Séverine Itany, your single point of contact.
French-British dual national. 17 years' experience between the City of London and Francophone Africa. And one driving obsession: that the Francophone community in the United Kingdom should no longer have to choose between an English-speaking solicitor who doesn't understand their reality, and a fragmented journey that multiplies costs and delays.
A bilingual journey, structured in four chapters.
Twenty years at the crossroads of the City of London and Francophone Africa.
Société Générale Cameroon
First steps in corporate banking in Douala, at the heart of financing for Cameroonian and sub-regional businesses. This formative experience gave me operational knowledge of the CEMAC zone, BEAC and COBAC rules, and the Francophone business landscape of Central Africa — a precious asset when a Cameroonian or Chadian client today calls upon me for cross-border procedures.
MSc Corporate Finance — ISC Paris
Specialised Master's in corporate finance, with a focus on capital markets and structuring. My thesis was on financing African SMEs through European investment funds — a topic that positioned me at the intersection of the two worlds I continue to inhabit today.
Calypso Technology — Fintech implementation
Five years in London and Paris implementing the Calypso platform for investment banks (BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Barclays). This experience taught me the operational rigour of major financial institutions, the management of complex projects, and bilingual communication in demanding multicultural environments.
Epworth Investment Management — £200M AUM
Five years at an FCA-regulated asset manager in London, as a senior finance professional. Budget management, regulatory reporting, operational compliance. This is where I consolidated my mastery of the UK regulatory environment — Companies House, FCA, ICO, Legal Services Act 2007 — which now structures every FrancoLegal service.
Keystones Partners & Saficom Trade
Alongside my salaried roles, I founded two entrepreneurial ventures: Keystones Partners (corporate finance advisory, with teams in Douala and Madagascar) and Saficom Trade UK (commodity trading to sub-Saharan Africa). These ventures gave me operational experience of dual UK and OHADA regulation, Ecobank Letters of Credit, and Cameroon–Côte d'Ivoire–Mali–Madagascar logistics chains.
FrancoLegal
The project that synthesises twenty years of a bilingual journey. I created it after observing, all around me, how much the Francophone community in the United Kingdom paid for the absence of an integrated, bilingual, accessible service. My peers regularly turned to me for their apostilles, powers of attorney to Cameroon, British wills. Each time, I witnessed the same absurd journey: three providers, two language barriers, an opaque total cost, and unnecessary stress. FrancoLegal exists to make all of this simple, transparent, and professional.
What sets us apart.
Four principles that guide every case handled by FrancoLegal.
Radical honesty
We tell you what we do, and just as clearly what we don't. FrancoLegal is not a firm of solicitors and does not perform reserved legal activities. When your need falls outside our scope, we refer you to a regulated partner. This transparency protects you.
Pricing transparency
Every quote breaks down in two lines: the price of our service, and third-party fees charged at actual cost. No hidden margin on external fees (FCDO, embassies, translation, DHL). You know exactly where every pound goes.
Native bilingualism
Our pages, our contracts, our communications work entirely in English and French. Not just a translation, but a deep understanding of both systems — British and Francophone — and how they speak to each other in the real lives of the diaspora.
End-to-end service
One contact, one process, one quote, one invoice. No more juggling between providers. This end-to-end integration is our main value compared to the partial solutions available on the market.
A hybrid London–Madagascar organisation.
FrancoLegal is built on a hybrid organisation designed to deliver quality service at an accessible cost. All client-facing work — analysis, advice, validation, signature — flows through me in London. Operational production (file preparation, submission tracking, daily administration) is handled by a qualified Francophone team in Antananarivo.
This Madagascar team is not a generic outsourced provider: it's a dedicated operational unit, trained on FrancoLegal procedures, under contractual confidentiality, with quality control by me on every file before transmission to the client.
This organisation allows me to offer prices 30 to 60% below what the same service would cost you at a British solicitor's firm, without any concession on the final quality.