Alain Frenkel

Alain Frenkel has worked with a number of different firms throughout his career, and was a founding partner of the Veil Jourde* firm in 1990. He left thirteen years later to set up Frenkel & Associés*.

Alain Frenkel is a tax litigation specialist who assists clients during tax audits and represents them in tax proceedings and also before administrative and judicial courts, including criminal courts. He negotiates with the tax authorities on behalf of his clients on specific taxation issues in order to reach settlements, obtain authorisations and for lobbying purposes. He often advises in pre-litigation situations and has handled a number of cases in recent years involving issues such as territoriality of taxation, expatriation and the regularisation of foreign assets.

As well as negotiating settlements, Alain Frenkel has used his considerable expertise to win a number of landmark cases recognised as significantly improving the protection of the taxpayer and major contributions to European law. Specialist publications regularly rank him amongst the top tax litigators and he has appeared in the top tier of the Décideurs Stratégie Finance Droit guide since 2001.

Alain Frenkel has a Masters in public and private law, a Doctorate in law, is a Laureate of the Paris II University, and is also a graduate of Sciences-Po Paris. He has taught tax law at Paris X Nanterre University, Paris IX Dauphine University and more recently at Sciences-Po Paris. He has also spoken at numerous conferences on tax audits and litigation, tax incentives, real estate tax and international taxation.

He had spent five years as a member of the Paris Commission for Taxes (Commission départementale des impôts de Paris) and more than twenty years at the tax Commission of AFEP (Association française des entreprises privées – French Association of private sector companies). He’s a member of International Fiscal Association (IFA) and Vice-President of the IACF (Institut des avocats conseils fiscaux – Institute of Tax Lawyers).

* Current name

Marc Pelletier

Marc Pelletier obtained postgraduate degrees in tax law (DEA) and public law litigation (DESS) from Paris I University. He is a Professor in public law at Paris VIII University. His thesis about the norms in tax law, Les normes du droit fiscal (which won the Paul Deschanel prize), was published by Dalloz in 2008.

Marc Pelletier has always combined his academic career with a career as a legal practitioner, teaching tax law at the Paris XII and Paris VIII Universities since 2007 while collaborating with Frenkel & Associés since 2006. He was made a partner in June 2013. He joined Racine Avocats, one of France’s leading business law firms, on 1 June 2022 to develop its tax litigation practice, continuing working with Alain Frenkel on Frenkel & Associés’ cases.

Marc has lectured on a wide range of subjects including VAT, local taxation, business tax law, international and European tax law and tax litigation, with a preference for the field of tax litigation, drawing on his cross-sectoral knowledge in this area. His rigorous and imaginative approach to litigation has helped Frenkel & Associés win many particularly complex cases. His academic analysis is always combined with a pragmatic approach to the cases entrusted to him.

Marc Pelletier is a recognised authority in the fields of the compliance of tax legislation with the Constitution and international law and is a very regular contributor to Droit fiscal, for which he writes an annual column on constitutional tax law.

He is a regular speaker at tax-related seminars and conferences and has recently had the opportunity to address topics such as joint liability of payment for evaded taxes (notably within a chain of suppliers for the VAT, or for corporate officers for corporate tax, both under certain circumstances), tax optimisation practices by multinational companies, the effects of rulings on priority constitutional matters or constitutional case law with regard to the combination of tax and criminal proceedings.

He is a member of the French Institute of Tax Lawyers (IACF) and plays an active role on its “Tax inspection and litigation” committee.