April 18, 2017
The French Parliament recently enacted a new anti-corruption law, “Sapin II”, that signals a more robust era in French anti-corruption enforcement and compliance expectations. It also offers an avenue for mitigation through a deferred prosecution, a novel development in France. For French companies operating abroad and businesses operating in France, Sapin II represents yet another piece of the increasingly complex anti-corruption compliance puzzle multi-national companies face when operating across jurisdictions. What compliance changes does Sapin II require? How could Sapin II alter the anti-corruption enforcement landscape? What should you know about Sapin II if you’re contemplating an acquisition?
Gibson Dunn’s panel of anti-corruption experts describes the requirements of the new act and provides perspective on how companies should view Sapin II in the broader international anti-corruption landscape where government authorities from the US to the UK, Switzerland, and Brazil, are more aggressively pursuing corruption by businesses. Our panelists also address the steps to be considered and implemented to comply with Sapin II’s new compliance requirements.
MODERATOR:
Bernard Grinspan – French and NY-qualified Partner, and Partner-in-Charge of Gibson Dunn’s Paris office. Mr. Grinspan is a leading Corporate lawyer in France who is highly regarded for advising foreign clients on the laws of their respective jurisdictions. He is ranked by Chambers Global 2016 as a “foreign expert” for USA-related Corporate/M&A work, recommended by PLC Which Lawyer? as a leading lawyer for Corporate/M&A in France for the past five years consecutively, and as a leading lawyer for Corporate and IT law in France by Best Lawyers 2015/6. Best Lawyers 2017 has ranked him among the best French Lawyers for Corporate Law and Information Technology Law.
PANELISTS:
Joel M. Cohen – Partner in Gibson Dunn’s New York office, and Co-Chair of the firm’s White Collar and Investigations Practice Group. Mr. Cohen’s experience includes all aspects of FCPA/anticorruption issues, insider trading, securities and financial institution litigation, class actions, sanctions, money laundering and asset recovery, with a particular focus on international disputes and discovery. Mr. Cohen was the prosecutor of Jordan Belfort and Stratton Oakmont, which is the focus of “The Wolf of Wall Street” film by Martin Scorsese. He was an adviser to OECD in connection with the effort to prohibit corruption in international transactions and was the first Department of Justice legal liaison advisor to the French Ministry of Justice. Mr. Cohen has been named Top 100 Trial Lawyer by Benchmark Litigation, Chambers in the white collar area, and by the American Lawyer.
Patrick Doris – Partner in Gibson Dunn’s London office, where he specializes in global white-collar investigations and commercial litigation. Mr. Doris’ practice covers a wide range of disputes, including white-collar crime, internal and regulatory investigations, contentious antitrust matters, multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation, administrative law challenges against governmental decision-making before the UK and EU courts, public international law and commercial human rights law matters. In the field of investigations, Mr. Doris is particularly experienced in handling bribery and corruption matters, sanctions, money laundering, insider dealing, financial sector wrongdoing, accounting violations and major cross-border tax investigations.
Benoît Fleury – Partner in Gibson Dunn’s Paris office, focusing his practice on the one hand on corporate and commercial law (and in particular, securities-related transactions) and on the other hand, restructuring work. He regularly advises European and US companies in connection with mergers and acquisitions. He is also involved in some of the most complex recent restructuring matters (mandat ad hoc, conciliation and safeguard), representing both debtors and creditors, notably shareholders and portfolio companies and funds that he also advises in connection with their strategic investments and day-to-day operations. He writes frequently on topical legal issues, e.g. recently in Les Echos: “Loi Sapin 2 – Cartographie des risques et dispositif anticorruption: parallèle avec le dispositif applicable aux banques” and was co-author of our recent client alert on the “New French Anti-Corruption Regime”.
Patrick F. Stokes – Partner in Gibson Dunn’s Washington, D.C. office and member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations, Securities Enforcement, and Litigation Practice Groups. Mr. Stokes’ practice focuses on internal corporate investigations, compliance reviews, government investigations, and enforcement actions regarding corruption, securities fraud, and financial institutions fraud. He has tried more than 30 federal jury trials as first chair, including high-profile white-collar cases. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Stokes spent nearly 18 years with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he was the Chief of the FCPA Unit from 2014 to 2016, overseeing DOJ’s FCPA enforcement program and all criminal FCPA matters throughout the United States.
Mark Zimmer – Partner in Gibson Dunn’s Munich office. A special focus of his practice is compliance, especially the prevention and detection of, as well as reaction to, fraud, corruption, cartels and similar violations. Mr. Zimmer has developed particular expertise in the international and German law aspects of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) as well as of the UK Bribery Act. He has conducted internal investigations relating to businesses in several European countries, as well as in Egypt, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi-Arabia, Uzbekistan, and VAE. He was a leading part of the Siemens Compliance Monitorship Team.