Mathias Audit, Pierre Duprey and Matthias Fekl are partnering up to launch the law firm Audit-Duprey-Fekl.
The firm brings together a top-notch team centered around three renowned partners with recognized and complementary expertise. It provides both advisory and litigation services and combines a strategic approach with a legal analysis of clients’ international projects and litigations. The firm’s team shares the belief that in a global economy marked by protean and growing tensions, anticipation, a strategic approach, and efficient recourse to the rules of law are more essential now than ever.
The main areas of expertise of the firm are the following:
- Litigation before State courts: the firm develops and implements litigation strategies before courts of the French judicial and administrative orders. It also coordinates complex and cross-border disputes pending before State courts or arbitral tribunals in different jurisdictions;
- International Arbitration: our lawyers have extensive experience and act both as counsel and arbitrators in commercial and investment arbitrations, in ad hoc proceedings or in proceedings conducted under the aegis of major international arbitration institutions;
- Mediation: our lawyers believe in the relevance of mediation to secure global and effective outcomes to disputes. They regularly act both as counsel and mediators in national and international mediation proceedings, whether ad hoc or within the framework of mediation centers;
- Enforcement of judgments or arbitral awards: the firm advises its clients in relation to the search for assets and assists them in recovering their debts;
- State activities: the firm has particular expertise in advising and litigating in relation to State activities (in particular: invitations to tender, structuring and drafting of groups of contracts, sovereign immunity law);
- State debt: the firm assists its clients in the management of State debt, whether bilateral or multilateral, public or private, bank or bond, including cases when the occurrence of a default or a risk of default requires restructuring the debt;
- International legal regimes: the firm advises its clients on the extraterritorial effects of certain national measures, and on sanctions regimes, embargoes and asset freezes;
- Strategic advice: the firm provides its clients with strategic analysis tools for international contractual arrangements, investment structuring, the legal dimension of major changes taking place in the context of globalization, and the institutional environment of their projects.
Mathias Audit is an attorney and a Law Professor at the Sorbonne School of Law (University of Paris 1). He advises both private companies and Sovereign States or foreign state entities. He is regularly solicited by counsel or clients alike for consultations on complex cases. Mr. Audit represents his clients in commercial and investment arbitration proceedings as well as in litigations with an international dimension. He regularly sits as sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator or chairman of arbitral tribunals, either in ad hoc proceedings or in arbitrations conducted under the aegis of major institutions (ICC, VIAC, CACI, etc.), including in expedited proceedings. In his capacity as counsel, he advises on contractual arrangements, in particular in the energy and infrastructure sectors. His expertise also covers issues of economic sanctions and extraterritoriality. In his academic functions at the Sorbonne School of Law, his teachings focus on private international law, international trade law, arbitration law, foreign investment law and project finance law. He also heads the Sorbonne’s Master 2 in Energy Law, as well as the Sorbonne’s LL.M. in Business Law for Foreign Lawyers.
Pierre Duprey has extensive experience in international arbitration and risk management, areas in which he has been practicing for nearly 30 years. His expertise also covers international transactions and the structuring of foreign investments. In his career, Mr. Duprey has represented both private businesses and state entities in Europe, Latin America, the United States, Asia and Africa. Specifically, he has acted as counsel in over 170 arbitration proceedings, both commercial and investment, both institutional (ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, SCC, PCA, ICSID, AFA, Milan Chamber of Arbitration) and ad hoc. Prior to founding the firm, he was co-head of Linklaters’ worldwide international arbitration practice. He is also regularly appointed as an arbitrator in institutional or ad hoc arbitrations (ICC, LCIA, AFA, PCA, UNCITRAL, CCIG, Milan Arbitration Chamber, CMAG). Mr. Duprey is notably involved in industries such as energy and natural resources, defense, pharmaceuticals, mass distribution, information and communication technologies and construction. He regularly advises clients in post-acquisition litigations as well as in litigation involving complex joint ventures. Mr. Duprey teaches arbitration law to student of the Master 2 in Arbitration and International Business Law (University of Paris II), the LL.M. in International Business Law (University of Paris II) and the Master 2 in Arbitration & International Trade (University of Versailles).
Matthias Fekl, a former minister, began his career as an administrative judge and has been a partner at KGA Attorneys-at-Law since 2018. He acts both in advisory matters and litigation, particularly in public law, in supporting investment projects and in the field of alternative dispute resolution. He is also frequently called upon as a mediator or as counsel in mediations. He has a deep understanding of the functioning of the French economic fabric and of public and private decision-making processes at all levels: local, national, European and international. He assists SMEs, mid-sized corporations and large groups alike with their projects and disputes. Mr. Fekl is a board member of the French Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC France). He is also a board member and contributes to the promotion of Paris City of Law – Paris – Place de droit -, where he leads the committee for «attractiveness.» Mr. Fekl has also been supporting ambitious reforms in the field of investment arbitration. He has taught public law at Sciences-Po, as well as at the Prép’ENA Ecole Normale Supérieure – Paris 1 (Panthéon- Sorbonne) and at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Bordeaux.
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