Noëlle Lenoir

About Noëlle Lenoir

Noëlle Lenoir, partner at the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, began her career in parliamentary public service.

After passing the Senate administrators’ exam in 1972, Noëlle Lenoir (law faculty and Sciences Po Paris) was primarily assigned as an administrator in the Legislative Service, then to the Law Commission of this assembly where she was responsible for monitoring criminal law texts and those related to immigration as well as preparing reports on the Justice budget.

After ten years in the Senate, Noëlle Lenoir joined the legal department of the newly established Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) in 1982. In 1984, she was appointed Master of Requests at the Conseil d’Etat and became Government Commissioner (currently “Public Rapporteur”) in litigation. After two years as chief of staff to the Minister of Justice, Pierre Arpaillange – from 1988 to 1990 – she was appointed in 1990 as Special Advisor for bioethics law to the Prime Minister, Michel Rocard. After submitting her report “At the Frontiers of Life: A French Biomedical Ethics” to the government (La Documentation Française, 1991), she was invited to participate in the preparation of the first French bioethics law, which led to her recognition as a national and international expert in the field.

In 1992, Noëlle Lenoir was appointed constitutional judge by the President of the National Assembly. She was the first woman and the youngest member ever appointed to the Constitutional Council (9-year term: 1992-2001).

In addition to her role as a constitutional judge, Noëlle Lenoir was invited by the Director-General of UNESCO to chair the newly established International Bioethics Committee (IBC) within the Organization. In this capacity, which she held from 1992 to 1999, she coordinated the drafting of the first international instrument on genetic law – “The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights” – which was adopted by consensus in 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Simultaneously, and since 1991, Noëlle Lenoir was appointed by the European Commission, then chaired by Jacques Delors, as a member of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), where she was repeatedly elected by her peers as President. The EGE, placed with the President of the European Commission, is tasked with providing ethical opinions on European legislation under discussion or already adopted concerning sciences and new technologies. She left this position in 2001 to teach in the United States at Columbia University in New York. After several months at the Law School as a visiting professor, she returned to Paris and registered at the Bar as a lawyer in June 2001, a few months after reaching the rank of Conseiller d’Etat.

Noëlle Lenoir was appointed in 2002 as Minister for European Affairs (2002-2004) (Government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Presidency of Jacques Chirac). She then conducted numerous negotiations with Central and Eastern European countries in the process of joining the European Union and was also involved in monitoring the drafting of the constitutional treaty. Furthermore, she defended French positions on various proposals for European legislation. Finally, she was the first to hold, alongside her German counterpart, the role of “Secretary-General of Franco-German Cooperation”.

Noëlle joined the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton in Paris in 2004 as Off Counsel specializing in competition law, then joined the firm Jeantet Associés in 2009, where she led the European law department (public business law and competition law).

Noëlle Lenoir is currently a partner at the Paris office of the law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, where she leads the team specializing in competition law and public business law at both national and European levels.

ROLE OF ETHICS OFFICER

She was unanimously appointed by the members of the National Assembly’s bureau on October 10, 2012, as the Ethics Officer of this assembly, in accordance with the decision of April 6, 2011, establishing this role and providing the National Assembly with a code of ethics. In this capacity, she is tasked with reviewing the declarations of interests of deputies and must also provide the bureau with her recommendations and proposals, particularly concerning the parliamentary allowance regime for expenses.

TEACHING / THINK TANKS

Affiliate Professor at HEC Paris, Noëlle Lenoir chairs the HEC Europe Institute, which is designed as a hub for training, dialogue, and reflection on the socio-economic, legal, and managerial challenges of the European Union. Noëlle Lenoir also lectures at Paris I Sorbonne (Master 2) where she teaches competition law in Master II.

Additionally, the Cercle des Européens, which she created in 2004 and presides over, is an association bringing together decision-makers and aims to be a place for exchange and discussion on major European issues.

MANDATES

Noëlle Lenoir is a board member of Generali France (since 2008) and Valeo (since 2009).

Locally elected in Valmondois (Val d’Oise) for the first time in 1977, Noëlle Lenoir became mayor from 1989 to 1995. Due to the incompatibility between elective functions and that of a constitutional judge, Noëlle Lenoir did not run for municipal elections in 1995. She ran again in 2008 and won the elections with her entire list, becoming mayor of Valmondois again. In 2010, she left her mayoral mandate to become a municipal councilor.

ASSOCIATIONS AND ACADEMIES

President-founder of the Cercle des Européens, Noëlle Lenoir is also Honorary President and founder of the Association of Friends of Honoré Daumier. The famous caricaturist indeed resided in Valmondois during the last twenty-five years of his life, and Noëlle Lenoir initiated the creation of a municipal art center hosting exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, and drawings, naming various public municipal buildings after the artist.

A member of the American Law Institute (USA), Noëlle Lenoir is also an “Honorary Bencher” of Gray’s Inn in London, a member of the French Academy of Technologies, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Hastings Center for Bioethics (USA). She is also a member of the boards of the French Association of Constitutionalists and the Society of Comparative Legislation, and participates in the LICRA think tank.

PRESS / MEDIA

Noëlle Lenoir was a columnist for L’Express and La Tribune, and host of the program “Les Grands Débats Européens” on Radio BFMbusiness. She currently runs the “Europe” blog for L’Express: “Europe, Mon Beau Souci” and has a weekly morning column on France Culture: “The World According to Noëlle Lenoir”.

PUBLICATIONS

In addition to numerous articles in the press and legal journals, Noëlle Lenoir has published various books and reports, including: Administrative Transparency (co-authored, PUF, 1987); At the Frontiers of Life: A French Biomedical Ethics (report submitted to the government (La Documentation Française, 1991); The Law of Bioethics (Ed. Que sais-je? PUF, 1998); Justice, from Daumier to Today (Editions Somogy, co-authored 1999); Meeting the Challenge of Biotechnologies (La Documentation Française, 2000); Political Life, from Daumier to Today (Editions Somogy, co-authored 2005); The Societas Europaea or SE: For a European Corporate Citizenship (report submitted to the government (La Documentation Française, 2007).

As a member of the Expert Group on Company Law with the European Commission, she contributed to the drafting of the “Report of the Reflection Group on the Future of EU Company Law”, made public in April 2011.

HONORS

• Officer of the Legion of Honor (France)
• Commander of the National Order of Merit (France)
• Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold II (Belgium)
• Commander of the Order of Merit (Poland)
• Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Germany)
• Honoris Causa: Suffolk University (United States) and University College of London (United Kingdom)