“To get visibility in the Paris market you need to work on the big M&A deals,” says Yves Wehrli, Clifford Chance’s Paris managing partner. This gambit cuts to the core of the Paris market’s obsession with M&A rainmakers.
The restructuring of the French economy in the 1970s, in which a spate of takeovers and privatisations were kicked off by the 1973 merger of BSN and Gervais Danone, sparked the development of a new wave of independent firms. Bredin Prat, Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier and Rambaud Martel all emerged as leaders in a market that, until then, had been dominated by two firms – Gide Loyrette Nouel and Jeantet & Associes.
