Marie-Claude Frank has been promoted to Senior Counsel. She practices in the Corporate Department advising major banks and private equity houses in connection with a wide range of corporate and corporate finance transactions. She has gained a solid expertise in merger and acquisitions and joint ventures as well as in commercial matters. She has recently been assisting in ICSID arbitrations as regards the interpretation of certain commercial law concepts.

Five lawyers have been appointed as Counsels.

Virginie Apard is specialised in General Commercial and Litigation. She has a recognised expertise on complex domestic as well as cross-border and multi-jurisdictional corporate, banking insolvency and tax litigation mandates. Virginie has furthermore been representing clients in a number of institutional and ad hoc arbitration proceedings.

Erika Gabrielli is an Italian lawyer in BSP’s Dispute Resolution department. Her principal fields of activity include General Commercial, IP/IT and Litigation matters where she advises clients on domestic and international proceedings. She has an extensive expertise on EU legislation and is part of BSP’s Italian Desk which has been recently recognised as “Independent Italian Desk of the Year” at Top Legal awards in Italy.

Avocat à la Cour, Thierry Pouliquen practices mainly in the areas of Commercial Litigation and Business Crime, focusing on contract law, commercial lease, banking, compliance and regulatory matters. Thierry’s has been particularly active in the last years in the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing matters  which experience makes him one of the most respected experts in AML and KYC processes in Luxembourg.

Specialised in corporate and banking law and IP/IT, Michaël Kitai regularly advises private equity houses, venture capital funds, local enterprises and international companies on structuring and financing of international buy-out transactions, joint ventures, corporate reorganisations, mergers & acquisitions as well as on corporate governance matters. He has been particularly active during recent years in gaming law and has written several articles on the subject as a Luxembourg expert.

Alexander Zalivako, a graduate of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and Harvard Law School, is part of the Banking & Finance department. Before joining the firm, he worked several years in the Moscow office of a major English law firm. Acting for credit institutions, institutional investors and borrowers, Alexander has experience in banking and capital markets transactions, including trade and commodity finance, acquisition and leveraged finance, structured finance, aviation and leasing finance, private and public bonds issuances and credit derivative products.

Aleksandra Gucwa, part of the Employment Practice and also specialised in data protection matters, has been promoted as Senior Associate.

Alain Steichen, co-founder of the firm, had the following comments on these seven appointments: “These latest promotions reflect BSP’s dedication to recruiting and retaining outstanding legal talent and providing lawyers who regularly deliver high quality client service, with opportunity for advancement. He added: “We believe these promotions, in combination with the latest hires, furthers our commitment to provide best-in-class legal advice to address our clients’ business challenges.”

Bonn Steichen & Partners is considered one of Luxembourg’s top law firms. It has been recognised for the second year in a row with a gold award as the “Best Luxembourg Independent Law Firm” by a distinguished panel of legal counsels during the 15th edition of the Trophées du Droit organised in Paris by Leaders League.