Bardehle Pagenberg bolsters Paris office with Bird & Bird litigator

Frédéric Portal (45) joined the Paris office of Bardehle Pagenberg at the beginning of 2024. Until now, the French team led by partner Julien Fréneaux was known primarily for its commercialisation actions for intellectual ventures in the French market. With the additional of the dual-qualified Portal, the mixed team strengthens both its legal and technical expertise.

A mixed background

Portal’s background as a chemist, and his experience and numerous life sciences clients, could help to broaden the French Bardehle team’s profile. The German team is also conducting the first UPC actions for clients such as 10x Genomics.

Frédéric Portal

Portal started his career as a European and French patent attorney at Beau de Loménie. After ten years, he moved to mixed law firm Lavoix, where he worked for another ten years and rose to partner level.

In 2021, the Paris Bar admitted Portal after he obtained an LLM in IP law in 2017.

Portal joined Bird & Bird in September 2021 as counsel in Yves Bizollon’s team. Bizollon has himself since moved to the role of counsel. The European IP law firm then gained the up-and-coming Thierry Lautier from Reed Smith in the autumn as a second partner alongside Anne-Charlotte Le Bihan.

Bardehle invests in France

Following the departure of Portal, the mixed Bird & Bird team in Paris remains strong with 14 lawyers and two patent attorneys.

In recent years, Bardehle Pagenberg has invested in its French team several times, for example bringing in patent attorneys Lionel Vial and Margaux Esselin in 2021. Last year, however, the team also lost patent attorney Marie-Claude Pellegrini, who moved to Withers & Rogers.

Bardehle’s Paris office now has four lawyers and two patent attorneys, one of whom is dual qualified. Of the total number, the firm has four partners.