François advises global fund managers, institutional investors, major credit institutions and international asset managers on fund planning, structuring and formation solutions. He has proven experience in advising structures involving private equity, real estate, debt funds, DFIs, hybrid and infrastructure funds but he also regularly advises on cross-border structures with parallel funds, and provides comprehensive advice from fund formation to launch including potential tax implications at each relevant stage.
François is recommended in the Legal 500 EMEA in 2019 and 2018, in the Chambers EMEA in 2016, was nominated as one of the world's leading practitioners in Who's Who Private Funds 2015 and recognised as lawyer of the year by ACQ5 in 2014. François has also been recognised in the Banking, Finance and Transactional Law Expert Guides in 2017 and 2018, as an Expert in Investment Funds.
François regularly speaks at conferences on Luxembourg investment funds and also gives training sessions at the House of Training Luxembourg.
He is a steering committee member at the University of Luxembourg and is also a board member of several regulated and unregulated investment vehicles. François is an active member of several associations (ALFI, IBA, LPEA) and is a founder member of the Monterey Funds club (an alliance of specialist investment fund lawyers n Europe). François has also been a panel member at joint-conferences in 2018 introducing Luxembourg as a platform for Chinese Investment into Europe and is the author of a number of articles and briefings.
Prior to joining Ogier, he began his career in 1986 with KPMG as Tax Advisor and Svenska Handelsbanken as Legal Counsel. After having acted as Head of Legal and Tax for the RTL group, he joined Fidelity Investments as Senior Legal Counsel for continental Europe and was thereafter a Senior Partner at OPF Partners for 12 years.
François graduated with a Bachelor in Political Sciences, Economics and Finance, a Master in Political Science and Master in Law and in European Law from the University of Strasbourg.
He is qualified in Luxembourg and speaks English, French, German and Luxembourgish.
Admitted in:
Luxembourg
