Against the current
Since 2015, we have chosen to swim against the current. To be legal practitioners out of the ordinary. To have shown independence when the profession was consolidating, to have been combative when it was growing cautious, and builders when it was sometimes content merely to execute.
Read the editorialThe words that follow set out the firm's origins, the direction it is taking and the way its practice has been enriched by refusals.
In the beginning
2015, in Aix-en-Provence.
An ancient city, lying in the sun against the Sainte-Victoire. No port, no airport. No glass tower rises above the bell towers. Tourism, a few shops, many universities. Law firms have terracotta floor tiles and high ceilings. Industry is far away. Even the train does not come in, or only from a distance.
The ideal place to build a business law firm!
Such was our conviction when we laid the first stone of a firm that would draw its sense of tradition from the spirit of the city, and from its geography the strength of its originality and the intensity of its innovations.
From the outset, we chose to be a boutique that was both independent and demanding, where clients are chosen. The model ruled out, on principle, growth for growth's sake, the steady flow of institutional instructions and the culture of volume. It led, on the other hand, to bonds of trust, unique relationships with executives who accepted a particular kind of support, and to increasingly sensitive assignments.
Then the century caught up with us. We could not remain indifferent to the economic context, which looked less like a market than a theatre of war, where giants, platforms and then artificial intelligence systems kept conquering markets through predation and unlawful conduct, leaving behind them disoriented professionals, consumers and institutions, the direct victims of hostile practices. We went in.
Our battles
- 01Two thousand five hundred taxis against the giant Uber.
- 02Victims of the OVH fire, shareholders of Orpéa.
- 03France Digitale against Apple.
- 04Thousands of municipalities against the practices of Booking and Airbnb.
- 05One hundred and twenty textile brands and nineteen federations against Shein.
- 06Press and book publishers against providers of artificial intelligence models.
All without ever neglecting theoretical reflection and associative work. In 2021, we founded the Institut de Guerre Économique et Juridique, and published extensively in both the general and specialist press.
For some years now, we have been breathing air into France's economic lungs, so that the country can regain its sovereignty. We are working to bring to France a culture of collective litigation that did not yet have a name, and which we have made our signature.
What we refuse
Building also means making choices. It means drawing on a number of refusals that enrich our practice by narrowing it and forge our identity.
- 01
We will never have institutional clients.
No banks, insurers, funds or platforms. We prefer to defend those whose name is on the door: executives, entrepreneurs, family groups and mid-sized companies. Admittedly, this rule shuts us out of the most lucrative segment of the legal market, but it guarantees what matters most, namely our independence.
- 02
We do not practise crony capitalism.
No cross-referrals, no showcase partnerships, no cosy market arrangements. Our opponents do not change with the opportunities, and we keep our word to the end when the case demands it.
- 03
We do not sell off-the-shelf solutions: we work made to measure.
In law as in tailoring, there is ready-to-wear. Solutions interchangeable from one client to the next. We sell none of them. Every succession, every restructuring, every French trust (fiducie), every family limited partnership is built on the real and particular situation of an executive, their family, their partners or their opponents.
Of course, this takes time in the first days. But foundations hold better when they have been dug deep and the headwinds rise.
- 04
We do not bill by the hour.
Instead, we bill for an assignment, a result, a shared risk. Clients always know what they will pay before we start, and we bear part of the risk with them. We always prefer to win alongside our clients.
- 05
We do not wait for clients to come to us.
We are not a service counter. When we identify an abusive or systemic practice, a regulation about to hit a sector, a loophole, we build the action, sometimes even before those concerned have articulated it.
- 06
We refuse to guard our know-how jealously.
Our model is built on passing on knowledge. Every Saturday, some fifteen selected students, supported by a lawyer, advise entrepreneurs free of charge at the Clinique du Droit des Affaires. It is an opportunity to pass on certain reflexes, a love of eloquence, the reasoned use of artificial intelligence and, more generally, a taste for adventure. Four Premiers Secrétaires de la Conférence (laureates of the Bar's advocacy competition) practise within our walls. Four senior lecturers help to give our solutions their theoretical grounding. Anyone who joins us is a musician who knows their music theory.
- 07
We do not wait for a software vendor to make its software obsolete.
A firm that depends on tools designed for the market average is subject to its suppliers' roadmap, and therefore to that of its competitors, who use the same tools. As shareholders in seven legaltechs, we have designed our own practice management tool, our open technology infrastructure and our dedicated tools, which we place at our clients' service.
Our future
Three eras have followed one another in the relationship between law and technology.
The era of access
When the machine made the rules available to read.
The era of propagation
When it spread them without understanding them.
The era of entanglement
When artificial intelligence produces law, negotiates it, executes it, and data becomes the central political front.
Artificial intelligence works like a liquid printing press. It will reshuffle the production of law just as Gutenberg reshuffled the production of knowledge.
In this context, the firm must keep building to meet the great challenges of tomorrow. Faced with the coming wave, it must continue to cultivate its differences, to swim against the current. To the great standardisation of the world, we oppose our unconventional nature and the talents of our teams. We oppose our Écurie, our Clinique, our restaurant. We offer a subsidiary dedicated to the French trust (fiducie). We take stakes in the tools that will shape the profession of tomorrow. Ultimately, a system of our own, in which knowledge circulates and through which the best lawyers come to the fore. By opening a single door, clients will find everything an executive needs when the storm arrives. In Aix-en-Provence, Paris or Brussels, and more generally wherever we can be of use.
Tomorrow, more than ever, executives will need protecting as much as their companies.The world to come will expose decision-makers personally. Their reputation, their assets and their freedom will be under threat. We will help them stand firm when everything is shaking.
In conclusion
To the new partners who have joined us and to those who will become partners:
this is a builder's responsibility. Your name is now set in stone, like the architects of old buildings. It is up to you to take risks!
To law students who are asking themselves questions.
Who hesitate between academic excellence and practice, between general culture and technique, between humility and ambition. Do not despair. We may be looking for you. The Clinique and L'Écurie 1134 are open to you. Come on a Saturday, and you will soon know whether this house is yours.
To entrepreneurs:
you are the reason this firm exists. You alone bear the risk; we know your restless nights. We will sometimes tell you what you do not want to hear, but we will always remain at your side. In your falls, as in your climbs.
Without intensity, no victory.
