About us

We are experts in handling cases with an international component

Our lawyers assist and represent CEOs, celebrities, annuitants, engineers, university faculty members and top managers confronted with personal, patrimonial as well as business law issues with an international element (e.g. complex divorce or estate cases involving a company and / or real property abroad).

We can offer you a long-term strategy, as we consider law in a pragmatic way, i.e. as a tool to achieve personal and family welfare, and to efficiently manage a business.

With over 35 years of experience and recognition in the field of international law, we can help you better protect your interests without applying “Big law” fees.

Our clients are French expatriates or foreigners (individuals and businesses) who have ties in France or in Europe. Our international clients are mainly Anglo-Saxon or established in Anglo-Saxon countries ( in the United States , in particular). Some, however, reside in Russia, Germany, Dubai, Italy, South America.

To the extent possible, we favor amicable methods in resolving disputes, taking into account each party’s particular situation as well the long-term interests of all stake-holders. However, we do not hesitate to go to court when necessary. Our practical experience, our knowledge of other cultures, countries and languages, as well as our longstanding ties with a professionals overseas, are the key ingredients to obtaining successful outcomes for our clients.

Our lawyers are members of a French bar and /or a foreign bar. They are qualified in France and in several foreign countries.

Every lawyer in the firm has developed specific areas of expertise, as well as a sense of legal creativity. Our lawyers favor a long-term vision, whether in an advisory or contentious context.

All of them are bilingual, if not trilingual.

A dedicated team is assigned to each file, giving you the full perspective on your situation and ensuring that there is always a lawyer available for you, able to react in case of emergency.

To ensure the sharing of knowledge and the successful outcome of our clients’ cases, our team also comprises official translators (assistant notaires).

We also work alongside English, American, Russian, French, etc. law professors, as well as notaires, lawyers with different expertise, mediators, certified accountants and psychologists on a daily basis. We regularly solicit expert lawyers within our practice area who are based in other jurisdictions.

VILLARD CORNEC & ASSOCIES A.A.R.P.I. is a limited individual professional liability independent French law firm. In 2012, we created the first law in Moscow bringing together French and Russian lawyers specialized in private clients. The two legal entities have structural links and some partners in common.

The need to create the law firm INTERJURIST stemmed from the realization that there are very few bilingual experts in Russia capable of efficiently solving crises, which are increasingly complex due to the rapid transformation of family schemes, the globalisation of communications and the evolution of society.

Between the period of crisis of the 1990ies and that of the opening and the development of a more prosperous Russia over the past ten years, the family codes have changed – but not necessarily the way the Western codes did. Family situations that did not exist before arise: mixed marriages and an increasing number of divorces, wrongful cross-border child removals, international adoptions, migrations…From the moment there is an international element in the relation, a conflict of legal systems arises (for instance, in case of same-sex marriage. If a Russian marries a Frenchman in France, the marriage will not be recognized in Russia but there will be a legal solution through a marital contract which enables to protect the interests of the spouses in case of separation or death, including in Russia).

Our clients need lawyers who have a mastery of cross-border issues, a team with an international network of experts and that deals with every aspect of family crises : legal, patrimonial, but also security and psychological.

The Moscow’s clientele consists of several Forbes-ranked fortunes and many businessmen and politicians.

With the VILLARD CORNEC & ASSOCIES and the INTERJURIST lawyers working together on a daily basis, our team is able to assist you in the broadest and fastest way.