Mr. Deschenaux is the Founding Partner of Deschenaux, Hornblower & Partners (DH&P), an International Jurist Firm with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and an office in New York City. Entrepreneurs look to Mr. Deschenaux not only for his professionalism, but also because of his experience as a Founder of successful companies and his deep experience in capital markets, which includes organizing venture capital deals, private offerings, and initial public offerings (IPOs).

When Mr. Deschenaux competes for mandates to organize private offerings and IPOs, prospects often particularly value his experience running three trading floors as an important differentiating factor. It is one thing to organize securities offerings, but equally valuable is the sense of how the securities are likely to trade. This sense can only be forged by years on the market’s front lines, experience that is exceedingly uncommon in the legal profession.

Mr. Deschenaux not only has mastery of the legal and financial issues important to entrepreneurs, but he can also add value in other unexpected ways. His negotiating skills, as well as his knowledge of technology, puts Mr. Deschenaux in very rare company among top legal professionals. His technological talents became evident early on when as 15 year old computer programmer he sold a piece of software (that was then used in a popular video game) for several hundred thousand dollars, which he then wisely used to self-finance his education.

As a young man, Mr. Deschenaux made the most of the opportunities he created for himself, going on to start many successful companies. These companies included Beat Perfumes, S.A., which created the Michael Jackson Perfume, and CD World Corporation. As President and Founder of CD World, Mr. Deschenaux invented The Music KioskTM, a digital kiosk that enabled a consumer to choose from hundreds of thousands of songs, music works, and movie soundtracks and construct a personal compilation on a compact disk.

Following these endeavors, for a four year period Mr. Deschenaux was the Chairman and Founder of Investraders International Corporation, an investment bank in Geneva specializing in distributing private offerings and organizing IPOs. Having grown the firm to over three hundred employees at its peak, some important members of the banking establishment tried to convince him sell the company. When he refused the company experienced problems and was forced to fold.

Following this setback, Mr. Deschenaux went to law school at the University of Geneva. After graduation, he joined a traditional law firm (Schwab Flaherty & Associés) and then quickly struck out on his own as a jurist. Having worked as a non-bar lawyer (also known a jurist) for five years following his short tenure as a bar lawyer at Schwab Flaherty, Mr. Deschenaux now believes that he has discovered a business model that will permit DH&P to provide the legal and financial services companies need but cannot obtain from other legal and financial firms.

Today Mr. Deschenaux is a self-described “man of action” who applies the lessons he has learned in a lifetime of entrepreneurship for the benefit of his clients. One of these lessons is that litigation always represents a failure that could be avoided with proper counsel.* Another is that without failure there can be no success. When clients hire Mr. Deschenaux, they know they have engaged someone who has experienced both success and failure. They know they are speaking with someone who not only understands risk taking and risk management, but also is skilled at giving valuable advice that, if heeded, will lead to business success.

Mr. Deschenaux has received several noteworthy accolades for his professional work. In 1999, he was elected to the International Who’s Who of Professionals, and in 2003 he was invited by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to speak at the 22nd Annual Government Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. Mr. Deschenaux is a native French speaker, and is also able to carry out high level negotiations in English and Italian. He has also knowledge of several additional languages, including German and Arabic.