A FIRM ALWAYS AT THE FOREFRONT OF INNOVATION
Huglo Lepage Avocats, founded on common values, has never stopped reinventing itself.
INNOVATION IN PUBLIC LAW
Huglo Lepage Avocats was the first public law firm to be opened by court lawyers. At the time, only lawyers at the Conseil d’Etat and the Cour de Cassation claimed to practice administrative law. With a doctorate in public law, Christian Huglo and Corinne Lepage learned their trade with a lawyer at the Conseil d’Etat and the Cour de Cassation for several years. This public law speciality has remained a strong element of the firm throughout the decades, with several awards for this activity.
Today, the firm still advises public authorities and public institutions and carries out most of its litigation activity in the field of public law and in particular public business law. In addition, the long-standing participation of private lawyers in the firm enables us to combine traditional administrative law with the areas of private law that are often linked to it, particularly in the area of civil and criminal liability.
RECOGNISED EXPERTISE IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Over the past 40 years, Huglo Lepage Avocats has led most of the major environmental law cases in France, Europe and even in the United States with the Amoco-Cadiz case. Christian Huglo initiated environmental law with the Montedison red mud trial in the early 1970s, and then with the pollution of the Bay of Seine and the Rhine. The Amoco-Cadiz, Erika and, more recently, Xynthia trials have made Huglo Lepage Avocats the leading specialist in environmental class action suits. Defending foreign public authorities such as the Land of Saarland or the City and Canton of Geneva in nuclear cases, including before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the firm is also developing expertise in all the new areas of the environment: hazardous products, biotechnologies, green chemistry, etc.
A STRONG PRESENCE IN DOCTRINE
Huglo Lepage Avocats is still the author of the commented code of administrative justice published by Lexis Nexis. It is also at the forefront of doctrine in the environmental field. Christian Huglo co-edits the jurisclasseur environnement and the firm is also the author of the Code de l’environnement commenté published by Lexis Nexis.
The firm's major cases
Since 1978, Huglo Lepage Avocats has reinvented itself to meet the new challenges of our time. Founded on 1 January 1978, the firm is rebuilding itself around a new ecosystem, but also around the strong values that have made its reputation.
The firm presents 40 cases that have left their mark on the law and that are rich in lessons for the future.
Among its 40 cases, the 12 most important or most emblematic have been selected to be presented each month with a video, press clippings or filmed archives.
These 12 cases cover very different areas, may have been argued in the 1970s or in the 2000s, but they are all of considerable importance today and have helped to create environmental law.