A&O Shearman
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A&O Shearman has established itself as the go-to firm for landmark and high-stakes criminal cases pertaining to the banking and financial world, often linked to tax fraud and money laundering accusations and increasingly to offenses involving the fintech space. The firm’s practice benefits from a rare combination of white-collar crime expertise and top banking and regulatory know-how, which earns it high-end mandates from leading French and international banks as well as fintechs and other financial investors. Also noteworthy is the firm’s proficiency in the industrial and international criminal human rights field, where the team is assisting clients facing potential investigations with recent work highlights extending to an instruction in the Lafarge-Holcim criminal trial regarding the company’s past operations in Syria. The practice jointly steered by Denis Chemla, Hippolyte Marquetty, Dan Benguigui and Paul Fortin, who was promoted to partner in 2025. Marine Gourlet is also recommended.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- ‘A&O Shearman’s white-collar crime team is one of the best in the market: versatile, efficient, and capable of handling large cases with a true sense of criminal strategy.’
- ‘Denis Chemla: highly knowledgeable of the courts, judges and criminal procedure; a master tactician; very, very good on his feet; and very much a hands-on leader of the case, who effectively used juniors but had excellent grasp of the details. Paul Fortin: very knowledgeable and highly effective junior partner; very calm in demeanor but passionate in getting the details right.’
Key clients
- Danske Bank
- BNP Paribas Personal France
Work highlights
Assisting Lafarge SA, a French subsidiary of Holcim SA, in the context of a criminal investigation for facts of terrorist financing to armed groups in Syria.