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Claire Adenis-Lamarre

Solicitor and Avocat au Barreau de Paris

Private Wealth & Tax, Commercial, Domicile and International Estates, Lifetime Estate Planning , Personal Tax, Trusts (UK & International) , Wills

Claire's Skills

  • Languages : French, English, German
  • Contracts and commercial
  • Cross-border wealth management
  • International estate planning
  • Personal tax

About Claire

Claire is a senior dual-qualified lawyer in both England & Wales as well as France, where she is an Avocat au Barreau de Paris.

With over 30 years’ experience, she specialises in private wealth advice for international high net worth individuals and their families, advising in relation to their European based assets, the organisation and winding-up of their international estates, as well as the associated tax issues.

Claire advises British and international companies with business interests in France on the legal aspects of contracts/distribution, banking and employment.

She also acts on behalf of buyers and sellers of properties in France, including unusual legal structures (such as “viager”), and assists them in their relationship with French “notaires.”

Having graduated from Montpellier Law and Economics University with an Advanced Diploma in Business Law (DESS) and with a specialised Business Consulting Diploma (DJCE), Claire was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1981.

She worked for four years in-house in the legal department of the Rothschild Bank in Paris, where she gained comprehensive knowledge of retail banking in the areas of risk assessment, securities and debt recovery in the French banking system.

She then worked in private practice for mid-sized law firms in Paris, advising in relation to commercial and banking law. In 1994, Claire set up her own firm in Paris, providing advice to the Anglo-French business community there. She moved to London in 2003 to develop her international practice.

Claire has been a long-standing member of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Paris) and has given conferences and talks, as well as written information booklets and articles, about setting up and trading in France for British entrepreneurs.

She is also a member of the Paris Bar and the Association Nationale des Diplômés Juristes d’Entreprise (ANDJCE).

Claire has recently been appointed co-Administrator for the UK – with another London dual-qualified lawyer for the Association pour la Promotion de l’Exercice des Avocats à l’Etranger (APPEAL-E).

Experience

  • Recently used her financial and linguistic knowledge to take part in 2019 in a year-long fixed term project managed by a City law firm, concerning an international white collar crime enquiry.
  • Led matters end-to-end, independently and in conjunction with other lawyers, clients and/or local counsel, with a specialism in English and French laws and their jurisdictional overlap. Prevented client regulatory breaches, strengthened negotiation positions and ensured compliant contracting, via provision of updates on all necessary English, French and EU law developments.
  • Facilitated client contracting: negotiated and drafted a diversity of agreements under French and English law, from investments to indemnities, including negotiation of the termination of a commercial lease for a French toy manufacturer and amendment of a highly technical agreement for the supply of electronic components; protected client interests via a range of commercial securities, including the saving of EUR 4M for a British retail bank by preventing a fraud to be set up through the establishment of charges over French property.
  • Minimised client litigation exposure through robust dispute resolution strategies.

Key successes included:

  • Debt: recovery of a debt for a French company defrauded by an English distributor, and the leading of a claim to recover monies owed by a well-known English chef following the set-up of his Parisian restaurant.
  • Asset Tracing: defended a global shipping name subject to a foreign freezing order against an English claim seeking transfer of the monies to an alleged creditor.
  • Cross-Border: instructed by a high-profile French individual in cross-border litigation concurrently before the French Tribunal de Commerce and the UK High Court.

Testimonials

Claire has been one of the regular advisers of our company for seven years, while I was Head of Legal at a well-known pharmaceutical company in Paris. She dealt with a wide range of various commercial and contractual issues, as well as business litigation and debt recovery. We appreciated the quality of her analysis, her reactivity and reliable follow-up and her sense of negotiation.

LF - Head of Legal - Pharmaceutical company

Claire was extremely diligent and tenacious when she worked on a specific case for myself and a colleague. Had it not been for her attention to detail and gut feel that something wasn’t quite adding up, we would have been heavily exposed to fraudulent activities. Can’t recommend her and her company enough.

LMcE - British UK retail bank

Claire has been one of our long-standing advisers on French domestic matters, as well as EU regulations, for our contracts and very specific category of network of distribution. We can recommend her business sense, thorough follow-up and understanding of practical issues when these are linked to legal points. We are hoping to work with her again now for some of our sister companies.

DG - General Manager - International complementary food company

Claire was instrumental in helping me clear a challenging situation linked to various changes in my work situation across Europe. I would like to thank her for her professionalism, her tact and her continuous support.

MK - Transformation Project Manager - IT Company

Claire assisted me in two delicate matters and showed great diplomacy and knowledge of business cultural issues.

Isabelle LC-R - Culture and Communications professional - Freelance author/researcher

We wanted to convey how pleased we have been with Claire’s services following the management of our late father’s estate in France.
He died in the UK but had French nationality and his assets were therefore situated in France.
We first had a local notary who was a little afraid of the international aspect, so Claire found a Paris based notaire, who assisted us for the compulsory filing of estate documents and later liaised with the local notary who dealt with the sale of the property.
There were several specific issues to solve, and Claire did this very efficiently and effectively, making what could have been a stressful situation as smooth as possible.
She even managed to claw back a significant amount of local taxes corresponding to some post-death periods.
She explained, reminded, translated and moved the paperwork forward so that the whole matter was completely resolved in a reasonable time frame.

Ms Mia and Natasha D