A Paris boutique for cross-border business
Vernay & Lestang advises foreign investors entering France and French companies operating across borders — on M&A, foreign investment screening, tax structuring, real estate, restructuring and international arbitration. A small circle of partners, six focused practices, five working languages. We do not take matters we do not believe in; the ones we take, a partner runs personally.
The approach
The firm is built around one observation: a foreign client should not have to translate their own deal before they can understand their counsel. Every matter here is run in the client's business language — English, French, Spanish, Arabic or Chinese — by people who read the French rule in the original.
The style is editorial rather than promotional: facts, thresholds, timelines and a written view of what we would do in your place. No volume practice, no conveyor belt — depth in six practices instead of a directory of twenty-five.
How we work across borders
The firm advises on French law and the law of the European Union. Where a matter reaches into another jurisdiction, we work alongside local counsel in the client's jurisdiction — lawyers we brief precisely and coordinate actively, so the client keeps one point of accountability in Paris.
For the regions our clients most often come from, the firm runs dedicated language desks — Gulf, China and LATAM & Spain — staffed to read documents and counterparties in the client's language. The desks are practices of this Paris firm, not offices abroad.
The desks
General information, current as of 18 June 2026. Not legal advice. Subject to applicable law.