Sabina Comis

Global Managing Partner at Dechert

Speaker

Sabina Comis, Global Managing Partner, advises French and international companies, family offices, private equity funds and investment banks on domestic and international tax structuring that arises from complex transactions, restructurings and refinancings, often involving multiple sponsors. She also has a wealth of experience in creating and structuring private investment funds, including joint ventures and private equity vehicles.

She is one of the few practitioners in France equipped to offer both tax advice and handle the legal and regulatory sides of fund formation. Her ability to address private equity and funds matters as an industry expert as well as a tax practitioner enables her to translate advice into tangible figures and models. By partnering with clients in their most business-critical situations, she has created some notable precedents in the French market, for example in developing innovative structuring in relation to the modeling of cash repatriations, waterfall mechanisms in private equity deals and funds documentation. Over the years, she has been a trusted advisor to many French and global private equity fund managers for the tax structuring of their carried interest rights.

Ms. Comis, a renowned leader in the French tax and funds communities, is consistently ranked as a “Leading Individual” in Chambers Europe and The Legal 500 EMEA for her expertise in tax and in fund formation. According to Chambers Europe 2023 she is “attentive, responsive and available” and “very competent, she goes straight to the point and she makes sure to find the best solution.” In The Legal 500 EMEA 2023 clients report that “Sabina Comis is a pragmatic lawyer who provides concrete and easily implementable solutions,” “a great technician, and also has in-depth knowledge of the asset management market in France and abroad. She is thus able to anticipate the problems specific to funds with European and American strategies, and to quickly mobilize the appropriate teams to deal with them.” In addition, in 2023, Ms. Comis was named among the fifty “Most Influential Lawyers” by Financial News, among the twenty “Most Influential Private Equity Lawyers” in Europe by Private Equity News, and among one of the ten “Women of Influence in Private Equity” worldwide by Private Equity International, being the only lawyer on this list.

In addition to running her practice, Ms. Comis is a Global Managing Partner of Dechert and member of the leadership team responsible for setting strategic priorities and driving the firm’s focus on client service, innovation and diversity and inclusion. She is also an elected member of the firm Policy Committee, and co-managing partner of the Paris office. Ms. Comis’s efforts in these areas continue to position Dechert as a leading global law firm advising asset managers, financial institutions and corporations on issues critical to managing their business and their capital – from high-stakes litigation to complex transactions and regulatory matters.

In addition, Ms. Comis regularly speaks at conferences and teaches tax structuring of alternative investment fund vehicles at the Dauphine University (Master 2 of Tax “Fiscalité de l'Entreprise”).

Prior to joining Dechert, Ms. Comis was resident in an international law firm's Paris office where she served as a tax partner and the international co-leader of the private investment funds group. Her previous experience also includes serving for over ten years in the tax department of two UK Magic Circle firms.