Ravetto Associés

The firm: Ravetto Associés, a law firm exclusively specialising in the energy industry, was founded in February 2009 by Paul Ravetto, who dedicated his practice to the fields of electricity, gas, and heating. Patrick Labayle joined the firm as partner in 2010, in charge of Ravetto Associés’ public law practice.

After beginning their careers in prestigious French and Anglo-American firms, Ravetto Associés’ founding partners chose to create a human-sized firm in order to bring their clients tailored advice and to meet their expectations in terms of expertise, responsiveness, and availability.

The firm has grown to nine lawyers since its creation. Anne-Laure Proisy, who has been with Ravetto Associés since 2009, became a partner in 2016 and focuses on contractual, regulatory and M&A aspects in the renewable energy sector. The same year, Claire Bretheau joined as partner in charge of the financing of energy projects and French-German cross-border energy transactions.

Areas of practice: Ravetto Associés focuses on the legal, regulatory, and contractual aspects of the electricity, gas, and heat production industries.

The firm’s expertise also encompasses public business law, particularly public procurement law, and it represents the interests of local and national public authorities, as well as those of French and foreign corporate clients.

The firm’s clients vary in profile, status, nationality, and size. Ravetto Associés serves suppliers, producers, consumers, distributors, and regulators, as well as corporations and public authorities.

Ravetto Associés’ scope of practice covers the following: the legal and regulatory aspects of energy law (power and gas), including upstream (lobbying) and downstream (interpretation and appeal) reaction to new rules and legislation; public contract law (public procurement, public service delegations and PPPs) and litigation before administrative courts; energy supply agreements and other associated contracts (drawing rights), and agreements for accessing energy networks, including drafting, assisting in the negotiation, interpretation and litigation (especially before the energy regulatory commission, or before civil/administrative courts); energy trading agreements (EFET, ISDA and/or ad hoc contracts or framework agreements for underlying assets such as gas, electricity, capacity guarantees, allowances, etc; developing projects for new energy production plants, including the implementation of partnerships or development agreements between the parties involved, securing land tenure rights, permitting for energy rights, urban planning, and environmental protection, contracts for construction and operation of a new plant (turnkey contracts, delegated project management agreements, construction agreements, operation and maintenance agreements), creating and following up on project companies (drafting by-laws and shareholder agreements, financing through share capital increase or shareholder loan and corporate formalities); project financing, including legal audit, drafting the financing documentation and assistance in the negotiations of the financing documentation until the financial close; acquisition and takeover of companies involved in energy, including legal audit, drafting and assistance in negotiating share transfer agreements and following up on operation until the closing date.