Olivia GAST is a precious help in managing our franchise matters in France since 2011. Very reactive, her strategic advice guided us through the French hoops which she made understandable, in transactional work as well as litigation. Her knowledge of franchise agreements and franchise law, French franchise operators helped a great deal. We would recommend working with her to any franchisor wanting to do business in France or Europe, and she knows the person you need anywhere
Franchising
The firm is an internationally renowned franchising expert since decades, both in transactional and litigation work. Olivia GAST, leading managing partner since 2013, has just been appointed as Officer of the International Bar Association’s International Franchising Committee.
Innovation
The firm is strongly business and innovation oriented. It has a full-service approach that includes strategic vision and planning, management, marketing and communication issues. Olivia GAST owns a business school degree in Management Technology and Innovation.
Environment
The firm advocates for the environment and gives out “1% for the Planet”: health, animals and environment protection issues, mountain professionals defense, Green IT (such as planned obsolescence) … We can help.
Arbitration
Olivia GAST is a certified Arbitrator and is training to be a Mediator. She gives conferences about arbitration in distribution agreements and write articles on the topic. You can appoint her as Arbitrator.
Anibal Fernandez
Vice President, Franchise Operations & Development - Hard Rock International Headquarters USA
Olivia Gast is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. To make it simple, she won 100% of our cases. Gast Avocats are sharp, they serve. They will always find out the weak points, ours and our opponent’s to build a strong winning for all strategy. By the way, most of the time Olivia will use her astonishing negotiation skills to find a quick win without the need of going to court. One over point that makes a great difference between our past experiences with other firms is that Olivia gets directly involved in every case and never delegates to anyone strategic meetings and customer relationship to juniors ! If “for peanuts you get monkeys” rings a bell to you, then I’ll definitely recommend hiring Gast Avocats they always deliver at reasonable prices for their performance.
Pierre-Nicodème Taslé
CEO of BEEBUZZINESS
The two cases we entrusted to Olivia Gast pitted us against a group that was vastly more powerful than we were. And they were delicate because our previous lawyer had already lost both cases in the first trials. So it was very much an uphill battle for Olivia. Olivia was successful in reversing both decisions in appeal courts and winning back all we had lost. She did so convincingly and made sure that the lawsuits did not make their way to the French supreme court. In her dealings with us, Olivia proved to be absolutely honest and easy to deal with. What we appreciated most was her capacity to delve into the subtleties of our markets and business models to find the relevant information that would help her argue and win our cases.
Victoria's English
Franchising - Distribution - Competition
Contracts, litigation, negotiations, commercial leases, e-retail, competition, brands, international, corporate, investments… and Arbitration and other ADR.
Our office helps all kinds of networks in accordance with all types of distribution (Franchise, Master Franchise, selective distribution…) at each stage of their development, in France and abroad thanks to the bilingual know-how of our lawyers and our partners abroad, especially in the USA.
As such, our office is a member of many international franchise lawyers organizations. We are also working in contact with marketing, real estate and budgeting experts…
Arbitration
Arbitration and other ADR.
Olivia GAST is a certified Arbitrator, and is training to become also a Mediator.
You can consult her on an arbitration matter, or appoint her as an Arbitrator in a case.
Environment - New Technologies - IT
Contracts and competition over environment, new technologies and Green IT (REACh, ErP, WEEE, cloud computing contracts, CNIL: National Commission on Informatics and Liberty …).
Audit and legal monitoring (especially for CSR reporting), assistance with research tax credit, environmental regulation compliance:
Environmental labeling (large retailers), carbon content display (transportation), Waste (including WEEE and packaging), ICPE (Environmentally Protected Facility), Water Law, Bail Vert (“Green Leases”, an environmental annex of commercial leases)…
Our office is involved in many working groups and is a member of many organizations in France and abroad.
We are working in contact with experts, including CSR monitoring (especially with softwares), digital edition and publication of virtual documents.
International Partners
As a member of many international organizations, (International Bar Association, International Franchise Association, American Bar Association, International Distribution Institute, IDArb (for arbitration), Union Internationale des Avocats, Center of Environmental Law of IUCN…), our office has entered into a partnership with many law offices abroad: USA, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, United Kingdom, Russia, Taiwan, amongst others.
Our office regularly works with foreign brands, especially with the USA.
Thus, our office helps foreign clients to set up their network in France, and French clients to develop abroad.
Events
Every year, the firm participates in PARIS FRANCHISE EXPO in March. Don’t wait, set up a meeting! As Lawyers’ Innovation Price nominee, the firm introduced its electronic franchise disclosure document (eFDD).
Every year the firm participates in international franchising events, such as the IBA/IFA JOINT Convention in May, the Forum on Franchising in the fall, the IBA… Don’t be shy, meet us there ! Olivia GAST is regularly a speaker and author.