Laurent Cohen Tanugi

Laurent Cohen-Tanugi is partner at Cohen Tanugi Law firm. Prior to founding his law firm in 2008, he joined Skadden, Arps in January 2005 following his position as senior vice president, general counsel and member of the executive committee of the pharmaceutical concern Sanofi-Synthélabo. He had previously practiced for 20 years with a major international law firm where he was a partner since 1991. Focusing on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and joint venture transactions, Mr. Cohen-Tanugi participated in two of the most complex cross-border public M&A transactions in recent years: the three-way merger between Vivendi, The Seagram Company Ltd., and Canal+ Group that created Vivendi Universal S.A., as counsel to the Canal+ Group (2000); and Sanofi-Synthélabo’s ?60bn unsolicited tender offer for Aventis, the largest transaction worldwide in 2004, as general counsel of Sanofi-Synthélabo. He is currently representing Alcatel S.A. in its merger with Lucent Technologies, Inc. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Cohen-Tanugi also advised in numerous cross-border joint venture, merger, acquisition and divestiture transactions in the media sector involving the main global players in the industry. Over the past 20 years, he also represented a major European brewer in connection with a series of significant acquisitions on the French market, and also advised numerous other industrial enterprises and financial institutions. In addition to his sectoral knowledge of the communications and healthcare industries, his role as "trusted advisor" to several corporate groups led him to expand his practice to M&A-related areas such as French and European Union merger control proceedings, securities and antitrust litigation, and international arbitration. Acting as counsel in numerous International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) and ad hoc arbitration proceedings, he recently represented the Bank for International Settlements in the international law proceeding resulting from the Bank’s mandatory repurchase of its shares held in private hands. He is registered on the list of French arbitrators of the ICC and a member of the French National Committee of the Court of Arbitration of that institution. Mr. Cohen-Tanugi has written several books dealing in particular with the digital economy, European affairs and transatlantic relations, including most recently An Alliance At Risk, the United States and Europe Since September 11 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). He is a member of the French Academy of Technologies, sits on the board of several international think tanks and is a regular columnist for the leading French business daily Les Echos. A frequent consultant to the French government, he sat on the Commission on Judicial Reform established by President Chirac in 1997 and is currently a member of the Commission on the Intangible Economy set up by the French government.