Gide Loyrette Nouel is the pinot noir of law firms. The most exquisite of wine grapes, pinot grows in small quantities in many regions around the world, but sometimes fails to flourish, and always thrives best in its native France. With 19 offices, Gide is one of only two firms with French roots and international ambitions. About half of its approximately 650 lawyers are based in France and half abroad, mostly practicing civil law for French clients. As Samantha Campbell, the firm’s Vietnam practice leader, notes: “If you want a French cultural connection and an international experience, then Gide is the only choice.”
The other global firm born in Paris is Salans, with even more offices—22 of them—around the world. But if Gide is pinot noir, Salans is beer: ubiquitous, midmarket, and—despite its French origins—most closely associated with Central and Eastern Europe, where more than 350 of its nearly 800 lawyers are located. “I wouldn’t call us French at all,” says Salans’s managing partner, Dariusz Oleszczuk, who is a Pole living in Paris. Chairman François Chateau, a Frenchman who lives in New York, calls Salans “a leading emerging market law firm with a multicultural background.”
