Public Law

Public Law

The Public Business Law team provides both advisory and litigation services. It advises national and local public actors and their private industrial and financial partners.

Our lawyers cover all areas of public business law, from public procurement and administrative court litigation to public-private partnership contracts and public contracts, as well as supporting local and territorial authorities.

Our specialized public law team has expertise based on extensive experience with the legal challenges in this sector: complex regulatory and case law frameworks, the specificities of public project financing methods, and the particular procedures for awarding contracts.

Public procurement

Our lawyers support public entities and companies in the processes of awarding, executing, and contesting public procurement contracts and administrative agreements. This includes assistance on the following topics:

  • Selection and organization of advertising and competitive bidding procedures
  • Support during the awarding process
  • Monitoring of contract execution and assistance in pre-litigation phases
  • Financial settlement and financing for public contract holders
  • Legal framework for subcontracting
  • Global contracts and complex contractual arrangements

Public contracts litigation

Experienced in administrative courts, our lawyers defend and represent public or private parties in disputes related to the execution, modification, or termination of public contracts before administrative jurisdictions (administrative court, administrative appeal court, Conseil d’Etat).

  • Public procurement litigation: challenges against acts detached from the awarding procedure, pre-contractual interim measures, contractual interim measures, challenges to the validity of the contract, claims for compensation
  • Representation before administrative and judicial courts
  • Assistance during expert evaluations ordered by the judge in interim proceedings or as part of an investigative measure
  • Disputes over the execution of public contracts
  • Amicable dispute resolution: conciliation, settlement, dispute resolution committees…

General Public Economic Law and General Administrative Litigation

Our team advises and assists businesses and public administrations on economic regulation and public law matters:

  • Claims against public entities, public finances
  • Economic interventions by public entities, public aid, and subsidies
  • Audits in the context of acquisitions or restructuring of companies holding public contracts
  • Outsourcing of public services
  • Appeals for annulment of administrative acts and administrative liability
  • Assistance in obtaining the necessary authorizations for operating classified installations

Some recent interventions

Gilets jaunes: Cityscoot successfully secured a ruling from the administrative judge ordering the State to compensate it for part of the damages sustained by its bikes and stations located in Paris’s public spaces.

Maritime Transport: Ongoing assistance, advice, and representation in litigation concerning pilotage regulations in French Mediterranean ports.

Sports Federation: Assistance and legal advice to the contracting authority, as defined by the public procurement code, regarding the award and execution of its private contracts relating to public procurement. This includes projects linked to necessary works for organizing an international competition and acquiring new equipment.

Regional Local Authority:

  • Legal counsel during the execution of construction or renovation projects for high schools, as well as representation before administrative courts and amicable dispute resolution bodies.
  • Assistance in negotiating high-stakes financial settlements with construction companies.
  • Representation in indemnity claims initiated by the authority against several contractors, the project supervisor, and the economic operator responsible for scheduling, managing, and coordinating the works (OPC).
  • Regional Sports and Leisure Infrastructure: Advice and assistance to the public service concessionaire responsible for managing and operating a leisure island.

Regional Local Authority: Legal advice, assistance, and representation in administrative courts for various individual disputes brought by local authority agents. These include challenges related to the denial of functional protection, suspension, appointments, new assignments in the interest of service, evaluations in professional appraisals, decisions not to renew contracts, recruitment of contract agents, denial of service-related accident recognition, and refusal to extend an agent’s tenure beyond the retirement age.

Private Company (Advertising Agency): Assistance with the negotiation of contracts for advertising platform operations with contracting authorities managing passenger transport services.

Local Public Transport Services (Bus and Bicycle): Legal advice and assistance for participation in public tender offers related to market or concession projects for operating public passenger transport services in France; representation in associated procurement disputes.

Private Company: Legal advice and assistance in executing a public procurement contract for supplies with a national public institution, including all amicable dispute resolution actions (claims, mediation attempts).

Network of Private Cooperative Companies: Legal advice and assistance to the federal entity in the social housing sector to identify solutions for achieving objectives within the framework of a significant restructuring of the cooperative group’s organization.

Private Company and Transport Service: Legal advice and assistance to the company in all interactions with local public authorities within the territories where it operates and develops its car-sharing service.

Private Company: Legal advice and assistance concerning the construction and operation of a classified facility for environmental protection (monitoring the environmental authorization process and related procedures such as impact studies and public inquiries).

Sui Generis Public Entity: Legal advice and assistance in creating an endowment fund that would enable sponsors to finance construction projects and contribute their expertise by directly participating in work carried out on properties owned by the entity, for which the sponsor would act as a private project manager.

Awards