Marc Deschenaux is a Swiss jurist (non-bar lawyer) and a world-renowned expert in high finance. He divides his time between Geneva, New York and Los Angeles.

His expertise covers contract law; international corporate and governmental financing and bank syndication; international corporate and non-profit law; global IP; and securitisation.

He is internationally considered to be the world expert in initial public offerings, and a reference point in securities, financing and trading law.

In his financing practice, he is highly reputed worldwide as an international financier, known for his state-of-the-art structures which have resulted in 179 successful IPOs and 243 private offerings -– around two-thirds of these in private equity, and one-third in private debt.

Marc Deschenaux was registered as a general securities representative (series 7) and general securities principal (series 24) by the North American Securities Dealers Association. He was also a member of the National Investment Banking Association.

He has also financed various types of operations, from import/export transactions to real estate investment trusts; and organised several government loans, as well as the first national debt cancellation in history.

He has been the treasurer, and a judge-mediator, at the International Court of Mediation and Arbitration (CIMEDA) from 2012 to 2020. He is now an Ambassador of the African Court of Mediation and Arbitration (CAMAR).

Marc Deschenaux is a PhD candidate in law at the University of Geneva, where he also
has a master’s degree in economic law and is certified in transnational law.
He achieved certification on the “Leading with Finance” course at Harvard Business School.

Mr. Deschenaux is the Founding Partner of Deschenaux, Hornblower & Partners (DH&P), an International Jurist Firm with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and offices in New York City and Los Angeles. 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 has knowledge of several additional languages, including German and Arabic. His Chinese is in progress.