History

After the second world war imperialist France fought and lost civil wars of independence in its North African colonies of Morocco Tunisia and Algeria. However French banks located in places like Switzerland benefited from an influx of large amounts of flight capital sourced from dispossessed settlers from those countries.

One such ‘pied-noir’ (as these french from the African colonies were called) was a wealthy entrepreneur called Robert Hocq who invented the first gas lighter. He had a close relationship with Banque Paris Bas and with that banks help he leveraged his wealth in the 1970s to acquire an empire of luxury brands centred around  Dunhill and Cartier. At the same time his bank, ParisBas Suisse, was becoming a major international financier of motion picture and TV companies.

During these years Hocq’s close advisor and executor of the business strategy was a brilliant international lawyer called Joseph Kanoui. 

However while Jo was dependant on Hocq, he had no contract with him and was always concerned that at any time the mercurial Hocq might cut the umbilical cord that was making Jo rich.

Therefore Jo decided, as both a ‘side line’ and as a potential ‘safety parachute’, to create a law firm that would have ready made as its clientele the luxury brands of the Hocq empire and the international financing activity ( particularly in media ) of Banque ParisBas.

Hence Jo Kanoui associated himself with a couple of swiss based lawyers and the firm (that is today called Lombard Lowe) was born in Geneva in 1978.

It quickly became apparent that because of the volume of work and opportunities a greater depth of expertise in the entertainment business would be beneficial.

A high profile young lawyer who had been part of the team representing the Beatles (his responsibility being John Lennon until John’s death) called David Lowe was hired to open a London office.

Both Geneva and London flourished with the entertainment business (fuelled by Banque Paribas) gravitating to London. Quickly MGM, United Artists and a roster of 16 european banks’ media divisions were added as clients.

But meanwhile Jo Kanoui was less and less available as the Cartier empire of Robert Hocque expanded to eventually become the Richmont group. In 1979 the unexpected happened: Robert Hocq was killed in a motor accident. His will (never previously made known to anyone) left his empire to Jo Kanoui in trust for the Hocq family.

Overnight Jo went from an advisor to the President and CEO of the second largest designer name group in the world!

Within a few months the law firm was restructured with Jo resigning and London becoming the head office.

There followed 15 years of steady growth as a boutique law firm specialised in motion picture finance while consolidating its position in representing luxury brands. Piaget, Montblanc, Lamborghini, Chloe. Lancel, Karl Lagerfeld were added as were prestigious sports connections in Formula One, The Tennis Grand Slam tournaments, football and golf. From 1981 to 1996 the firm acted for the financiers or the makers of 11 of the 15 films that won the Oscar for best film ! Not only Hollywood was conquered but europe’s ever growing private tv companies became clients. Canal + as europe’s most successful pay-tv company and financier of Hollywood movies led the list (on the back of which the firm opened their Paris office adding Hachette and practically taking a monopoly of French media representation for international business).

In 1995/6 David Lowe was installed by a bank consortium as the effective co-head of Orion Pictures, the Hollywood major that had run into financial trouble (only the second non american to head up a US studio).

But a change in that industry was being signalled by the problems experienced by Orion and others. 

Hollywood and its major studios had lost control of production to independents (many represented by the firm). This has placed the less financially strong studios like Orion and Colombia and MGM at the mercy of the independents. However the major studios still controlled distribution. In a concerted and deliberate move the studios took back control by either buying the independent producers or denying  distribution to those that did not sell!

The power (and therefore the firms client base) shifted to the multinational diversified leisure groups that owned most of the US studios.

Quickly the firms expertise diversified with the trust placed in them by those multinationals that now became clients. Leisure parks the size of towns (like Universal studios experience in Florida or Lego land in Europe) and  developments such as media city in Dubai became the bread and butter of the firm. But it was evident from the client feedback that in particular financial expertise and muscle was what was sought. 

Accordingly in 1999 the firm associated with the Sovereign Group, the world leaders in tax and financial planning and then in 2010 integrated with the Lombard Financial Group to provide a one stop service of legal tax and financial structuring particularly for leisure related projects that are almost always tourist linked.