Noëlle Lenoir, born on April 27, 1948 in Neuilly-sur-Seine

Neuilly-sur-Seine

Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Although Neuilly is technically a suburb of Paris, it is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential...

, Hauts-de-Seine

Hauts-de-Seine

Hauts-de-Seine is designated number 92 of the 101 départements in France. It is part of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris...

, is a French stateswoman.

Career

Noelle Lenoir graduated from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris

Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris

The Institut d'études politiques de Paris , simply referred to as Sciences Po , is a public research and higher education institution in Paris, France, specialised in the social sciences. It has the status of grand établissement, which allows its admissions process to be highly selective...

 and the Paris Law School and has been a professor in each of these institutions. After qualifying as a lawyer and the achievement of the Senate administrator competition, she has been appointed, from 1972 to 1982, at the law Committee of the French Senate

French Senate

The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of France, presided over by a president.The Senate enjoys less prominence than the lower house, the directly elected National Assembly; debates in the Senate tend to be less tense and generally enjoy less media coverage.-History:France's first...

 where she was in charge of the follow-up and review of criminal law text related to immigration, in addition to the Justice budget.

Following 10 years at the High Assembly, Noelle Lenoir joined the regulation management of the newly formed National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL)) as Director of regulatory matters, from 1982 until 1984. In 1984, she joined the Council of State (the Conseil d’état is the French administrative supreme court) and was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Justice in 1988, where she served until 1990.

In 1990, the French government appointed Ms. Lenoir to review French bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....

 law. Her report to the Prime Minister, Michel Rocard

Michel Rocard

Michel Rocard is a French politician, member of the Socialist Party . He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991, during which he created the Revenu minimum d'insertion , a social minimum welfare program for indigents, and led the Matignon Accords regarding the status...

, titled “Aux Frontières de la Vie: Pour une éthique biomedicale à la Française” provided the foundation and adoption of French bioethics law in 1994.

Besides being a constitutional judge, Noelle Lenoir chaired the International Committee on Bioethics of UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 and drafted the Human Genome and Human Rights Declaration, which the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 endorsed in 1998 on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

. In 1991, she is also appointed by the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

 presided by Jacques Delors

Jacques Delors

Jacques Lucien Jean Delors is a French economist and politician, the eighth President of the European Commission and the first person to serve three terms in that office .-French Politics:...

 as a member of the European Ethics and Science & Technology Group (GEE). Then, in 1994, she is elected as President of this group and reelected twice, by its members.

From 1992 to 2001, Noelle Lenoir chaired the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies for the European Commission, which advised the EU on biotechnology and on ethics in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) issues and regulations.

She left her position at the GEE in 2001 to travel to the USA where she was a law teacher for several months at the Law university of Columbia

Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 before joining the Paris Bar in June 2001, Noelle Lenoir is named in 2002 Minister of European Affairs by Prime Minister Raffarin. During this period she was involved into a number of negotiations with central and oriental European countries on their way to join the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 and the follow-up of the constitutional treaty.
In addition, she defends France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

's positions on various European proposals and legislations.
Finally, she is the first woman appointed, with her homologue the German minister of European affairs, the position of « Secrétaire général de la coopération franco-allemande ».

Previous to this, as the first woman and youngest person on the Conseil Constitutionnel, (the French Supreme Court for constitutional matters), Ms. Lenoir served a nine-year term from 1992 to 2001. She has been a Conseiller d’Etat since 1984.

Noëlle Lenoir joined the Parisian office of Debevoise & Plimpton

Debevoise & Plimpton

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a prominent international law firm based in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Eli Whitney Debevoise and William Stevenson, Debevoise has been a long established leader in corporate litigation and large financial transactions. In recent years, its practice has taken on an...

 LLP as an Off-Counsel in 2004.
In 2006-2007 she was appointed by the French Minister of Justice to carry out an evaluation of the status of the European Company (SE) (report delivered on March 19, 2007).

Noelle Lenoir is currently an associate at JeantetAssociés which she joined in 2009 and where she heads the European department (competition law, litigation and regulatory).
She also specializes in French constitutional law.

Current educational activities / Think tank

Ms. Lenoir is currently an Associate Professor and President of the European Institute at the Hautes Etudes de Commerce

Hautes Etudes Commerciales

Hautes Études Commerciales may refer to several business schools.*HEC Paris, France*HEC Lausanne, Switzerland*HEC Geneva, Switzerland*HEC Montréal, Canada*HEC Alger, Algiers*HECJF Paris, France...

 (H.E.C., the French International Business School) which has established numerous partnerships, especially LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) and NY University Business School.

In addition, she is the Founder and President of “Cercle des Européens”. A Think Tank which operates as ideas exchange group on socioeconomic and political stakes of the 21st century Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and which is deemed as a place where managers can meet European decision makers for roundtables on different European problems and subjects.
Noëlle Lenoir is registered arbitrator on the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce

International Chamber of Commerce

The International Chamber of Commerce is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. Its hundreds of thousands of member companies in over 130 countries have interests spanning every sector of private enterprise....

) French committee list. She is also a member of the EC High Level Experts group on the European company law at the Commission level.

Mandates

Noëlle Lenoir is administrator of Generali France (since 2008) and of Valeo

Valeo

Valeo is a French automotive components manufacturer.-History:The Société Anonyme Française du Ferodo was founded in 1923 in Saint-Ouen, a suburb of Paris...

 (since 2009).

Local representative of the City of Valmandois (Val d’Oise) for the first time in 1977, Ms Lenoir was elected mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of this town in 1989 until 1995, a mandate she had to abandon in favor of her mandate as a judge at the French Constitutional Court. She stood again for the mayor election in 2008 and was elected with her complete list. Ms Lenoir stayed Mayor of Valmondois from 2008 through 2010, where she resigned for personal reasons.

She is at present member of the steering Committee of the Association of France Mayors, as well as member of the legal committee of “Concessions – Délégations de service public” of the Delegate Management Institute.

Press / Media

Mrs Lenoir is a columnist on European matters for a variety of French newspapers, editor for the BFM radio station in partnership with HEC, and she is responsible for the “Europe” blog of the L’Express

L'Express (France)

L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...

 weekly magazine. She has made several publications about the caricaturist Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....

.

Among others:

- La Transparence administrative (en coll., 1987)

- Aux Frontières de la Vie : une Ethique Biomédicale à la Française (remis au gouvernement en 1991).

- Les Normes Internationales de la Bioéthique (1998)

- La Justice, de Daumier à nos jours (1999)

- La Vie Politique, de Daumier à nos jours (2005)

- La Societas Europaea ou SE : Pour une Citoyenneté Européenne de l'’Entreprise (remis au gouvernement en 2007)

Distinctions

- Officier de la Légion d'honneur (France)

- Commandeur de l'Ordre national du Mérite (France)

- Grand Officier de l'Ordre de Léopold II (Belgique)

- Commandeur de l'Ordre du Mérite (Pologne)

- Commandeur de l'Ordre du Mérite de la République fédérale d'Allemagne (Allemagne)
Other Distinctions:
- Honoris Causa

- Suffolk University (USA)

- University College London (UK)

- Distinguished Fellow du Hastings Center (États-Unis)

- Member of the American Law Institute

Areas of practice

- Competition Law, Societas Europaea

- Public and constitutional Law

- Litigation

- Regulatory

External links

• Le Cercle des Européens
• Report on the European Company statute (SE)commissioned by the French Minister of Justice
• Noëlle Lenoir's opinion editorial commentaries for Project Syndicate
  Project Syndicate
  Project Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...