Biography
Lorène is a Translator/Paralegal at Signature’s Paris office. She assists the entire office, with some focus on Commercial Litigation and Product Liability.
After working with Thomas Rouhette and Sylvie Gallage-Alwis since 2008, Lorène joined the Paris office with its founding partners in January 2019.
As a translator, Lorène translates all types of documents from and into English and French, as well as from Italian to French and English. Such documents include contracts, submissions, memos, statements, expert reports, technical reports, and any other type of documents shared in litigation cases. She also participates in client meetings, either acting as an interpreter for clients or for simultaneous translation purposes. Lorène is the contact point between the firm and the various translation agencies used by the teams.
As a paralegal, Lorène’s responsibilities span the administrative management of product liability and toxic tort cases, legal research, drafting and managing documents. She is in regular contact with the French courts and manages relations with bailiffs and other external providers.
Lorène is also in charge of the pre-litigation phase of occupational disease cases, analysing documents and drafting case documents.
Prior to joining the firm, Lorène studied translation and interpreting at the University of Salford and the University of Cergy-Pontoise. She also spent a year abroad working for a bank in Frankfurt and an electricity supplier in Milan.
Lorène has significant experience in trial preparations, case management, research and legal drafting, translation and interpreting.
Lorène is a native English and French speaker and is fluent in Italian.
Experience
- Representing a US manufacturer of automotive parts in a dispute with a multinational automotive manufacturer concerning alleged defective engine parts. The dispute is worth in excess of EUR 100m.
- Representing leading manufacturers and large industrial groups in relation to more than 10,000 separate claims in more than 10 different courts in France filed by individuals on the grounds of their anxiety to develop an asbestos-related disease in the future (“fear of cancer” cases).
- Representing a US electric equipment manufacturer in relation to a court-ordered investigation, in addition to an investigation by the BEA (a French government agency authorized to investigate accidents posing significant industrial risk), following a fire at a major European data centre causing significant disruption to online services.
- Representing an international group providing industrial services in pre-emptive actions to prevent the enforcement of an adverse US-decision and in the recognition and enforcement in France of an English High Court judgment.
- Representing a major US company operating an online platform for short and long-term homestays in various regulatory and civil liability disputes before the French courts against individuals, companies and local authorities.
- Representing a vaccine manufacturer in relation to claims filed by patients concerning alleged side effects from the vaccine and/or claims by individuals who have refused to be vaccinated requesting additional data about the vaccine.
- Representing a US tyre manufacturer in a precedent-setting claim filed by over 500 individuals concerning their anxiety to develop cancer from alleged exposure to chemical substances contained in the tyres and alleged lack of sufficient warning to the end-users of the risks. The total value of the claims is EUR 50m. More significantly, should this claim prevail, it would have enormous consequences for the manufacturing industry as this is a civil claim filed by non-employees and not related to asbestos (which to date is the only substance giving the right to the “anxiety damage”).
- Representing leading manufacturers and large industrial groups in relation to more than 600 separate claims in different courts in France filed by former employees claiming to have developed asbestos-related diseases.
Publications
Article: The DGCCRF and Online Platforms’ Duty to Inform Consumers -Lawyer Monthly – 28 May 2020