Our people

Marie focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation, product liability litigation, financial services litigation, and insurance coverage litigation. Her commercial litigation experience includes representing companies in complex business contractual disputes, joint ventures disputes, and supplier/vendor disputes. Marie represents medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies in product liability cases. She has also represented banks in general commercial cases and liability matters. Marie has been involved in hundreds of asbestos personal injuries cases for more than 15 years.

Marie devotes substantial time to counselling clients on risk litigation practices, including strategies to minimize exposure to product liability.

Representative clients include construction materials, glazing, glass containers, aluminum, pharmaceutical and medical device producers.

Representative Matters

• Represented a company which rented offices where asbestos materials were discovered. Successfully sought damages for the client from the landlord. This was the first time in France that a landlord and the organism in charge of searching for materials containing asbestos were found liable. The claimant received €3.5 million. (Court of Cassation, .3rd Civil Division)

• Represented a major American financial institution, acting as trustee of bondholders (€100m debt) within the framework of safeguard proceedings and followed by insolvency proceedings in France.

• Defended clients in the context of an ad hoc arbitration. The claimants were seeking approximately 40 million euros in damages resulting from the sale of a company. The purchaser argued tortious intent and seller’s warranty against the seller

• Represented a bank in a case against its insurers. Sought to obtain the application of a “Global Bank Fraud and misappropriation” policy in relation to a claim made in a foreign subsidiary which led to losses of $20 million

• Represented a Spanish Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients supplier in a legal expertise aiming at finding the cause of disorder having affected a pharmaceutical product and interrupted its manufacturing for several months (damages alleged: €10m).

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Publications

• "Financement des stock-options: mise en cause inédite de la responsabilité des Banques" (Unexpected challenging of bank's liability), Revue Banque, janvier 2007.
• "A propos de la prévention de la légionellose" (Prevention of Legionnaires Disease), Les Echos, 23/01/2004
• "Amiante: vers plus de sécurité juridique?" (Asbestos: Towards Greater Legal Security?), Les Echos, 19/03/2004

Speeches / Presentations

• “Santé, hygiène et Sécurité: les points sensibles” (Health, Hygiene and Safety: The Sensitive Issues) (Paris, September 2005)
• “Renforcement de la réglementation relative à l’exposition au bruit sur le lieu de travail (Strengthened Regulation on Exposure to Noise at the Workplace) (Paris, October 2005)
• Seminars for clients on relevant asbestos regulations and risk management (prevention and litigation)

Experience

Legal Education

Professional Admissions / Qualifications

• Paris

Professional Affiliations

• Participation in the MEDEF (employers’ federation) Permanent Health & Safety Committee
• Member of the Association Francaise des Femmes Juristes (Women's lawyers association)