Serge Gravel is the senior partner of the firm's Paris office. He was co-founder of the full-service French law firm that merged with Fasken Martineau in September 2009.
Serge is a member of the Quebec Bar and of the Paris Bar. He started practicing law in the Paris office of a Wall-Street law firm before joining a major Canadian law firm in Montreal, where he was a partner for over ten years before coming back to pursue his career in Paris.
Drawing from his work experience on both sides of the Atlantic as well as from his academic background in Canada, Europe and the United States, Serge has unique expertise in cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and financing, including in the structuring of transactions and their international tax aspects. He advises clients with an efficient and pragmatic approach, being familiar with both civil law and common law. He has wide and varied experience in all types of cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, investments funds, financing, and real estate.
Serge also has an extensive practice in international arbitration either as arbitrator or counsel. He was a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration for nine years.
Selected Experience
- Counsel to Imprimeries Quebecor in connection with the acquisition and financing of their main printing plants in France
- Counsel to successive Lone Star investments funds in connection with the acquisition and resale of a high-rise building situated at La Défense (France), the construction and resale of a real estate complex in Toulon (France), the acquisition and resale of an office buildings portfolio in the South of France, the acquisition and resale of industrial properties previously owned by Thales, etc.
- Counsel to Cadim with respect to the acquisition of buildings and real estate holding companies in France: Foncière de la Cité Group, take over bid on a French real estate company, etc.
- Counsel to SITQ in connection with various French real estate transactions
- Counsel to the Romanian National Airline Company, Tarom, in connection with various ICC arbitration proceedings
- Counsel to the Romanian National Airline Company, Tarom, in connection with the purchasing of Airbus aircrafts
- Representation of the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin with respect to the acquisition or creation of enterprises in France (engineering, telecommunications)
- Counsel to a group of private investors in connection with the financing (leasing) and disposition of a portfolio of industrial properties used by French group Thales
- Drafting model financing contracts, and negotiating inventories financing transactions for a French financial institution, subsidiary of Bombardier Capital Ltd.
- Financial reorganization of a French «prêt-à-porter» and «haute couture» company, acting for Crédit Lyonnais
Membership/Affiliations
- Executive Board of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) (1996 - 2003)
- ICC International Court of Arbitration (1991 - 1999)
- ICC Commission on International Arbitration (1999 - 2008)