CRIMINAL BUSINESS LAW
We support our customers in anticipating and managing criminal and repressive/law enforcement risks in all areas of business law.
Anticipating criminal and repressive/law enforcement risks
We regularly assist companies of all sizes and their executives in setting up chains of delegation of authority and in carrying out audits or risk mapping.
Our team is also able to offer tailor-made training courses, or to define internal procedures and best practices in coordination with the personnel concerned, for the management of searches and, more generally, of investigations concerning the company.
Finally, we offer specific assistance in managing or implementing internal investigations, in compliance with the ethical principles and recommendations applicable to the “Investigating Lawyer”.
Criminal risk management
Thanks to the diversity of the cases we handle, our mastery of criminal procedure and of the conduct of criminal hearings for offenses, the dedicated Lerins team offers companies and executives personalized support in criminal defense, backed by genuine expertise.
Our team regularly assists clients, both defendants and victims, at all stages of criminal proceedings, before investigating authorities and criminal courts.
Our work in this field covers a wide range of areas, including:
- Economic offences: breach of trust (“abus de confiance”), fraud, misappropriation of corporate assets, deceit, etc.
- Stock market related criminal law: insider trading, price manipulation, failure to declare the crossing of threshold
- Criminal labor law: unintentional injury or manslaughter, concealed work, illicit hiring out of labor (“labour loans”), obstruction to the proper functioning of the staff representative body, discrimination
- Criminal law related to public health: illegal practice of medicine or pharmacy
- Criminal tax law
- Infringements of specific regulations
Because it is aware of how the realization of a criminal risk can adversely impact the image of a company, Lerins has developed privileged partnerships with crisis management and media relations professionals, able to intervene at any time at its side.
With the support of the international LAW network (link to LAW), of which Lerins is the representative for France, we assist our clients in the criminal proceedings they face abroad. Our cross-border assistance also covers the deletion of red notices with Interpol, headquartered in France, on behalf of targeted executives or personalities of all nationalities.
Specific expertise
In synergy with the firm’s Healthcare department, we regularly act for private operators and healthcare professionals, providing them with our long-standing and recognized sectoral expertise.
We also defend major retailers, industrial and agri-food groups, financial groups and insurance groups facing criminal prosecution in the course of their business, and assist them with administrative investigations (customs, DGCCRF).
We have also developed specific expertise in the criminal defense of the assets and property of the victim company, with an effective and proactive exercise of the rights granted to the victim, mainly on behalf of companies in the luxury goods and cash-in-transit sectors (internal fraud, armed robbery, etc.). In this respect, our team regularly practises the particularly technical litigation of special criminal seizures and confiscations.