CCAP, etc.) is also extremely important. It involves mastering other areas of law, such as insurance law, and sometimes the law of collective proceedings since the failure of one or more stakeholders in the act of construction can have particularly serious consequences for the other stakeholders. .
Our expertise includes in particular:
– Referral for the appointment of experts and follow-up of appraisal operations
– Management of procedures for questioning insurers
– Recourse against work damage insurers
– Ten-year guarantees
– Specific legal proceedings: direct action by subcontractors, warranty for defects hidden or non-conformity of building materials.
– Liability actions against local authorities
Commercial leases
Our firm advises and assists French and international private companies (hotel sector, catering, brands and associated trade, tertiary) in the context of their real estate transactions. Lessors, asset and property Managers or Tenants, we support you in the negotiation, management and settlement of conflicts relating to leases of commercial or industrial premises and related agreements.
Our lawyers also represent their clients in all disputes related to real estate transactions: acquisitions, construction, damage insurance, real estate contracts, commercial leases.
– Negotiation and transaction in commercial development and office installation projects
– Negotiation, assistance in drafting deeds, execution of the lease: lease, transformation / release of operating premises, leave, renewal, compensation for occupancy, eviction compensation
– Assignment of lease rights or goodwill, leasing, real estate taxation
– Audit of leases / audit of the situation of the fund: compliance with the standards of the activity in question, with the law of the environment, compliance with co-ownership, town planning and administrative authorizations
– Litigation of the fixing of the renewed or revised rent: ceiling, local commercial factors, monovalence, etc… –
Litigation of the financial clauses and the attribution of the financial burden of the work of transformation or restoration (delivery, maintenance, obsolescence , asbestos issues, etc.)
Town planning
In an increasingly complex legal environment marked by a certain instability, we have been committed, for more than 15 years, alongside our clients to provide them with our experience and expertise in the field of town planning and development.
Intervening both in advice and in litigation with public decision-makers, players in the mixed economy and real estate development companies, our lawyers assist them in carrying out their land development operations and their real estate projects.
– Support for public persons in the implementation and management of procedures for the development, modification or revision of regulatory and urban planning documents, – Legal assistance
in the context of carrying out development and construction operations , in particular by auditing planning permission application files,
– Advice and legal representation with regard to public land interventions (pre-emption, expropriation for public utility),
– Assistance and legal representation in the context of disputes over regulatory documents and town planning permits,
– Advice and legal assistance in specific disputes, such as authorizations relating to wind farms.
PUBLICATIONS:
– Covid 19: Commercial rents in an exceptional setting
Our lawyers provide advice and litigation in all areas of industrial property law: patents, trademarks, designs and models, designations of origin, geographical indications, copyright in particular on applied arts and industrial products, etc.
We offer a complete service in terms of trademarks, designs and models: research and analysis of prior art, national, community and international filings, follow-up of opposition and cancellation procedures, infringement and industrial property contract litigation, filings and follow-up of customs procedures…
Our lawyers have expertise in proceedings before national, European and international offices, as well as before French and European courts.
In addition to filing activities, we advise our clients in the context of the valuation of their intellectual property assets , through the negotiation of licensing contracts, research development or transfer of their rights, purchase of industrial property right portfolios, pledge of the same rights.
– Drafting of license agreements and assignment of industrial property rights;
– Support and follow-up in the context of trademark and design filings and models
– Management of French and international trademark portfolios;
– Cancellation proceedings before the EUIPO;
– Opposition procedures before national and European offices;
– Negotiation of transactions;
– Infringement litigation and/or unfair competition;
– Brand monitoring at national and European level, customs deductions
–Procedures related to patent issues (counterfeiting / employee inventions, contractual litigation related to the exploitation of patents).
The strength of our teams is to combine knowledge of industrial property law and that of European law, beyond simple European intellectual property law.
