Kennedys > Paris, France > Firm Profile

Kennedys Offices

Kennedys
31 RUE DE LISBONNE
75008 PARIS
France
Visit website 33 1 84 79 37 80

Kennedys > The Legal 500 Rankings

France > Aviation Tier 2

With a focus on insurance litigation, Kennedys has a strong reputation in the market for handling a wide variety of disputes such as product liability and cargo claims, often with a cross-border dimension. Aurélia Cadain handles the group’s carriers’ liability matters, acting on behalf of multinational insurance companies and their insureds in addition to carriers. Nicolas Bouckaert is particularly active in regard to aerospace product liability, though his broad practice also extends to commercial litigation and the defence sector.

Practice head(s):

Aurélia Cadain; Nicolas Bouckaert

France > Insurance Tier 2

Kennedys is highly regarded for its expertise in insurance litigation – particularly handling cross-border disputes on behalf of leading international insurers and reinsurers – and recently bolstered its regulatory and compliance offering with the hire of Safine Hadri from DS Avocats in October 2023. Core areas of strength range from property, product liability and professional liability claims to coverage disputes. Paris managing partner Alexis Valençon, Aurélia Cadain, a standout for product liability litigation, and Nicolas Bouckaert, who is active in political risk and trade credit disputes, are names to note.

Other key lawyers:

Alexis Valençon; Aurélia Cadain; Nicolas Bouckaert; Safine Hadri

Testimonials

‘A unique team who offer unique solutions to your legal issues! They quickly understand the problem and come up with innovative ideas and actions to minimise your exposure and risk. They work with you as a team and explain everything every step of the way. They are very friendly and understand the constraints that sometimes the market and the situation places on you.’

‘Aurelia Cadain is absolutely brilliant, and her level of legal knowledge is for me second to none amongst her peers. She has a razor-sharp legal mind and runs her team superbly. She is always available and will listen to your concerns before working on a solution with you.’

Kennedys > Firm Profile

Kennedys’ Paris team has a long-established reputation as one of Paris’s leading commercial litigation practices and is particularly well-known for its expertise in (re)insurance, liability and complex cross-border disputes.

The team provides specialist litigation advice, grounded in a deep understanding of the global insurance markets and prides itself on articulating sophisticated legal and technical arguments in ways which make them both straightforward and relevant to our clients’ needs.

The Paris office advises on all aspects of liability and insurance law and litigation, including aviation, banking and finance, casualty, commercial disputes, construction, environment, financial lines, fraud, industrial risks, life and health, professional indemnity, property, pharmaceutical, product, public and directors’ and officers’ liability.

It is recognised for its ability to handle large, multi-party disputes, mass tort litigations and complex technical matters and often works within or manages large teams, created on a case-by-case basis and constituted of lawyers and specialists from other fields (engineers, doctors, accountants, traders, architects…), so as to identify and execute the best possible strategy to achieve a successful outcome for our clients.

Kennedys’ Paris office is perfectly placed to operate in a global environment, as our lawyers – who work across linguistic, legal and cultural barriers on a daily basis – have all either studied or worked abroad (in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Spain) and speak a broad range of languages (including English, Spanish, German and Italian). The team works closely with our network of offices in Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East, thereby ensuring that Kennedys’ clients receive seamless legal services throughout Europe and beyond.

Main Contacts

Department Name Email Telephone
Aviation Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Aviation Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Banking and finance Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Banking and finance Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Casualty Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Casualty Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Casualty Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Commercial disputes Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Commercial disputes Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Commercial disputes Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Construction Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Construction Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Construction Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Financial lines Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Financial lines Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Fraud Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Industrial risks Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Industrial risks Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Industrial risks Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Life and health Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Life and health Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Life and health Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Professional indemnity Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Professional indemnity Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Professional indemnity Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Property Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Property Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Property Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Pharmaceutical Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Product Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Product Aurélia Cadain aurelia.cadain@kennedyslaw.com
Product Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com
Public and directors' and officers' liability Alexis Valençon Alexis.Valencon@kennedyslaw.com
Public and directors' and officers' liability Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas.Bouckaert@kennedyslaw.com

Lawyer Profiles

Photo Name Position Profile
Nicolas Bouckaert photo Univ Prof Dr Nicolas Bouckaert Nicolas is a partner in our Paris office. He is regularly instructed… View Profile
Aurélia Cadain photo Aurélia Cadain Aurélia Cadain is a founding Partner of Kennedys’ Paris office, and an… View Profile

Staff Figures

Number of fee-earners : 1,300
at this office : 17

Languages

English
French
German

Other

Other offices / *associated offices and co-operations : Auckland
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Diversity/Community


As a growing global law firm, attracting and retaining talent from a variety of different backgrounds has allowed us to develop a distinct culture that we are proud of.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity at Kennedys. Our principles of non-discrimination and equality of opportunity apply not only to our employees, but also to the way we treat our visitors, clients, customers and suppliers.

Demonstrating our commitment, we were proud to be the global gold-level partners of the Dive In festival for the first time in 2018. Dive In is a multi-award winning festival for diversity and inclusion in insurance run by Inclusion@LloydÂ’s, a cross market collaboration of C-suite executives and industry associations driving the strategic push for greater diversity in the LloydÂ’s market.

Our equality and diversity policy

We support our workplace and clients by following our equality and diversity policy. Our policy covers:

  • Discrimination
  • Recruitment and selection
  • Training and promotion
  • Termination of employment
  • Treating outside parties
  • Monitoring
  • Disabled employees.

 

Everyone at Kennedys has a duty to act in accordance with our equality and diversity policy. They must treat others with dignity at all times, and not discriminate against or harass job applicants or other employees regardless of their status.

Discrimination

Discrimination is prohibited on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Recruitment and selection

Job applicants do not suffer discrimination, job selection criteria are regularly reviewed to ensure they are relevant to the job, and short listing of applicants is completed by more than one person.

Training and promotion

Training needs are identified through regular reviews. All promotion decisions will be made on the basis of merit.

Termination of employment

Any disciplinary procedures and penalties are applied without discrimination and redundancy criterion and procedures are fair and objective.

Treating outside parties

Kennedys is free to accept instruction from any particular client and refusal to act will not be based on any protected characteristics. Lawyers will be instructed based on their skills, experience and ability.

Monitoring

Workforce composition is monitored at all levels to ensure equality of opportunity across the firm. Where appropriate, steps will be taken to identify and remove unjustified barriers.

Disabled employees

Those with a disability will be treated fairly and reasonable adjustments to the workplace, or job content, will be made to ensure that an employee with a disability is not disadvantaged.