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Weil Gotshal & Manges is a formidable presence on the French market, with nine partners and 20 associates covering M&A and private equity. The firm's leading restructuring and insolvency practice will also keep it in high demand over the coming 12 months.

"Very strong in restructuring and these days a lot of M&A has restructuring in it," comments one partner. According to a client, Claude Serra is "a very skilled lawyer on very complicated deals where the problem is not just to make an offer and get it through, but where there is a public company involved". Another praises Faugérolas for being "very high level – one of the best in Paris for M&A and corporate law". The client adds that Laurent Faugérolas "is very responsive and you will get your answer on the same day".

Another client praises Serra for being a "good negotiator with a very persuasive style" and the firm for its "excellent public skills".

Weil's M&A practice attracts mandates from Vinci and other large listed groups: Total, GDF Suez, Atos and Casino, among them, while it has a well-established tier one team in private equity. In 2012 the firm won new clients in CDC and SCOR.

In 2012 Alexandre Duguay joined the partnership. Laurent Faugérolas is "excellent" in M&A says a peer while David Aknin has a great reputation on the privet equity side: "he is a very important player on the private equity market and on many, many deals," says a competitor.

Deals
In 2012 Laurent Faugérolas and Claude Serra acted for Guyenne et Gascogne on the tender offer launched by Carrefour. G&G is a French food distribution company focussing on southwest France and Spain, which decided to consolidate a long term partnership with Carrefour by fully integrating with the hypermarket chain. The tender offer was worth €540 million and is a highly significant domestic deal.

Serra and Agathe Soilleux led on a large France-US cross border deal in 2011 advising Sanofi-Aventis, a long-term client, on its acquisition of US biotech company Genzyme Corporation for €20.1 billion, notwithstanding the size of the deal the transactions came with its own legal and economic challenges.

Serra and Arthur de Baudry d'Asson represented Atos Origin, the French global IT services company, on a strategic partnership with Siemens, which involved the exchange by Siemens of its €850 million Siemens IT Solutions and Services division for a 15% stake in Atos Origin, to become the second largest shareholder in Atos.

On the private equity side, the team led by David Aknin advised Apax Partners on the disposal of Vizada, the satellite communications company, for €670 million and advised listed company Outremer Telecom on its sale to AXA Private Equity – a new LBO for the company which included a debt push down during the tender offer – for €254 million.

Jean Beauchataud led a team to advise global private equity firm Advent International on its acquisition of Oberthur Technologies for a value of €1.15 billion, one of the handful of billion plus deals of 2011.

Weil Gotshal is the firm most often nominated by peers as the market leader in France for restructuring and insolvency.

"For me they are the best in Paris," says a peer, "Jean-Dominique [Daudier de Cassini], Philippe Druon and Fabienne Beuzit [counsel] especially, but they have a real team, mainly for bankruptcy and administration judicière".

Like its practice head, Gerhard Schmidt, Weil Gotshal's M&A team is said to be focussed on private equity. "They are more or less private equity. They are more or less a one man show, which is Gerhard Schmidt, a great private equity lawyer but they have not had that many transactions," notes one rival. Although the practice has strong private equity focus, it has been involved in significant M&A transactions in the last 12 months, so retains its position.

Deals
One of the firm's most significant transactions was Thomas Schmid's advice to the Czech Republic's leading energy company CEZ on the sale of its 50% joint venture stake in Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlen¬gesellschaft (MIBRAG) and the proposed lignite power plant Profen to Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding. Schmid has also taken the lead on Monitor Clipper Partners divestment of its stake in German waste return systems specialist Vfw to Reclay Holding, where he is advised the seller.

Weil Gotshal's private equity team is driven by the work of practice head Gerhard Schmidt, who is also known for his restructuring work, according to lawyers. "It's always Schmidt. He's good. You see him on a lot of distressed deals," says one peer. The firm's recent deals support these observations with Schmidt taking the lead on the bulk of deals several of which involved refinancing and restructuring.

Deals
An ongoing transaction sees Schmidt advising Platinum Equity in its contemplated acquisition of Manroland, a German printing presses manufacturer, from the insolvency administrator.

Elsewhere, he represented Summit Partners on acquiring a majority stake in 360 Treasury Systems.

According to peers Weil Gotshal is more active on distressed M&A than corporate restructurings. The firm's recent portfolio includes a mixture of both these types of work, but as it is less prominent than the firm's ranked in tier two it moves into tier three.

Corporate partner Gerhard Schmidt is the firm's most visible partner on restructuring deals.

Deals
Two restructuring cases have occupied the firm lately. One headline transaction in which the firm was involved was the Pfleiderer restructuring which is now being completed in insolvency after it was ruled the company could not restructure its bonds. A team led by Uwe Hartmann is representing US funds Strategic Value Partners and Oak Hill Advisors which both have stakes in the company.

The other matter sees Schmidt head the team representing Wilhelm Karmann & Co, the holding company of insolvent German automotive supplier Wilhelm Karmann, through the restructuring of the Karmann Group.

Weil has been steadily building its practice in recent years and the recent addition of Stephen Lucas has proved very popular with clients who admitted that they hadn't really used the firm as much in the past."He's definitely a game changing guy," says one. "He has a very good knowledge of where the market is, precedents and stuff and he's also a very flexible guy and we do a lot of new business and new LBOs with him. He's also got a very good mind if you want to work through some of the more tougher restructurings."

"In terms of quality of hire he's been great for them," says another client. "We did some work with James Hogben as well and he was very good."

Clients did point out though that for all of Lucas's skill, the firm would need to back him with other partners if they wished to break into the more mainstream banking market. "It (capacity) certainly limits the amount of stuff that Weil can do, even Stephen cannot do everything," says one banking client. "Until they build up something around Stephen there will always be a limit as to how much they can do. They also need to boost their high-yield offering."

Deals
Weil has been making a push with recent partner hires to further establish its sponsor side practice in London and the new team is already gaining traction. One example saw James Hogben act for Omers Private Equity on the $540 million financing for the acquisition of ship management company V.Group from Exponent Private Equity. Hogben also advised Cinven on the bank and bond financing aspects of its proposed bid for Lafarge Gypsum. Jacky Kelly was also active acting for TowerBrook Capital Partners on its investment in debt managers the CapQuest Group and the subsequent refinancing of CapQuest investments senior and mezzanine debt.

Hogben was also busy with the refinancing team working in conjunction with the firm's Prague and Warsaw offices on the combined €220 million refinancing of two facilities for the Stock Spirits Group, with Weil advising the group and Oaktree on the deal.

Former Linklaters partner Stephen Lucas also had a successful year at his new firm advising the banks including RBS, Commerzbank, HVB Unicredit and LBBW on the debt restructuring of Schaeffler. The €12 billion project has been in progress since 2010. Mark Donald also had a hand in restructuring work advising Barclays Capital, BayernLB and Helaba on the $650 million restructuring of Intercontinental Hotels.

The three partner practice at Weil Gotshal is led by Jacky Kelly and was enhanced with the addition of former banker Chris McGarry last year.

The team generally acts for the banks and has had a good run on credit card and mortgage linked securitisations in the last year.

Deals
Recently Jacky Kelly acted on the Penarth credit card backed master-trust securitisation programme. This included advising the joint lead managers and swap counterparties on one transaction valued at $900 million and another worth $600 million.

Elsewhere Kelly was again involved advising Barclays Capital as arranger and joint lead manager and Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets as joint lead manager on the Gracechurch RMBS deal valued at $4.8 billion.

Weil Gotshal is best known in corporate for its private equity practice, which is gaining a stronger reputation all the time. In the broader field of M&A the firm still picks up good mandates and has had a good run in recent years on media linked deals.

Leading lawyer Mike Francies is well supported in the department by Peter King and Ian Hamilton.

Deals

In one public deal Peter King acted for CR Bard on its acquisition of medical device company Clearstream Technologies.

In another deal that involved both the UK and Poland teams, Ian Hamilton in London advised the ITI Media Group on its joint venture with Vivendi in regard to pay TV operations in Poland. Hamilton also acted for GE Aviation on the sale of its fuel management business to Ontic Engineering and Manufacturing.

Weil Gotshal has been steadily building its private equity practice over the last few years and with the 2011 addition of a funds team from Clifford Chance the team is now seen as fully rounded and in the ascendency. "Weil have also had a bit of a purple patch around the end of last year and they've got a critical mass in terms of UK transactional partners and having poached the funds team from Clifford Chance I think they've plugged a gap," says one peer.

Clients pick out Mark Soundy for praise: "He's first class and one of the best lawyers in London. He's an excellent people person, so when you're often in tense negotiations Mark doesn't add to the stress and the pressure as can sometimes be the case with lawyers. He actually reduces it." Another client points to Soundy's lack of ego as a key attribute: "Where Mark is good is that he won't get stuck on his ego and try to score points in negotiations. You don't waste time with them, you don't wrack up fees by getting into endless negotiation and debate."

Despite recent additions the firm is still fairly compact, but it doesn't impact on service "They are thinner than some of the other big houses but I actually don't think that means that they can't deliver what you need. It is leaner but Mark Soundy tends to deliver a lot more individually than a lot of other lawyers would," says one client.

Deals
One of the most high-profile deals the team worked on last year was Mubadala Development Corporation's $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Group's music publishing operations. The transaction involved Weil's US and UK teams with the latter led by Mike Francies.

Other buy-side work saw Marco Compagnoni act for OMERS Private Equity on its £317 million acquisition of the shipping management company V Group. This was the first European LBO by OMERS since opening its UK branch.

Compagnoni was involved again, this time acting for Providence on its acquisition of fashion schools group Istituto Marangoni in November 2011. Providence also brought in the firm on the sell side advising it on the disposal of Phones4u for £667 million to BC Partners.

Another substantial matter, this time led by Jonathan Wood saw the firm act for Advent International on the £925 million acquisition of The Priory Group.

Linking with its Hong Kong office the team also acted for Asian private equity firm Unitas Capital on the £446 million acquisition of Dutch hydraulics manufacturer Hyva Holdings from the 3i Group.

Other clients engaging the firm last year include the likes of HGCapital and TowerBrook Capital Partners.

There has been some changes at Weil Gotshal in recent years mainly focused around the incorporation of a number of lawyers from Jones Day. Both department head Adam Plainer and fellow partner Paul Bromfield joined Weil in 2011 from its US contemporary along with counsel Linton Bloomberg and though Dominic McCahill left for Skadden in January 2012 the firm retains a solid base for building its UK practice further.

Deals
Adam Plainer was Weil's lead partner on one of the firm's largest mandates last year acting for KPMG as the joint special adminstrators to MF Global on the proceedings surrounding its UK subsidiary. The work is substantial and involves handling hundeds of claims made against MFG UK.

Elsewhere Paul Bromfield acted for Yann Baden as the Luxembourg trustee in bankruptcy appointed on the collapse of Office Metro.