A young lawyer working with a US firm has been one of the first confirmed deaths in the Paris terror massacre.
Valenin Ribet was a 26 year old criminal lawyer with Hogan Lovells who was at the Bataclan venue where 87 people were slaughtered by the terrorists who made bomb and shooting attacks.
The London School of Economics tweeted that Ribet, who took an LLM in international business law in 2014, had died. “Our hearts are filled with sadness at this news.”
The attacks killed at least 129 people and critically injured 99 more. Only six victims’ names had been confirmed, with identification made difficult as a result of both by the scale of the tragedy and the fact many people lost wallets and other forms of identification amid the chaos.
Hogan Lovells’ said Ribet was “a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office”. It added: “This is an awful tragedy and hard for any of us to truly comprehend. We are shocked by both our loss and the wider events in the city.”
Their full statement said:
Hogan Lovells is greatly saddened by the loss of Valentin Ribet. Valentin was at the Bataclan concert hall on Friday night and he was killed in the attack that took place there. This is an awful tragedy and hard for any of us to truly comprehend. We are shocked by both our loss and the wider events in the city. Valentin worked in the litigation team, specializing in white collar crime. He was a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office. He was 26. Our thoughts at this time are with Valentin and his family as well as with his colleagues in the office and across the firm.
