Ius Laboris, the world’s largest alliance of labour and employment law firms announces that Pascal Lagoutte, managing partner of CAPSTAN Avocats in France, will become Chairman of Ius Laboris effective from 1 January 2021 for a four-year term. Pascal succeeds Chris Engels who served as the Ius Laboris Chairman for the maximum two terms from January 2013. Chris will continue as Chairman of Ius Laboris until the end of 2020.

During Chris’ eight years as Chairman, Ius Laboris expanded into 12 new jurisdictions, taking the global coverage to 59 countries, completing coverage across all 28 EU countries and growing our offering in Asia, giving the alliance a total of 1,500 employment, immigration and pensions lawyers worldwide. “It has been a great honour to serve as the Ius Laboris Chairman for the last 8 years. Since the Alliance started in 2001, we have seen huge changes in the world of employment law. I am sure that Pascal will continue the great advancements we have made as an alliance and continue to serve our growing client base with increasingly sophisticated client services”, Chris states.

Pascal Lagoutte has served as CAPSTAN Avocats’ Managing Partner since the firm formed in 2007 With 200 lawyers in 11 offices, CAPSTAN Avocats is consistently recognised as the leading niche employment law firm in France. Pascal Lagoutte has been a member of the Executive Committee of Ius Laboris since 2007 and starts his four-year term as chair of the alliance in January 2021.

Pascal says: “I am delighted to be taking over as Chairman in the 20th year of Ius Laboris. We have achieved great success over the last 20 years, and I look forward to building on that with our Executive Committee and member firms. Employment law is in the forefront of our clients’ business plans at this challenging time in the world, and our firms will continue to serve our wide-client base while economies re-balance after COVID-19.”