France and Paris as a legal market Population: 61.3 million Number of lawyers: 35,000 Professional title: Avocat Currency: Euro (€) France is divided into 96 metropolitan departments, which are grouped into 22 regions. The heart of this centralised structure is Paris, the capital and epicentre of the country's business and legal community. As a result, Paris is home to both the country's leading indigenous law firms and a host of foreign law firms principally from the US and the UK. Outside of Paris, Lyon, the capital of the Rhône-Alpes region, is France's second economic centre. The country's two other major centres of business are Lille and Marseille. Like Lyon, Lille is largely industrial while Marseille, the Mediterranean hub port, is the economic and maritime capital of the South. Other important cities include Nantes, Rennes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier and Strasbourg. Law firms in the regions are dealt with at the end of the chapter. Billing Fees are generally negotiated with the client in advance. The majority of firms work on an hourly rate basis. Hourly billing is quite a recent development for French firms, very much a result of the Anglo-Saxon firms' influence. Some firms prefer a flat fee. Contingency fees, which were officially prohibited, are now increasingly being used. Hourly billing rates range from €155 for junior lawyers to €520 for senior partners, though in some cases more may be charged on particularly complex issues. Generally, rates outside Paris are lower, in general around one-third lower than in Paris. Marketing The French legal profession is governed by a strict code of professional ethics (especially with regard to publicity). However, law firms are increasingly opening up to marketing, particularly in the Paris market where more than 50 foreign firms are represented. In-house lawyers In-house lawyers are to be found in all larger companies. Most legal departments handle the majority of work themselves, seeking outside help only with regard to specific questions and, of course, litigation. In the case of certain small and medium-sized companies, a law firm might serve as an external legal department. Legal Market In 1992, the profession was modified by merging the avocats profession with that of the conseils juridiques. The resulting change was an important one: law firms were thus given an opportunity to provide a complete service adapted to the needs of business clients. While the two professions are generally harmoniously intertwined in Paris, the picture is slightly different in the provinces where there is often still a distinction between firms engaged in court work and those supplying out-of-court legal services. There are more than 35,000 avocats in France, of which approximately 40% are registered at the Paris Bar. In the regions, few firms boast more than ten avocats although there are some exceptions, notably in Lyon. Compared to Anglo-Saxon firms, the size of French practices may appear modest. Where French firms have chosen expansion, this has often been done in order to add a broader international dimension. At the same time, there are also a number of medium-sized firms in Paris which do not compete in size but are regarded as centres of excellence. Forty or so Anglo-Saxon firms are represented in Paris. Their contribution to the development of the legal market is undisputed and a number of these firms are well represented in our tables. There are comparatively few other countries represented in the French legal market. German firms, for example, have tended to turn their expansion plans more towards Eastern Europe. The Big Four The legal arms of the Big Four accountants had displayed grand ambitions in the '90s. Those ambitions have been dampened by the follow-ups of the Sarbanes-Oxley law and the Loi de Sécurité Financière in France. Their growth has been particularly visible in the regions though where a few top local firms have been taken over. In Paris, they haven't reached the top, except in the tax area; the restrictions imposed to their activities and the subsequent moves of lawyers to traditional law firms have somewhat slowed their growth. Even if the Big Four firms now carry unquestionable weight, sustained by name as well as international connections, they are not competitors to traditional firms they would have hoped to become.