Highly specialised practices,
a cross-disciplinary approach

Fournol & Associés is an independent Paris-based law firm specialising in art market law, creative industries law, publishing law and equine law. The Firm advises and represents a French and international client base comprising auction houses, galleries, private collectors, artists and artist estates, museums, foundations, publishers, architects, luxury brands, audiovisual producers and stakeholders across the equine sector.

For over a decade, the Firm has worked in sectors that share a need for a distinctive approach. A work of art, a piece of designer furniture, an archive, a manuscript, an architectural creation, a valuable horse, a private collection or an author’s estate can never be reduced to its legal characterisation alone. Each carries a history, a value, a provenance, an attribution, a purpose, a reputation and a legacy.

This distinctiveness lies at the heart of the approach taken by the lawyers at Fournol & Associés.

The Firm acts in matters where several areas of law intersect: copyright law, art market law, publishing law, auction law, cultural heritage law, customs law governing cultural property, criminal law relating to art and cultural heritage, art taxation, non-profit and philanthropy law, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing compliance, publishing agreements, inheritance and estate law, equine law, liability law, and civil, commercial and criminal litigation.

This cross-disciplinary expertise enables the Firm’s lawyers to consider every matter in its full legal, economic, heritage-related, reputational and human context.

Whether securing a sale, negotiating an agreement, defending an attribution, structuring an estate, arranging the reissue of a work, protecting moral rights, organising a collection, advising an author, challenging an expert opinion, representing an auction house or handling an equine-related dispute, the Firm develops a strategy tailored to the precise nature of the interests at stake.

The Firm advises clients across a number of sectors: the art market; artists and artist estates; museums, foundations and philanthropy; publishing; the creative and cultural industries; private collectors; architecture; design and the decorative arts; and the equine sector.

Based in Paris, Fournol & Associés advises French and international clients on matters that frequently raise cross-border issues. Sales, acquisitions, estates, reissues, exhibitions, adaptations, ownership claims and disputes often engage several jurisdictions, legal systems and professional practices.

Whenever required, the Firm works in close coordination with trusted foreign counsel to deliver a coherent and precise strategy tailored to the particular issues at stake.

The Firm’s expertise is regularly recognised by leading professional rankings, including The Legal 500 and Décideurs Magazine, which have highlighted its art market law practice in particular.

The Firm’s core commitments – trust, independence, confidentiality and rigorous attention to conflicts of interest – guide every matter.