Pacta sunt servanda.

Clients

A bespoke response

Q: Does the firm represent private individuals, or only States and companies?

The firm represents **private individuals, executives, entrepreneurs and investors** as well as companies, States, sovereign entities and correspondent firms. What determines the firm's involvement is not the status of the client but the international, sensitive and complex nature of the situation.

Q: I am the subject of an INTERPOL red notice or an extradition request. What should I do?

The firm challenges red notices and diffusions before the **Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files**, and coordinates the defence against extradition, the European arrest warrant or requests for judicial cooperation. Where the conditions are met, it may incorporate requests for interim measures before the European Court of Human Rights or other competent international mechanisms.

Q: Do you act in emergencies?

Yes. The firm's **Crisis Room** is a facility that can be mobilised at short notice. The first contact is examined as a matter of priority in order to characterise the situation, identify the critical deadlines and preserve the options liable to disappear quickly.

Q: May I instruct you if I am already represented by another lawyer?

Yes. The firm frequently acts as **co-counsel, as strategic reinforcement or as niche international expertise**, in strict respect of the relationship between the referring firm and its client. Its role is to complement the work of local or lead counsel, not to replace it.

Q: Does the firm communicate publicly on its cases?

No. As a matter of principle, the firm does not communicate publicly on its engagements. In sensitive cases, its intervention may remain **entirely discreet**: coordination with local counsel, confidential institutional approaches, private negotiations, secure communications and no public visibility where the protection of the client so requires.

Q: Does the firm accept every international case?

No. The firm accepts a limited number of engagements. Its intervention presupposes **an international dimension, genuine strategic complexity, significant legal or institutional stakes**, and identifiable added value from the firm. Where another route is better suited, the firm may refer you to local or specialist counsel.

Q: How are meetings conducted?

Initial exchanges take place **remotely, by secure videoconference**, so that your matter can be taken up promptly wherever you are located. Depending on the nature and progress of the case, in-person working meetings may subsequently be arranged in the capitals concerned.

Q: In which languages and regions do you operate?

The firm works in **French, English and Spanish**, and draws on an international network of correspondents selected case by case. This network covers, in particular, Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Russia and the CIS, Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Gulf, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and common law jurisdictions.

Exposed individual, executive, investor, company, State, sovereign entity or counsel already instructed: when the law becomes a threat rather than a protection, Hennebel Avocats builds a bespoke strategy, tailored to the precise configuration of the case and commensurate with the legal, economic, institutional and reputational stakes.

The personal involvement of the founder, rigorous confidentiality and international mobilisation when the situation so requires. The firm works in French, English and Spanish.

The firm

A defence conceived as an architecture, not as a sequence of procedural steps.

In transnational cases, urgency does not displace method. It demands that the mechanisms be characterised, the fronts prioritised and the decisions coordinated before the constraint spreads.

Bespoke

A strategy built for your situation, never a standard template

Strict confidentiality

Legal professional privilege · Secure channels

Personal involvement

The founder and, where necessary, affiliated experts

Whom the firm serves

Whatever your profile, a strategy for your situation

What determines the firm's involvement is not your status but the international nature and complexity of the situation. Identify the profile closest to your own.

Individuals, private wealth & family offices

Private individuals · Executives · Investors · Family offices · Wealth managers · Exposed public figures

INTERPOL red notice Extradition Asset freeze & sanctions Transnational investigation

You are the subject of a red notice, an extradition request, a transnational investigation, an asset freeze or proceedings with a political dimension. The firm organises your defence and seeks to restore your room for manoeuvre: challenge before the CCF, release of assets, protection of procedural guarantees and of exposed assets, protection of immunity where applicable, negotiation. For family offices and their principals, the firm secures exposed assets (sanctions, asset freezes, debanking), coordinates counsel and preserves confidentiality.

Companies & executives

Multinationals · International mid-caps and SMEs · Senior management and legal departments · Boards of directors

Sanctions & compliance Conflict zones Investment & arbitration Business & human rights

Your organisation or its executives are exposed to sanctions, an investigation, a geopolitical crisis, operations in a conflict zone or an investment dispute. Upstream advice, compliant structuring, crisis management and defence (ICSID, UNCITRAL), prevention of the risks of complicity and extraterritorial liability, independent and conflict-free strategic analysis.

States & sovereign entities

Governments · Ministries · State entities · Sovereign wealth funds

Immunities International Court of Justice Investment arbitration Public international law

You represent a State or a sovereign entity facing international litigation, an investment claim, a threat to sovereign assets or a diplomatic crisis. Representation before international and regional courts, defence of sovereign interests, protection of immunities, and discreet supporting roles.

Political figures & former leaders

Heads of State and Government, serving or former · Ministers · Senior officials

Lawfare INTERPOL & extradition Immunities International forums

You are the target of politically motivated prosecutions, red notices, an extradition request or a reputational campaign. Defence, challenge, protection of immunity, management of the information environment, mobilisation of international forums and diplomatic channels, and parallel action away from public view when the situation so requires.

Lawyers, correspondents & crisis agencies

Business law firms · Criminal defence lawyers · General practitioners · Crisis management agencies · Communications agencies

INTERPOL ECHR & UN committees Delisting Lawfare

You act for a client whose matter has a complex international dimension (law firm, crisis management or communications agency) and wish to entrust its international legal aspects to specialist counsel of recognised standing: co-counsel, niche expertise, delegated conduct of proceedings. In strict respect of your client relationship: discretion, loyalty, coordination.

Individuals, families & human rights

Individuals · Families and relatives · Dissidents · Political opponents · Human rights defenders

Arbitrary detention Torture & disappearances ECHR & UN committees Special Procedures

You, or someone close to you, are facing arbitrary detention, a risk of torture, enforced disappearance, political persecution or a denial of justice. Applications to the European Court of Human Rights, the UN treaty bodies and the Special Procedures, strategic litigation with a normative purpose, mobilisation and protection.

Recognise your situation

When the law becomes a constraint

If your accounts are frozen, if proceedings open simultaneously in several countries, if banking, institutional or media pressure is brought to bear before any decision on the merits, you are facing a constraint produced by the law itself: sanctions, proceedings with extraterritorial reach, weaponised litigation, restrictions on mobility, terminated contracts.
These effects are rarely gradual and rarely isolated. They combine and amplify one another, often across several jurisdictions, until they become irreversible if they are not brought under control in time.

The challenge is not merely to respond to proceedings: it is to understand how the constraint spreads, through which precise channels, and where the levers lie that make it possible to regain the initiative.

Representative situations

Issues handled, without revealing anyone.

The following situations are anonymised and reconstructed. They illustrate issues handled without disclosing any client data: no identity, no specific jurisdiction, no quantified outcome. Any resemblance to an identifiable case is excluded by design.

INTERPOL / Notices rouges

Multi-jurisdictional proceedings

Politically motivated red notice targeting a national living abroad

A national established outside his country of origin is the subject of a red notice based on prosecutions of a markedly political character. His freedom of movement is restricted, his accounts are obstructed, and the reputational exposure is immediate.

The strategy combines an application to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files with action on fundamental rights, with a view to the deletion of the notice and the lifting of the restrictions.

Sanctions

Restrictive measures, several regimes

Sanctions designation and contested asset freeze

An individual and the structures connected to him are listed under a regime of restrictive measures. Assets are frozen and banking relationships severed, without full access to the material on which the listing is based.

The objective is to challenge the listing before the competent authority and the reviewing court, together with management of the effects on bona fide third parties.

Criminalité économique

Mutual legal assistance in criminal matters

Transnational investigation and overlapping mutual assistance requests

An executive is the subject of an economic criminal investigation involving several States and simultaneous mutual legal assistance requests, with a risk of coordinated searches and precautionary measures.

The defence seeks to coordinate the response across jurisdictions, to challenge disproportionate measures and to preserve the rights of the defence throughout the mutual assistance process.

Lawfare

Coordinated strategic litigation

Weaponised proceedings against a prominent individual

A prominent individual is the subject of multiple, publicised and coordinated proceedings whose purpose appears to be attrition and destabilisation rather than the resolution of a genuine dispute.

The response combines legal defence, control of exposure and recharacterisation of the proceedings as an abuse of process, before the relevant forums.

Immunités souveraines

Litigation involving a State

Enforcement proceedings challenging the immunity of a State

Enforcement measures are brought against property liable to be covered by sovereign immunity, raising the question of the distinction between commercial acts and acts of sovereign authority.

The challenge is to assert the applicable immunity and to reconcile the State's position with the requirements of the enforcement litigation.

Arbitrage d'investissement

Treaty-based arbitration

Foreign investor confronted with a State measure

An investor is subjected to a State measure affecting the value of his investment and invokes the protections of an investment treaty, in a politically sensitive context.

The strategy assesses the arbitral route and the sequencing of negotiation, notice of dispute and proceedings, in the light of the applicable treaty.

Gestion de crise

Multi-jurisdictional crisis

Group confronted with a simultaneous crisis on several fronts

Within a compressed timeframe, a group faces an investigation, media exposure and a risk of contagion to its banking and commercial relationships.

The firm steers an integrated response, bringing together the legal, reputational and business continuity workstreams, with a tight decision-making cell.

Droits de l'homme

International courts and committees

Application to an international court or committee

After exhaustion of domestic remedies, a serious violation of fundamental rights warrants an application to a regional court or a UN committee, with a request for interim measures.

The objective is the admissibility of the application, the grant of interim measures where appropriate and a decision on the merits establishing the responsibility of the State.

What the firm brings you

Regaining the initiative

The objective is not to multiply actions, but to restore your room for manoeuvre and to secure your critical decisions.

Full-spectrum analysis

A comprehensive assessment from the first signals, integrating the legal, institutional, criminal, economic and reputational dimensions, in order to anticipate cascading effects.

Effective levers

Identification of the levers that genuinely work: targeted litigation, institutional mechanisms, procedural margins, diplomatic channels, banking or regulatory levers.

Mapping & action plan

A precise mapping of the risks, the actors and the jurisdictions, followed by a prioritised action plan that takes account of their interactions and timeframes.

Bespoke strategy

Responses designed for the precise configuration of your case, where standard models are ineffective.

Coordinated execution

Simultaneous action on several fronts (litigation, institutional, banking, diplomatic) to avoid a fragmented response.

Negotiation & private legal diplomacy

Confidential negotiations with authorities, institutions, regulators or banks, and the mobilisation of an international network of experts selected for your case.

Our commitment

Direct and continuous involvement

Your case is never one case among many.

The firm commits itself personally to the engagements it accepts, with availability, responsiveness and personal involvement matched to the level of exposure of the case. When the situation so requires, it works in coordination with leading criminal defence lawyers, in France or abroad, while retaining strategic control of the international, institutional and treaty dimensions.

That is the precondition for a credible, controlled and useful intervention.

Frequently asked questions

Your first questions

Does the firm represent private individuals, or only States and companies?

The firm represents private individuals, executives, entrepreneurs and investors as well as companies, States, sovereign entities and correspondent firms. What determines the firm's involvement is not the status of the client but the international, sensitive and complex nature of the situation.

My assets have been frozen or my accounts closed. Can you intervene?

Yes. The firm acts in cases involving OFAC, European, British, Swiss or UN designations, asset freezes, blocked bank accounts, debanking and overcompliance. Its intervention may include risk mapping, challenging the measure, delisting or licence applications, banking remediation and negotiation with financial institutions or compliance functions.

I am the subject of an INTERPOL red notice or an extradition request. What should I do?

The firm challenges red notices and diffusions before the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files, and coordinates the defence against extradition, the European arrest warrant or requests for judicial cooperation. Where the conditions are met, it may incorporate requests for interim measures before the European Court of Human Rights or other competent international mechanisms.

Do you act in emergencies?

Yes. The firm's Crisis Room is a facility that can be mobilised at short notice. The first contact is examined as a matter of priority in order to characterise the situation, identify the critical deadlines and preserve the options liable to disappear quickly.

May I instruct you if I am already represented by another lawyer?

Yes. The firm frequently acts as co-counsel, as strategic reinforcement or as niche international expertise, in strict respect of the relationship between the referring firm and its client. Its role is to complement the work of local or lead counsel, not to replace it.

Does the firm communicate publicly on its cases?

Does the firm accept every international case?

What should be provided at the first contact?

The first message should briefly set out the situation, the States or jurisdictions concerned, the pending proceedings, the decisions already handed down, the urgent deadlines, the counsel already instructed and the essential documents available. There is no need to send a complete case file at the first exchange: the initial objective is to assess the urgency, the risks and the relevance of an intervention.

How are meetings conducted?

In which languages and regions do you operate?

Contact by profile

Find the right point of entry

Depending on your profile, an initial confidential orientation discussion, without mutual commitment.

Individuals, private wealth & family offices

Red notice, extradition, asset freeze, transnational investigation.

Companies & executives

Sanctions, compliance, conflict zones, investment disputes.

States & sovereign entities

International litigation, immunities, sovereign assets.

Political figures & former leaders

Lawfare, red notices, extradition, protection of immunity.

Lawyers, correspondents & crisis agencies

Co-counsel, niche expertise, international legal aspects of a crisis case.

Individuals, families & human rights

Arbitrary detention, disappearance, persecution, denial of justice.

Exposer votre situation

Whatever your situation,

From the moment you make contact, the firm examines the situation as a matter of priority and may arrange an initial confidential orientation discussion, where appropriate through secure channels, in order to assess the situation and identify the relevant options. In French, English and Spanish. The initial discussion entails no mutual commitment.

Request an orientation discussion

global@hennebel.legal