Leading French law firm CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre has added a top real estate team to its Paris office. Herbert Smith Freehills partners Pierre Popesco and Florence  are departing for the firm with nine others. Pierre Popesco, Florence Cherel and Benjamin Bill will join CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre as partners. They are accompanied by Counsel Jean-Marc Peyron and eight lawyers.

Largest in France

The new real estate team of CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre will have more than 40 lawyers, making it one of the largest teams in France covering real estate. The expansion of the French practice is a continuation of the developments initiated by the merger in London in May this year of CMS Cameron McKenna with the firms Olswang and Nabarro. More than 800 laywers now make up the CMS Real Estate Practice Group.Pierre-Sebastien Thill, Partner, Chairman of the CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre Management Board said the new arrivals gave the firm 'unrivalled resources in real estate law, both on a national and international level.' With the addition of this new team, the firm will have about 420 lawyers including 108 partners.

New team heads

Pierre Popesco, 63, is a member of the Paris Bar since 1991. He joined at that time the French law firm Lefèvre Pelletier & associés. He founded a centre for specialised research in planning law which he managed prior to heading up the legal department at Espace Promotion a subsidiary of Unibail that focused on developing shopping centres. In 2005, he joined the Paris office of Herbert Smith Freehills, where he became Head of the Real Estate practice. Pierre has a thirty-year experience in Real Estate and his clients mainly comprise French and international institutional investors and developers. He advises clients on all aspects of real-estate law, including investment (asset deals and share deals) and divestment, creation of funds and partnerships, property development transactions, commercial leases.

Florence Cherel, 45, is a member of the Paris Bar since 2001. She was a partner with the Real Estate practice of the Paris office of Herbert Smith Freehills since 2009 after joining in 2005 and after a fiveyear experience with Lefèvre Pelletier & associés. She’s specialising in public law, property development and related environmental issues. In that role, Florence assisted investors, developers and planners on all aspects of public law affecting their projects, from land management to contractual arrangements, through to planning procedures and incorporation of environmental constraints.

Benjamin Bill, 38, is a member of the Paris Bar since 1995 and is qualified in Germany as a Rechtsanwalt. Counsel with the Real Estate practice of the Paris office of Herbert Smith Freehills, Benjamin advises public and private clients, including numerous domestic and international investment funds and property companies, on complex real-estate transactions focusing on investment and divestment (acquisitions or disposals of Real Estate assets or companies, French or pan-European portfolios) and structuring and Real Estate financing and on contractual aspects related to construction projects and commercial leases. He will join the new team as a partner.

Counsel Jean-Marc Peyron.

Jean-Marc Peyron, 50, is a member of the Paris Bar since 1995 and Of Counsel with the Paris office of Herbert Smith Freehills since 2011. He is an expert specialist in Real Estate asset management and more specifically in commercial and business leases. He is a recognised expert in off-plan lease agreements. Jean-Marc helps clients such as corporate investors and end-users on transactions and litigation cases involving all kinds of Real Estate such as hotels, office buildings as well as retail and logistics properties.