Sophie Vermeille is the founder of Droit & Croissance.
She currently practices corporate, securities and restructuring law in Paris and has worked in the past for several international law firms (such as Clifford Chance, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Freshfields and DLA Piper).
Sophie advises investors, shareholder advocacy groups, short selling activists and minority shareholders on matters such as:
• distressed investment and restructuring procedures, whether her clients run loan-to-own strategies, seek to acquire distressed assets or work out existing positions in leveraged finance and high-yield assets;
• corporate governance, proxy contests, tender offers, squeeze-outs, PtoP, etc.;
• strategic aspects and applicable regulations to short selling activism, for which she has a unique experience in France (as she is the main counsel of one of the most famous short seller activists in the world); and
• strategic aspects and applicable regulations to long activism, as she has worked for numerous activist hedge funds in the past (in particular on the Veolia-Suez case for which she has been mandated to build a comprehensive legal strategy for her clients).
Ms. Vermeille is a researcher and guest lecturer in Law and Finance at Panthéon-Sorbonne.
She is also a regular speaker at bankruptcy conferences organized by industry groups (INSOL International, INSOL EUROPE TMA…) or regulators (IMF, World Bank, European Commission, AMF (the French Market Authority), ACPR (the French banking supervisor)).
Ms. Vermeille is a graduate of the University of Panthéon-Assas University, where she received her law degree in business law (Magistère Juriste d’Affaires, Diplôme de juriste conseil d’entreprise), and of King’s College London from which she holds an LL.M. in business law.