Patrimonies, memories, diplomacies.
A pro bono practice at the intersection of law, culture and inter-State relations.
Alongside its commercial practices, the firm conducts a pro bono practice devoted to the circulation of works, cultural diplomacy and the politics of memory. It is operational before it is theoretical: it produces acts, not positions.
The firm advises States, cultural institutions and chanceries on matters where heritage law meets inter-State relations. It acts as legal counsel, as architect of the normative and conventional frameworks of operations that demand as much diplomatic standing as technical precision. This practice falls within legal advice, to the exclusion of any interest representation within the meaning of the rules on transparency in public life.
Give the Francophone space
concrete proof.
The relationship between France and the Francophone space can no longer rest on discourse alone. It needs visible, legible, balanced acts. The restitution of works, patrimonial circulations and museum cooperations are its most tangible manifestations. They transform sensitive subjects into instruments of political and cultural convergence.
Three postures held
without exception.
Practitioner of balances.
The firm operates between administrations, cultural institutions, chanceries and private actors. This position of trusted counsel requires a fine understanding of each party’s sensitivities and constraints.
A sense of mutual interest.
The transactions conducted are never zero-sum. They produce trust for the receiving State, standing for the transmitting State, stability for the institution that reorganises. The firm helps formulate these balances.
Elevation of view, restraint of tone.
The matters handled touch on the memory of peoples and the sovereignty of States. They call for historical elevation, and a restraint of tone that distinguishes useful diplomacy from vain commentary.
Six open fields.
Patrimonial restitutions
Legal and diplomatic support for the transfer of works between France and the receiving States. Design of ad hoc legal frameworks, negotiation of intergovernmental agreements, articulation between French public domain law and the law of the receiving country.
Museum diplomacy
Cooperations between French cultural institutions and their African, Mediterranean or Levantine counterparts. Long-term loans, joint programming, shared training. The firm drafts the conventions and supports negotiations at the intersection of the relevant supervisory authorities.
Circulation of archives
Legal frameworks for the communication, digitisation and transfer of archives between France and the States that claim access to them. The firm works to reconcile public archives law, historical sensitivities and documentary sovereignty requirements.
Heritage and State-building
Support for States that structure or strengthen their heritage apparatus: museum legislation, heritage codes, national agencies, inventory policies. The firm brings comparative analysis and assistance in drafting the legal frameworks.
Franco-African cooperation
Articulation of the bilateral and multilateral instruments that structure cultural cooperation between France and the Francophone space. Conventions, dedicated funds, institutional mandates. The firm helps transform political commitments into durable operational mechanisms.
Cultural sovereignty
Legal regime of cultural property, traceability of works, combatting illicit circulation, articulation with UNESCO conventions. The firm advises States seeking to assert their patrimonial sovereignty within a framework consistent with international standards.
A starting
point.
An opinion piece co-signed by Ali Camille Hojeij and Guillaume Chaban-Delmas, president of MGH Partners, « La francophonie est un avenir à construire ensemble » (L’Opinion, 19 February 2026), accompanied the restitution of the Djidji Ayôkwè talking drum to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, pursuant to the special law of 16 July 2025, prior to the general framework law of 9 May 2026. This position informed the firm’s pro bono practice: an approach distinct from more familiar interpretations, without implying that the firm acted in any particular matter.
Rather than treating restitution as a gesture of reparation or as the conclusion of a historical debate, it presents it as a structuring political act. A reciprocal investment in the relationship between France and the Francophone space. Concrete proof that this relationship can produce visible, audible, balanced commitments.
Restitution, in this reading, is not the settlement of a past. It is the contract for the future of an adult political Francophonie, capable of acting where words no longer suffice.
This posture informs the firm’s entire pro bono practice. These patrimonial operations are best regarded as full-fledged instruments of cooperation, deserving to be designed, negotiated and accompanied with the same rigour as transactions of high economic stakes.
The operational extension of the tribune.
Patrimonial Restitutions and the Law of the Public Domain.
The French regime of the public domain was designed to conserve, not to transmit. A legal reading of the transfer of cultural works between France and the receiving States, with three paths for stabilising their conduct: a framework procedural law, a model convention between governments, a protocol of patrimonial cooperation.
Read the note →
Make law an instrument
of political and cultural convergence.
For public institutions, this practice is conducted free of charge. Any work carried out for other actors is the subject of separate engagement agreements, concluded in compliance with the profession’s ethical rules. It addresses decision-makers who consider that the quality of a cooperation is measured by the concrete commitments it produces.
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