Marion RAES

Marion Raes is a senior lawyer in the Retail team at Cornet Vincent Ségurel’s Lille office, which she joined in 2013.

She has also worked in the legal departments of major retailers. She now advises international groups, SMEs and mid-market companies in the Hauts-de-France region and throughout France, on both advisory and litigation matters.

As a specialist in distribution law in Lille, Marion advises distributors, retail chain operators and suppliers. She drafts and negotiates their distribution contracts, including franchise, concession, affiliation and commercial agency agreements. She also assists franchisors in setting up, developing and safeguarding their franchise networks, and handles disputes between franchisors and franchisees.

In relations between suppliers and distributors, she supports her clients during annual commercial negotiations. She also defends them in matters relating to practices that restrict competition, in particular significant imbalance and the abrupt termination of established commercial relationships.

Marion advises across the entire supply chain linking the supplier to the point of sale, and has developed a practice specialising in transport and logistics, covering:
– transport contracts, freight forwarding contracts and transport subcontracting agreements;
– logistics service contracts;
– international road haulage (CMR Convention).
She advises all parties involved in the supply chain: principals (manufacturers, suppliers and distributors), carriers, freight forwarders and logistics service providers. She assists them in negotiating their contracts and, subsequently, in disputes relating to loss, damage and delays, as well as the liability of the various parties involved.

Trained in mediation, Marion practises it on a daily basis in her litigation cases. Where it is in her clients’ best interests, she favours amicable methods of dispute resolution (mediation, negotiation, settlement). These help to preserve the commercial relationship and keep costs and timeframes under control.

Marion is a lecturer on the Master’s 2 programme at the University of Lille and at SKEMA Business School. There, she teaches negotiation and mediation techniques, as well as contract drafting and negotiation.