About

Led by general counsel Didier Moutard who is ably supported at the apex of the team by vice general counsel Matthieu Gennot, Groupe Duval’s 14-person legal department has been extremely busy over the past 24 months. Along with a public private partnership with a French local authority to develop their main administrative offices, it has worked on the full restructuring of SAMA Tower in Abidjan, created a joint venture for real estate investment with Crédit Agricole Brie Picardie and acquired six golf businesses in Spain. When discussing these successes, Moutard describes his team as ‘agile, pro-active business lawyers working in the spirit of “one for all and all for one”, “all” being the team and the Group’. Team spirit is developed through a number of common activities which has the added benefit of knowledge-sharing, with international lawyers added to these get-togethers using Skype. This is allied to a rigorous and detailed approach at all levels of the team. ‘To ensure the highest quality standards, quality control is implemented through a work flow process involving a review by myself, Matthieu Gennot or the senior legal advisor’, says Moutard. ‘Whenever possible the lawyers will work in a two-person team of differing seniority, which aims at the maximisation of efficiency while also providing tutoring to more junior members of the team’. Technology clearly plays a major role in the team’s day-to-day work, and Moutard explains some of the ways that it has allowed the team to achieve greater levels of efficiency: ‘Lawyers have been able to reallocate a significant amount of time as a result of our corporate in-house IT system. For example, our most senior financial officers, rather than asking lawyers of the legal team have now an immediate and practical access to the relevant data’.