France

Employment and Benefits Practice

The Employment and Benefits Practice in Paris is part of White & Case's global network, which allows us to offer our clients multijurisdictional advice on complex cross-border transactions through close coordination with our highly qualified colleagues throughout Europe and globally, who have extensive experience with employment legislation and business practices in their own jurisdictions. Our Paris team consists of two counsel and three associates who advise our domestic and international clients in French, English and German.

We work with employers from a broad range of industrial and financial sectors, ranging from major corporations and international companies to private equity firms and domestic, owner-managed businesses and partnerships. The range of industries in which our clients operate gives us a broad overview of issues and sector trends.

We draw on our long experience not only in France, but in other European countries to offer solutions tailored to clients' commercial objectives. Reflecting the nature of the Paris office, as well as White & Case globally as a firm, we have strong experience in cross-border work and in implementing new policies, procedures and benefit arrangements across a number of countries.

A large portion of our work in Paris consists of counselling clients on day-to-day employment issues facing their French operations and human resources professionals. We also work closely with local and international M&A lawyers and other practice groups, including tax and real estate, to provide support regarding the employment aspects of mergers, acquisitions and other transactions, including due diligence and advice concerning the information and consultation requirements applicable to the employee representative bodies.

Our practice covers both transactional and contentious employment law matters and focuses on the following key areas: 

• Restructuring and collective redundancies 
• Transfer of business and the Acquired Rights Directive, outsourcing and subcontracting agreements 
• Negotiating and drafting collective agreements 
• Drafting employment contracts, restrictive covenants, contract amendments and termination issues (individual dismissal, settlement agreements, amicable termination, etc.) 
• Strike and collective actions 
• Work councils and unions 
• Variable remuneration and employee benefits plans (profit-sharing and saving schemes, stock option and pension plans) 
• Working time and implementation of flexible working hours 
• International mobility (secondments, expatriation) 
• Health, safety and working conditions 
• Setting up employee benefits plans (profit-sharing, share plans, etc.) 
• Social security and additional social protection, including URSSAF audits 
• Individual and collective litigation

Our advice involves more than just providing details on the law and issuing standard form documents; international experience and commercial awareness are key elements of value we bring to our clients. We are sensitive to the challenges of French employment law and provide tailored, practical solutions to save clients time and money.