Transposition of the 8th Directive into French Law: Defining the Legal Framework for Audit Committees

On February 11, 2009, the Paris office published a French-language alert on Ordonnancen° 2008-1278 of 8 December 2008 entitled “Transposition of the 8th Directive into French Law: Defining the Legal Framework for Audit Committees.” The ordonnance, which transposes the EU Statutory Audit Directive (2006/43/EC) into French law, defines when companies must establish audit committees, sets forth the minimum responsibilities to be allocated to such committees and specifies certain requirements for audit committee membership. The firm’s alert memorandum summarizes the new requirements and their expected impact.