Sophie Gijsbers

Experience

Sophie Gijsbers is a co-founding partner of Apostrophe, a commercial law firm exclusively dedicated to dispute resolution and corporate risk prevention.  

Apostrophe offers its clients (French and foreign companies from all sectors of activity) comprehensive expertise in business litigation, criminal business law, real estate litigation, internal investigations and compliance.   

Before co-founding Apostrophe in January 2021, Sophie practised for more than 11 years, notably in the Litigation, Criminal Business Law and Compliance teams at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer and Bersay & Associés. She works in particular for major players in the real estate (developers, property companies, management companies), retail and industrial sectors.

Apostrophe's main areas of expertise are:

• Complex and strategic litigation of all kinds (including commercial, corporate and M&A, real estate, banking and financial disputes), including cross-border cases;
• Criminal and regulatory proceedings (economic and financial criminal law, tax law, labour law, real estate law);
• internal investigations in France and internationally (fraud, corruption, sexual and psychological harassment, violation of regulatory requirements or safety obligations, duty of care, etc.);
• Anti-corruption and CSR/duty of care compliance programmes (risk mapping, third-party assessment, code of conduct/ethics charter, ethical alert, etc.), regulatory compliance and DGCCRF/DDPP inspections.

Apostrophe and its two partners, Sophie and Delphine, have been recognised in several professional rankings, the most recent of which are as follows:

• Legal 500: ‘Compliance and Internal Investigations’ (‘Firm to watch’) - EMEA 2025 ranking;
• Best Lawyers in France: ‘Litigation’ and ‘Criminal Defence’ - 2026 ranking;
• Décideurs: ‘Commercial Litigation’, ‘Financial & Balance Sheet Litigation’, ‘Criminal Tax Law’, ‘Criminal Labour Law’, ‘Internal Investigations’ and “Compliance” (‘reputable practices’) and ‘Criminal Business Law’ (‘high reputation’) - 2025 ranking;
• Palmarès du droit (Le Monde du droit): ‘Compliance’ (Gold medal), ‘Business Criminal Law and Companies in Difficulty’ (Bronze medals) and Special Award for ‘Promising Law Firm of the Year’ - 2025 ranking.