About

L’Oréal is well-known as the world’s largest cosmetics company, but it is also a major player in a number of research fields, from biopharmaceuticals to tissue engineering and nanotechnology (a field in which it is the largest patent holder in the US). As the traditional boundaries between medical research and cosmetic products become increasingly blurred, legal teams in the industry are having to refine their understanding of the regulatory, commercial and IP issues facing business. L’Oréal’s legal team, led by group general counsel Yannick Chalme, is widely acknowledged as one of the leading advisory units in the industry. Chalme, himself an influential figure in French legal circles and a member of the 2016 GC Powerlist publication, is joined by other star name in-house lawyers such as Blandine Thibault-Biacabe, L’Oréal’s global vice president and HR general counsel. The HR legal team consists of seven lawyers and two assistants: with four lawyers focused on France, and two on international matters. Each of the HR lawyers has also worked as HR professionals within the Group, so there is a unique cross-pollination of skills that allows the team to both ‘give strategic and practice advice to internal clients’, according to Thibault-Biacabe. The HR legal team handles all employment risk for the group, covering individual, collective and strategic matters as well as overseeing all employee-related litigation in France. Ronan Nguyen-Van also received praise from nominators for the role he plays in the French part of the employment team. A number of lawyers in other parts of L’Oréal also caught the attention of nominators. Sarah Darmon, legal head of the competition department was praised as ‘a great [and] dynamic in-house lawyer’ with a strong background in some of the most established French and international firms. ‘A constant pleasure to work with’, Darmon is also known as inspiring teacher who passes on her expertise in distribution and competition law to MBA students at The University of Paris. Xavier Gallet, legal manager for banking and finance, was said to combine ‘a deep knowledge of legal and compliance matters to help address the challenges faced by one of the world’s largest companies’, while Mathilde Hochberg was praised as a ‘very dedicated, highly competent in-house counsel combining technical expertise with a very approachable character’.