|
stumbled upon tax law after a modern languages degree and has never looked back. He first trained as a chartered accountant specialising in tax with Ernst & Young and then qualified as a solicitor in the corporate tax department of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He worked there six years, leaving in 2007 to join Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers
He has worked on a large number of (big and small) corporate and structured finance transactions, including IPOs, securitisations, innovative tax enhanced financings and public and private M&A deals. He also advises on insurance tax, the tax treatment of alternative finance, international tax (including EU law) and other matters. As a barrister he has broadened these practice areas to include private client work (in particular capital gains and inheritance tax planning), VAT and SDLT. He has a particular interest in the interplay between tax and accounting.
Despite his mixed European ancestry, the forebear of whom he is most proud is Admiral Nelson, from whose example he has learnt two lessons: first to bring the greatest possible firepower to bear in solving any tax problem and, secondly, that every tax barrister must do his duty to the client. However he knows that, in dealing with tax, you must consider all angles. As a client once put it to him, if you cover your eyes, it does not mean that people cannot see you.
He enjoys the ludic qualities of taxation but has learnt through sorry experience that it is best not to mention this at dinner parties.
Outside work, Laurent’s interests are primarily language-focused. He speaks French and Italian fluently, can have a good go at German if he needs to and speaks emergency Russian and colloquial Egyptian Arabic (the last of which he is looking to build upon in spare moments). His occasional holidays are spent, with his wife, in warmer climes.
|
