Thirteen years after the creation of Boken, Antoine Beauquier, founding partner,
Silvia Lepel, partner, and their team of 9 professionals are joining BCTG Avocats to develop the firm’s criminal business law, banking and finance practice.

The two firms have entered into a strategic alliance. In a context of criminalisation of the business world, integrating a criminal dimension was part of BCTG Avocats’ development plans and meets a growing demand from the market. It’s a done deal! The lawyers of both firms quickly realised that their expertise was very complementary and that they shared the same vision of their profession, of client relations and a very collective approach to cases. At Boken as at BCTG Avocats, we like to share our views and experiences, but above all we like to work together on cases. Cross-functionality represented more than 30% of BCTG Avocats’ turnover in 2021.

Together, they believe that many companies are not sufficiently prepared for criminal risk. Sup-porting clients on these sensitive and complex issues at the highest level of the company is one of the foundations of the merger between the Boken and BCTG Avocats teams.

Boken’s lawyers work for major institutional accounts in the banking, insurance and industry sec-tors. They advise their clients on all their criminal law and compliance issues: during investigations conducted by regulatory authorities, in setting up delegations of authority in particularly complex contexts, or in mapping risks, particularly reputational risks, with a view to anticipation and pre-vention.

Hugues Villey Desmeserets, partner in charge of the competition and distribution department, comments: “We had identified a specific need among our clients for a strategic approach to crimi-nal risk. We were looking for an efficient and reputable team. Meeting Antoine on a case was deci-sive. We share the essentials. BCTG Avocats has already demonstrated its ability to integrate en-tire teams. Cross-functionality is at the heart of our approach. Compliance and criminal law now permeate almost all our practices. We are very happy to welcome Boken’s lawyers and we are very confident about the dynamic we will initiate together.

Antoine Beauquier added: “I aspired to join a larger firm with the Boken team. By joining BCTG Avocats, we are giving our clients access to high quality skills and teams. The synergies are ob-vious, we work for large institutional clients and their executives. BCTG Avocats has a significant client base in the innovation sector. We will share our experiences to better serve our clients and support the development of our employees in a demanding and promising environment.

BCTG Avocats currently has 65 professionals, including 15 partners.