Marga Wolpert opened the ILN
Business Session on Friday, May 12, 2006 by welcoming all of the members to the
18th Annual ILN Meeting.
Lowell Lifschultz also
welcomed the delegates and extended a special welcome to all new ILN members
and guests.
Alan Griffiths began the
Business Session by introducing our four newest members in the Network – Mr.
Dmitry Dyakin & Mr. Sergei Airapetov from Legas Legal Solutions in Moscow, Russia
(www.legas.ru), Mr. Mario da Rosa Amaral from
MGRA & Associados in Lisbon, Portugal (www.mgra.pt), Mrs. Didem Ozcan from
Ozcan & Natan Law Firm in Istanbul, Turkey (www.ozcan-natan.av.tr/) and Ms.
Katya Glushkova and Mr. Alexander Ivanov from Teralex Consult in Sofia,
Bulgaria (www.teralexconsult.com).
Alan then invited Sergei
Airapetov from Legas Legal Solutions to take the floor.
Sergei expressed his happiness
at being able to join the ILN Annual meeting in Berlin and provide the
membership with an overview of Legas Legal Solutions. The firm is an independent, mid-sized Russian law firm, with
20 lawyers, including four partners.
The firm also has 10 administrative support staff members. Their main office is in Moscow, but the
firm is able to work throughout Russia and has partners in the former USSR
republics. The firm was founded by
its managing partner, Dmitry Dyakin, in 2002 and the core practice was
litigation with a focus on energy litigation. Since then, the firm has grown to include corporate, real
estate, mergers & acquisitions, tax, international trade, banking &
finance, and employment, and offers dispute resolution, litigation and
arbitration services. The firmís
vision is to combine both a profound knowledge of the Russian legislature and
litigation system with pro-western management to become a leader in the Russian
market in their core areas of specialization. The firm focuses on three types of clients – Russian
giants, such as oil companies, a group termed ìother Russians,î which includes
companies that obtained their assets through a modern western style of business
instead of privatization, and western clients, with western clients making up
40% of the firmís business. Sergei
noted that the firm has already had referrals from ILN members in North America,
Europe and Asia, and that the ILN gives the firm the opportunity to develop
personal relationships with other members to aid in information exchanges as
well as referrals. He reiterated
the need for the firm to have reliable and expert partners around the
world.
Legas Legal Solutions
Business
Center Nemetskaya Sloboda
Building 1, 31/7 Novoryazanskaya Street
Moscow, 105066, Russia
Telephone:
+7 (495) 933 0830
Fax: +7 (495)742 4434
Alan thanked Sergei for his informative
presentation and Mario da Rosa Amaral from MGRA & Associados to take the floor.
Mouteira Guerreiro, Rosa Amaral & Associados
Avenida
Miguel Bombarda, 129 – 1.?
Lisbon, 1050-164, Portugal
Telephone: + 351 21 359 50 90
Fax: + 351 21 359 50 99
Alan thanked Mario for his
presentation. He then invited Didem
of Ozcan & Natan Law Firm to take the floor.
Didem noted that she is one of
the three partners at her law firm, a mid-sized firm located in the heart of
Istanbul. The firm has seven
lawyers, three of counsels and one trainee. Their main areas of practice are corporate law, banking law,
administrative law, bankruptcy law, tax law, securities law, international
private law, labor law, estate law, law of obligations, tort law, and
commercial criminal law. The
members of the firm are able to converse and correspond fluently in English,
German and French, and the firm offers their clients high quality legal advice,
effective and efficient executions, multilingual legal assistance, quick
government applications, and cooperation with high profile of counsels. The firm acts for international
and domestic corporations mainly, as well as owner-managed companies, family
run businesses, institutions, and private individuals. Their clients are in the medical
devices, airline, kitchen equipment, software, telecoms, banking & finance,
advertising, and tobacco industries.
Didem noted that the firmís hourly rates are 100-300 euros, depending on
the attorney working on the matter, but that the firm also works on a flat fee
basis depending on the project.
She closed by saying that Turkey provides many investment incentives for
investors, and the firm aims to assist international clients wishing to operate
in Turkey in cooperation with ILN members.
Ozcan
& Natan Law Firm
Siraselviler
Cad. No:25 Kat:5 D:11
Istanbul, 34437, Turkey
Telephone: +90 (0) 212 292 30 99
Fax: +90 (0) 212 292 30 77
Alan then thanked Didem for
her presentation and invited Katya Glushkova of Teralex Consult to take the
floor.
Katya began by introducing
herself as a partner and co-founder of Teralex Consult. The firm was established in 2001 and
expanded over the next five years to become a mid-sized Bulgarian firm with
nine lawyers. The firm has offices
in Sofia and Plovdiv, but operates throughout Bulgaria. They have a business-oriented practice,
focused on providing services to corporate clients, which include Bulgarian,
international, and joint venture companies of all sizes. Their clients can be found in the
television and radio broadcast, production, construction, real estate
investments, tourism, trade, insurance, financing, gambling, medical, and
education industries. The firm has
also consulted for government institutions, and both Katya and Alexander Ivanov
have participated as members of working groups on drafting several legislation
acts. The firm provides a broad
range of legal services, covering all aspects of business law, such as
corporate law, commercial contracts and transactions, foreign investements,
commercial property, real estate & construction, privatization and
concessions, media law, banking and finance, tax law, intellectual property,
administrative law and public procurement, and litigation and arbitration. The firm is particularly known for
their media law work. Katya closed
by saying that the firm is honored and excited about their ILN membership and
looks forward to making new friends and forming relationships as part of the
ILN.
Teralex
Consult
37
Angel Kunchev str., fl 2, ap. 6
Sofia, 1000, Bulgaria
Telephone: +359 2 9888363
Facsimile: +359 2 9888363
After thanking Katya for her presentation, Alan
invited Rune Hamborg to come up and speak about his firm, DAHL. The ILNís current Danish
representative, Kield-Gustav Erichsen of Konig Homann Erichsen Advokater, who
has been a member since the founding of the ILN had spoken to Alan regarding
the Networkís need for a larger partner in Denmark. It was agreed that Kield-Gustav would be made a lifetime
honorary counsel of the ILN, and would be welcome at all ILN meetings for as
long as he wishes.
Rune then thanked Alan for the invitation to the
meeting. He noted that his firm is
a full-service business law firm in Denmark, dealing with national and
international issues and clients.
The firm has approximately 100 lawyers and 235 employees in total. With offices in both Denmark and
Germany, they are among the top six offices in Denmark, and the only large law
firm in Denmark the covers the whole country. The firmís main office is in Copenhagen, but they also have
four small offices throughout Denmark and two small offices in Germany. The firm is full-service, but is
particularly strong in competition law, EU law, IP law, M&A, real estate
property, and tax law. Rune noted
that they are currently seeing a lot of international business happening with
real estate projects and that there are a lot of investments into Denmark, as
well as into other European countries.
He cited the importance of having local knowledge and said that the size
of the firm enables them to always have the necessary manpower to put together
the right team to handle complex cases in Danish industry. DAHL is particularly client-focused and
as such, they always allocated a responsible partner to each client. They combine these strong generalists
with highly specialized lawyers to cover all areas, putting together a highly
flexible team. The firm also has
high ethics standards and a strong international focus, with a continued
expansion of international relations.
In particular, the firm has an international task force to cover all of
their offices, ready to handle larger international cases. Rune noted that personally, he heads
international relations at DAHL, as well as the competition and procurement law
departments. He specializes in
Danish and EC competition law, and before joining DAHL, he was with the Danish
Lex Mundi representative for a number of years. He also lectures at the University of Copenhagen on EC
competition law. He closed by
saying that he looked forward to meeting the ILN members at the meeting and
getting a feeling for the ILN spirit.
Alan first invited Pavla
Prikrylova of PETERKA & Partners, v.o.s. in the Czech Republic to give an
update on her firmís latest news.
Pavla announced that the firm is planning to open their third office in
Kiev, Ukraine. The firm is proud
that they are growing and strong enough with their second office in Slovakia to
expand regionally. Ukraine is becoming
a ìhot spotî for European investors.
As the second largest company in Europe, the Ukraine has become a
parliamentary republic with a semi-presidential system. It has been independent since its split
from the USSR in 1991 and has had a constitution since 1996. Administratively, the country is
divided into about 24 districts and the population is 48 million people, with
the majority made up of Ukrainians and Russians comprising the strongest
minority. The
countryís economic growth is about 2.5%, which is half of that of the Czech
Republic, but the country is developing so quickly that they will reach a
higher rate this year or the next.
There is a heavy industrial focus in the Ukraine, with coal and
metallurgy being their main industries.
However, real estate and tourism are also important industries. The Ukraine is a member of the UNO, the
Commonwealth of Independent States, the Counsel of Europe, the International
Monetary Fund and the International Counsels of Europe. They are currently in discussions with
NATO and the WTO, as well as the European Union.
As for the firmís new office,
it was established at the beginning of the year and the firm has rented office
space as of February. They are
hoping to open at the beginning of June.
The new office will be able to provide services in English, French, and
Russian and is already working on a few cases for international clients and
Ukrainian clients, specifically in acquisitions, corporate and real
estate. The head of the new office
is a member of the Prague firm, Monika Hoskova, who is fluent in English and
French and has a good knowledge of Russian. She specializes in general commercial law and mergers &
acquisitions. Alexander Poels of
the Slovakia office will be joining her, as well as ten Ukrainian lawyers.
Alan thanked Pavla and noted
that the ILN would include the firmís contact information on the website when
the office is up and running. He
then invited Johan Vanden Eynde of Vanden Eynde & Partners in Brussels,
Belgium to speak about his firmís growth.
Johan thanked Alan and said
that it was a pleasure for his firm to be a part of the Network. His firm focuses on consultancy,
preventions, mediation and litigation in business and administrative law, as
well as the recent addition of an EU law practice. The firm currently has about thirty five lawyers, including
five partners. Dominque Grisay is
the firmís newest partner, joining the firm in January. A lawyer in Belgium with a masters
degree from the Netherlands, Dominique is now a lecturer at the business school
on European law and an invited lecturer at the University of France and
Leonardo da Vinci in Paris. His
practice focuses on European law and anti-dumping. Johan added that the firm has also recently had one of their
associates appointed as a ìcuratorî or legal bankruptcy receiver and they have
set up a niche in sport law over the past three years. Within sports law, they are practicing
corporate, intellectual property, television rights, and public procurements
for the infrastructures of sports.
Alan thanked Johan and invited
Hock Chan of the Isle of Man to make a short announcement. Hock noted that last year, Cooper Chan
was dissolved as a partnership and firm created Chan Law LLC. He assured everyone that only the name
has changed, but the firmís services have remained the same.
After thanking Hock, Alan invited Lowell to make
the Directorís Update. Lowell
began by reflecting on the beginnings of the Network eighteen years ago, and
the group recognized the efforts of Kield-Gustav Erichsen, Peter Crystal and
Per Konig in putting together the Network with a round of applause. Lowell then went on to say that his
participation in the Network has added a dimension to his life that he wouldnít
have otherwise had – he used to believe that the ILN was about business
development, but he has learned that its really about relationships. He then announced that effective with
the next Annual Meeting, he plans to retire from the Network as its
chairman.
As part of the transition, the Board nominated
Peter Altieri to this class of directors.
Lowell noted that the slate of Directors up for election/re-election
include himself, Peter Altieri, Jon Denovan, Michael Slan, and Marc Udink. He reminded the assembled delegates
that there is a procedure set forth in the by-laws that provides for nominations
to the Board to be made prior to the meeting and otherwise, nominees are set
forth by the Board, who are trying to create regional and firm size
diversity. No discussion issues
were raised by the assembled delegates, so the group voted and the slate of
Directors was passed with none opposed.
Marc Udink then continued with the Directors
Meeting update. He noted that the
Board had evaluated the marketing efforts of the Network, specifically
discussing the group of marketing professionals within the Network. Marc added that Lindsay Griffiths would
be looking to have more success with this group and suggested that European
firms get their marketing directors and/or office managers involved as well. He went on to say that the Board had
discussed Network referrals in great detail, focusing on the fact that
referrals are underreported by about half, though they have increased from the
last period. The firms have been
fairly successful in referring work overall, and Marc encouraged members to
attend as many Annual and Regional Meetings as possible, because the tendency
is to bring work home as a result of the Meetingsí networking opportunities. The Board also discussed the specialty
groups, which have been a benefit to the Network. Marc noted that the Board recognizes that the groups can be
a greater success, so he suggested that everyone participate in the groups as
much as possible. Another topic
covered at the Board meeting included the collection of dues. Because there is some difficulty with
collecting the dues on time, which creates a cash flow problem for the
Administration twice a year, the Board agreed to go to a once a year billing
system, beginning in January of 2007.
Marc summarized by saying that although Lowell plans to retire from the
Network, he will always be with the Network in spirit, and the true spirit of
the ILN is one of friendship – this is what sets us apart from other
international legal networks.
Alan asked David Willenzik to share with the
delegates McGlinchey Staffordís experience with Hurricane Katrina, and how
their emergency plan helped them in a time of crisis.
David began with an overview of the firmís
location, and the devastation that was wreaked by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent
collapse of the levees surrounding the city of New Orleans. He then spoke in particular about his
firm – the firm is a 200 person law firm, with eight offices, three in
Louisiana, two in Texas, one in Mississippi, one in Ohio, and one in upstate
New York. The firmís headquarters
is in New Orleans, with approximately 90 lawyers, and the firmís managing
partner, Rudy Aguilar, is located in Baton Rouge. When the firm learned of the approaching storm, they
immediately took steps to secure two floors in the Baton Rouge office, office
furniture, and 150 apartments.
Because of this action, although the storm hit on Monday, the expanded
office was operational in Baton Rouge by Thursday. David noted that the firm had learned a great deal from the
experience – first, they were thankful for having a multi-state,
multi-office firm to rely on. They
also learned that their IT system needed improvement, and following their
return to the office, they brought in a consultant to do disaster
recovery. They have now moved
their computer system to Dallas and David recommended moving all IT systems out
of the danger area for any firm exposed to potential disasters. He also advised that firms have a
disaster plan critically in effect, and ensure that critical services are
located off-site. David summarized
by saying that strong administrative management helped them to come out ahead,
and the firm was able to reopen in the first week in November.
Following a short break, the delegates reconvened
for the Administrationís Update.
2006/2007 Recruitment
Objectives & Update:
Alan began with the 2006/2007
recruitment objectives and update.
He said that at present, there are 87 firms in 62 countries on six
continents in the Network, representing an approximate 4,500 attorneys. The Network has a tremendous base, with
coverage in the major markets in North America, Asia and Europe and is striving
to cover more cities in Africa and South America. In the last year alone, the Network has grown by ten
firms. For the upcoming
recruitment period, the Administration plans to focus in particular on
developing the North American region, and secondarily on other areas where
there are still vacancies. Alan
encouraged all firms with relationships in the cities targeted for recruitment
to contact the Network to assist in making introductions.
Alan then moved on to a
discussion of the Networkís referrals.
He noted that the referral report for July 2005 – December 2005 is
included in the conference book, and said that the referral numbers contained
in this report are underestimated by half and do not include ongoing
referrals. Lowell added a
suggestion that member firms copy Alan on the initial referral email to allow
him to keep track of the referrals, which also serves the dual purpose of
enabling Alan to follow up on the referrals.
Alan spoke specifically about
two multijurisdictional referrals, which although not being large in size, can
be used as an example of opportunities that firms can identify for their
clients. In particular, Alan
referenced the IBM referral, in which IBM needed assistance on a licensing
question as part of their Lenovo deal.
Lowell put his client in touch with the ILN, and the Administration was
able to act as a coordinator for the 17 jurisdictions that were involved. In addition, one of Epstein Becker
& Greenís clients for their Dallas office are reviewing their outside
counsel requirements and their attorney at EBG suggested looking at ILN
members. The Administration was
able to provide profiles for the jurisdictions in question.
With respect to the referral
report, referrals were up from 150 in the previous period to 171. Regional referrals continue to be
extremely important. For example,
of the 70 referrals made in Europe, 45 of these were interregional. Similarly, 37 of 76 referrals in North
America and 12 of 20 referrals in Asia were interregional. Alan noted that this reflects the
increasing importance of building up relationships within these regions as the
Network moves forward, and he said that the Administration plans to identify
opportunities for member firms within each region to meet and further develop
their relationships. He suggested
that when travelling to a city, members look to meet with the member firm in
that city.
As for the size of the
referrals, Alan reiterated that this information is difficult to obtain. However, it is a good process to go
through each period. Of the 171 total
referrals, 112 are in the $0-$5,000 range, 49 are between the $5,000 to $25,000
range, five are in the $25,000 to $50,000 range and five are in the $50,000
plus range. The types of matters
that are being referred are mostly corporate.
The next topic was ILN events
and initiatives. Alan told the
assembled delegates that the Administration continues to work with the
specialty groups, although the focus of the goals of the groups has
shifted. They began as a means to
introduce clients to groups of ILN attorneys, in addition to creating another
layer of contact among member firms.
Although this will continue to be a secondary goal, the groups are now
working to become more visible externally and internally using modern
technology such as blogs and podcasts as much as possible. Jeff Shapiro commented on the Medical
Device group, saying that their latest effort was to put together a virtual
roundtable on the topic of spoliation.
The effort was spearheaded by Steve Rathke, but was the brainchild of
Marty Beirne. The group plans to use
the finished product in the Bulletîilnî and for their clients. Jeff suggested that firms encourage
their clients to visit the ILN website for this and other relevant topics. Peter Altieri then commented on his
work with the International Dispute Resolution group. He said that the idea behind the group is to connect those
that do litigation and dispute resolution to create a knowledge base by sharing
information. As their first
effort, the group created a questionnaire to be answered by members of the
group, focusing on the applicable law in a variety of areas. These areas included enforcement of
international judgments, treaties the jurisdiction might be a party to,
discovery and other processes, recovery of attorneysí fees, and other aspects
that might be legally different from country to country. The questionnaire responses are being
posted to the website as they are submitted. Alan also noted that there are new specialty groups proposed
for formation over the next few months.
Alan then made a short mention
of the Networkís affiliation with Sun Communications Group, a small public
relations firm that the ILN is working with to heighten visibility. He noted that an article was recently
published in Tax Business UK, for which Gary P. Kaplan was interviewed and the
ILN was mentioned. In conjunction
with this, the ILN took out a small advertisement.
He then moved on to the Gerson
Lehrman Group, who provide an expert-matching service to investment
analysts. As issues come up that
these analysts need quick access to experts for, the Gerson Lehrman Group uses
their database of experts to arrange consulting conference calls. A number of ILN members have signed up
to be experts, and the group is now able to bring in the whole firm as
consultants. The Gerson Lehrman
Group pays a fee to each expert for their consulting time based on the hourly
rate.
The ILN publishes two
electronic newsletters a year, the International Legal News and the
Bulletîiln.î The International
Legal News is currently delivered to approximately 1,000 corporate counsel and
senior executives throughout the world.
Although the largest percentage of recipients is in the United States,
the Administration is worked to expand the database. In addition to developing the database in-house, generals
counsel are also subscribing to the newsletter, including the counsel for
Exxon-Mobil. The articles that
were most popular in the recent issue include ìUS Land Salesî with 256 views,
ìEuropean Enforcement Orderî with 152 views, ìEstablishing a Presence in Chinaî
with 121 views, ìNew Companies Act in Swedenî with 118 views, and ìStandards
for All Appropriate Inquiriesî with 76 views. These continue to be accessed on the ILN website, and appear
in search engine results. As part
of the effort to drive viewers to our website, the ILN recently redesigned the
website for the second time. The
new main page more efficiently showcases upcoming events, news, newsletters and
the brochure and current member list.
Any news announcements or articles sent to the Administration from
member firms can be uploaded to the website for inclusion, and in addition to
be highlighted on the main page, can be attributed to member firms, authors,
and specialty groups. Already, the
activity level on the website has risen to 40,000 hits in April, up from 7,500
during the same period in 2005.
Although the majority of views are coming in from North America, the
Administration will be researching the possibility of adding translations to
the website to allow for wider accessibility.
Other technologies are also
valuable for the ILN to explore.
Alan touched on the idea of podcasts, which are short radio-type
programs that can be recorded and uploaded to the website. They can be accessed at any time,
anyone can subscribe to them, including clients, and they are automatically
downloaded whenever they are updated.
The Administration sees possibilities with using these in conjunction
with the ILN specialty groups and views them as a positive marketing tool. Similarly, blogs also present a great
opportunity for increasing visibility.
Member firm McGlinchey Stafford currently has two blogs – Class
Action Fairness Act and Hurricane Law – and is launching a new one on Go
Zone Financing. Alan reiterated
that these are great tools that the ILN can pioneer, using its unique
international base of experts.
Alan
then invited Lindsay Griffiths to give her update on the ILNís marketing
activities.
One of the activities that
Lindsay has been focused on is strategic differentiation, which is the process
by which the ILN can show how it is different to other international legal
networks. Phase One was completed
in January, which provided the Administration with the tentative message that
the ILN is about personal relationships.
Phase Two was recently completed in April, during which the
Administration developed audience profiles, for use in Phase Three. Phase Three will focus on making a
final determination of the ILNís message and defining how various marketing
tools will be used to get this message across. The Administration anticipates completing this phase in
August.
Lindsay further examined the
ILNís public relations efforts, saying that the initiatives undertaken by Sun
Communications Group include a combination of a domestic and international
media relations program and a strong speaker program for key attorneys within
the ILN in different trade organizations.
She noted that the Administration is hoping to supplement these efforts
with media partnerships, which would enable the ILN to showcase the Network in
a conferenceís promotional materials in exchange for publicizing the event
among ILN members. In addition,
the ILN is also working with PR Newswire to identify opportunities for
releasing announcements regarding the Network. Lindsay noted that the Network had sent out a release for
Helmut Kohlís announcement as the Annual Meetingís keynote speaker and that it
was picked up by several internet media outlets.
Lindsay also discussed her
experiences at the Legal Marketing Associationís Annual Meeting, which is
considered to be the premier information exchange and networking opportunity in
the legal marketing and sales industry.
Along with the conference sessions, Lindsay found value in the
networking opportunities at the conference. She met with Alicia Brown of American Lawyer Media, who is
interested in using the ILN as a resource for roundtables, and met with
marketing professionals from four member firms. This enabled her to share information about the Network, as
well as to learn more about the member firms.
In addition to the networking
opportunities, Lindsay attended a panel discussion called ìDeveloping Reality
Based Marketing Initiatives: Whatís Important to Corporate Counsel when
Choosing Law Firms.î
BTI Consulting Group recently
said that nearly 70% of clients are unhappy with their primary law firm. In her article, Marcie Borgal of BTI
said that client satisfaction dropped to 30.7% from a five year high of 43.5%. After analyzing 200 interviews with
corporate counsel, the reasons for declining client satisfaction were
identified as being: not keeping up with changing client needs; doing a poor
job of articulating and delivering value; and poor communication between law
firms and clients. These
issues were echoed by the panelists at the LMA, who encouraged firms to know
their clients and know their business above all else, listening to their
clients, submitting only clean bills, not requiring too much time of their
clients for feedback, and being flexible.
Lindsay also addressed the
issue of technology in her presentation.
She noted that the marketing side of the redesigned website is the ILNís
ability to draw more attention to the site with constant updates. Although the ILN Administration does a
great deal of research to obtain firm updates, Lindsay encouraged firms to send
their own announcements and updates to her for inclusion on the website. She also highlighted the new success
stories page as one of the most important marketing tools on the new
website. Since it showcases how
the Network works, and the satisfaction of member firms and their clients,
Lindsay reiterated the importance of sending in updated referral success
stories.
She also agreed that blogs are
a great tool, as well as podcasts.
In addition to these technologies, Lindsay discussed webinars, which act
as internet seminars, allowing participants to log in to a website and see a
PowerPoint presentation. The
benefits of this are that members can host seminars without having to travel or
invite only local clients. She and
Alan agreed that they would be focusing on these technologies over the next
several months to implement them within the specialty groups.
With the ILN Administration
update complete, Alan introduced Mr. Mark Hilpert, the Tax & Economic
Incentive Manager from Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit, Michigan.
After introducing himself and
his relationship to the firm, Mark spoke about Honigmanís latest efforts. The firm has three offices in Michigan,
in Detroit, Oakland County, and Lansing.
Comprising of 220 attorneys, the firm is recognized by Chambers and
Partners as the top Michigan firm in three practice areas. The firm changed its marketing
direction as it realized that its firmís client relationships were aging and as
a result, the firm is looking to establish a brand in the legal marketplace. They have established a number of new
practice areas, including family business (combining estate planning, tax, and
corporate work to meet the special needs of a family business), gaming and
hospitality, Indian tribal law, and insurance, which is a reflection of the
recent trend in the legal field to move from practice groups to client industry
groups. Markís group, the Tax
& Economic Incentive group combines a number of practice groups, such as
real estate, tax, and corporate, to create an environment to take advantage of
the tax incentives offered by governments to entice businesses to locate
facilities and jobs in their various jurisdictions. The idea behind this is that if the firm can bring in a
potential client and provide them with ìone-stop shoppingî service, this is a
good value add. For example, with
the recent problems in the automotive industry in Michigan, the tax incentive
practice is focused on redeveloping existing properties that have been vacated
by automotive distributors and parts makers, and putting incentives in place to
make these properties more marketable to other companies and potential
buyers.
In addition to these efforts,
the firm has been working on the ìGuide to Business Success in Michiganî over
the past year. The book is written
in a non-legalease business English format and geared towards business
executives to provide them with all of the legal guidelines and laws with
respect to the unique aspects of Michigan if they are looking to locate or do
business there. Although this is
not a new idea, the firm feels they have distinguished themselves by not simply
compiling the available documents and committing to keeping the guide updated
and current. In addition, the firm
is working with distribution partners, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the
Michigan Commerce Department. Mark
noted that all conference attendees would be receiving a copy of the book
following the meeting.
Marga
welcomed the delegates to the Saturday morning session and introduced Dr.
Stefan Steinbrener of the European Patent Office, the morningís first speaker. Dr.
Steinbrener spoke on patenting computer-implemented inventions under the
European Patent Convention. If you
would like to receive more information on this presentation, please contact the
ILN Administration for a complete audio transcript.
In
attendance:
