The Team
GONTIER AVOCATS is built on a complementary and close-knit team, prioritizing a human-scale structure for personalized and responsive client service. Combining extensive experience, specialized expertise, and strategic insight, the firm delivers effective, tailored legal solutions.
The firm consists of a team of highly skilled lawyers and professionals, each contributing their expertise to a comprehensive legal approach. GONTIER AVOCATS collaborates with a trusted network of specialized partners, including appellate attorneys, notaries, tax advisors, accountants, and law professors, ensuring multidisciplinary and integrated legal solutions.
Guided by a shared vision and strong cohesion, GONTIER AVOCATS adopts a cross-functional approach to address the complex challenges faced by its clients.
Jean Yves Gontier
Jean-Yves Gontier focuses his practice on business law, international litigation, arbitration, and white-collar crime.
Member of the Paris Bar since 2004, he holds a Doctorate in Law and degrees from Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, Sciences Po Paris, and Université Paris-Saclay. He is also a graduate of Columbia Law School and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) of New York.
He has worked at prestigious law firms, including Gide Loyrette Nouel and Latham & Watkins, and has collaborated with renowned institutions such as Sciences Po, the French Conseil d’État, and the Paris Interregional Directorate of Penitentiary Services (DISP).
Fluent in French and English, he advises and represents clients in highly complex matters across Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East.
He assists clients in resolving international disputes and securing foreign investments, particularly in key sectors such as industry, energy, infrastructure, finance, real estate, and international trade.
His expertise extends to corporate criminal law, where he defends executives and companies against allegations of fraud and corruption, as well as to sports law, including equine law and all legal issues relating to the horse world, family and estate law, and immigration law.
Municipal councilor of the city of La Baule, he possesses in-depth knowledge of public policy and has taught law at Sciences Po Paris, where he also led academic programs.
Author of multiple publications, he writes in French and English on topics related to law, public policy, and international affairs.
Doctor of Law
Sciences Po Paris
Columbia Law School & CIArb
Municipal Councilor of the City of La Baule
Former Academic Director at Sciences Po Paris
Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris
Yannick Gontier
Yannick Gontier is a Paris Bar attorney, Doctor of Law, and graduate of Université Aix-Marseille III, Université Paris X Nanterre, and the Institut de Droit des Affaires. Holding both French and Canadian citizenships, he focuses on business law, civil and commercial litigation, international arbitration, and white-collar crime.
He has extensive experience in international arbitration, handling complex disputes across various sectors, including offshore oil and gas construction, telecommunications, shipbuilding, pharmaceutical contracts, mergers and acquisitions, and hospitality.
Fluent in French and English, he advises and represents clients before leading arbitration institutions, including ICC, ICSID, LCIA, SIAC, AAA, ICDR, and UNCITRAL. He assists clients in negotiating and drafting arbitration agreements and settlement terms, as well as in strategically managing international commercial and financial disputes.
Yannick also has significant expertise in business litigation and corporate criminal defense, representing companies and executives before commercial and criminal courts. Before founding GONTIER AVOCATS, he practiced at renowned international law firms, including Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Salans, and Lussan & Associés.
A specialist in equine law, he advises breeders, owners, and riders, drawing on his personal experience as a racehorse trainer, which gives him unique industry insight.
As a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, he has taught alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. He regularly publishes in French and English on topics related to business law, international arbitration, and contract law.
Doctor of Law
Institute of Business Law
Paris X Nanterre University
Aix-Marseille III University
French Committee of Arbitration (CFA) & French Arbitration Association (AFA)
Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris