Stephenson Harwood

Stephenson Harwood is an international law firm with 197 years of history, 1,500 people across 10 offices, and a client base that explicitly includes family offices. The Paris office names family offices alongside investment funds, strategic groups, and entrepreneurs as regular counterparts in M&A and private equity transactions, giving the firm direct exposure to the legal and structural concerns family office principals navigate in deal-making contexts.

For family offices seeking legal counsel, the firm covers a practical range of disciplines relevant to wealth structures and transactions:

• Corporate transactions including M&A, private equity, and restructuring
• Fund formation and lifecycle support for European and African structures
• Real estate, tax, and employment law across multiple jurisdictions
• Regulatory and compliance advice covering UK, EU, and French frameworks
• Dispute resolution including commercial litigation and international arbitration

The firm operates across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with offices in London, Paris, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Athens among others. Cross-border capability is a stated priority, with multilingual teams and alliance firms extending reach into jurisdictions where the firm does not hold a direct presence. Stephenson Harwood is not a family office service provider in the operational or technology sense. It does not offer consolidated reporting, custody, or investment management. Family offices considering the firm should expect transactional and advisory legal services from teams with sector depth, and should weigh whether a firm of this scale and sector breadth aligns with the dedicated private wealth attention some families require. Pricing is not disclosed publicly and is typical of a top-tier international law firm.

• Advising on M&A transactions and private equity investments
• Fund structuring and lifecycle legal support
• Cross-border dispute resolution and commercial litigation
• Employment law and executive remuneration structuring
• Regulatory and compliance advisory for financial institutions
• Real estate and restructuring legal support

• M&A and private equity transactional support across jurisdictions
• Fund formation and structuring for European and African markets
• International arbitration and commercial litigation
• Restructuring and insolvency advisory
• Employment law including restrictive covenants, team moves, and severance
• Banking and financial services regulatory advice (UK, EU, French frameworks)
• IP, technology, and data law including AI and blockchain
• Real estate legal services
• Ethics investigations and compliance programme design
• Corporate tax advisory

Built for Single Family Office (SFO), Multi Family Office (MFO), Fund Managers, Investment Teams.