Jean-Pierre Martel
Partner
Paris
Jean-Pierre Martel is a highly respected figure in French M&A and corporate law, advising on both complex transactions and sensitive disputes and regulatory matters.
He is called on by boards and management teams to advise on mergers, divestitures, corporate acquisitions and restructurings as well as litigations and arbitrations. He is the founding partner of the premier French boutique Rambaud Martel, which combined with Orrick’s global platform in 2006.
Jean-Pierre has recently had a hand in the most significant cross-border deals in the French market. His work includes advising the board of Alstom on the $17 billion sale of its power units to General Electric, counseling L’Oréal on buying back 8% of its own capital from Nestlé, associated with the sale of assets, advising Peugeot’s family on the restructuring of Peugeot SA’s capital which involved China’s Dongfeng Motor Group and the French state, the board of Club Méditerranée in the context of competing take-over bids from China’s Fosun Group and Italia’s Bonomi’s Group, the board of Areva in the financial restructuring of the company.
Chambers & Partners recognized Jean-Pierre as an “Individual Star” in Corporate/M&A, noting that he is a “seasoned and highly-respected M&A practitioner whose experience covers a wide range of transactional activities.
Jean-Pierre has also developed very substantial litigation and arbitration experience, being ranked Band 1 by Chambers in Dispute Resolution. Most notably, among his successes, the very high-profile Bernard Tapie Case where he has been assisting Consortium de Réalisation, the French government entity tasked with liquidating the assets of Crédit Lyonnais for the French State. Jean-Pierre won rulings from the Paris Court of Appeal in 2015 that withdrew initial arbitral awards that had required CDR to pay €404 million to Tapie’s liquidators and companies and sentenced them to repay CDR the full amount plus interests and costs. He has just succeeded in obtaining visible Court decisions which have released from any criminal liability charged persons with tax fraud.
Jean-Pierre also serves as an arbitrator in ad hoc, ICC and AFA arbitration proceedings.
He speaks and publishes regularly.
Jean-Pierre is the founder and a member of the board of the Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord Disorders - ICM, a state-approved foundation which is on its way to becoming the leading international research center in Europe in the Neurosciences.
