LEADERS LEAGUE. How would you define your organizational model?
Emil Epp. We have a cross-border approach. All lawyers have the legal, linguistic, cultural and economic knowledge to advise clients from German-speaking countries in France and from French-speaking countries in Germany.

What are your main challenges in cross-border or bi-national labor law?
Emil Epp. The main challenge is to simplify the complex French labor and social security law for our German-speaking clients. Furthermore, as the rules reflect the cultural differences between the two countries, we provide our clients not only with our technical knowledge but also advice on more personal issues.

What are the advantages of the ecosystem of companies you have created?
Anne-Lise Lamy. The companies we have created offer complementary services to legal advice in the language of our clients. The focus is always on the needs for companies to set up and thrive abroad. Our clients have the opportunity to rely on our partners, Euro-Droit (for France) and the Franco-German accounting firm EPP Steuerberatung Expertise Comptable (for Germany), who are in charge of human resources and payroll management for more than 300 companies on both sides of the Rhine.

Since 2020, you have been welcoming French companies to Baden-Baden. What are the pillars of your new network?
Anne-Lise Lamy. In order to enable French companies to develop without constraints in Germany, we have created the domiciliation company Vis-à-Vis. This company offers a wide range of services, from the domiciliation of a branch or subsidiary to the provision of equipped workspaces and meeting rooms for operational teams.

Considered as a strategic asset when setting up in the German market, using Vis-à-vis is a smart solution to benefit from a prestigious address and an operational infrastructure while avoiding the legal and practical constraints of finding and entering new premises. To offer a complete range of services to companies, we have also created the Franco-German accounting firm EPP Steuerberatung Expertise Comptable to help French companies present in Germany with accountancy and the establishment of a balance sheet, tax declarations as well as human resources management and payroll.

You are a founding partner of CBBL Cross Border Business Lawyers. How does EPP fit into this global network of German-speaking business lawyers?
Dorothée Stumpf. We founded CBBL to give our clients from Germany, Austria and Switzerland access to first-class legal advice in German not only in France, but everywhere in foreign business. Predominantly trained as German lawyers, CBBL lawyers are well placed in 60 countries to assist in building bridges to the foreign legal system. They have many years of intercultural experience, which are indispensable prerequisites for successful cross-border advice.

We will implement
this global approach of complementary service companies and provide “one-stop-shopping” in more than 60 countries

How do you see your firm evolving in the coming years?
Emil Epp. Our objective is to provide the basis for “one-stop shopping” in the cross-border field and thus facilitate the task for companies. A French company setting up in Germany through the creation of a new structure or the takeover of an existing structure has multiple needs: legal advice, tax advice, support in the search for personnel, a banking partner, a partner in the field of insurance...

Interview with 

EMIL EPP
Rechtsanwalt and Founder, EPP RECHTSANWÄLTE AVOCATS
ANNE-LISE LAMY,
Lawyer and Head, VIS-À-VIS and EPP STEUERBERATUNG EXPERTISE COMPTABLE
and DOROTHÉE STUMPF
Lawyer and Head, CBBL CROSS BORDER BUSINESS LAWYERS