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Chairman’s Comments As the ILN continues to grow, Lowell noted that one of the most enjoyable meeting activities is the introduction of new members to the network. In this regard, Lowell proceeded to introduce our new members and guests, attending their first Annual Meeting: Dimitriou
Law Firm (http://www.dim.gr)
– Athens, Greece Halsbury
Chambers (http://www.halsburylawchambers.com)
– The Bahamas Harrison
& Moberly, LLC. (http://www.harrisonmoberly.com)
– Indianapolis, Indiana Lommen
Nelson Cole & Stageberg (http://www.lommen.com)
– Minneapolis, Minnesota Ryley
Carlock & Applewhite (http://www.rcalaw.com)–
Phoenix, Arizona Schmidt,
Jaton & Associes (www.sja.ch)-
Geneva, Switzerland Singhania
& Partners (http://www.singhania.co.in
)– New Dehli, India In addition to our new members, we were happy to welcome Mr. Jaime Brosa, BROSA Abogados y Economistas, Barcelona, Spain and Mr. Piotr Kochanski, Kochanski Brudkowski Olechowski & Partners, Warsaw, Poland who, were attending the conference as our guests in order to have the opportunity to discuss potential membership and meet the other ILN delegates. Lowell handed the meeting over to Alan Griffiths. Following is a summary of the main issues that were covered during the ILN Business Meetings. Alan welcomed the delegates and proceeded to invite each new member and guest to make a presentation, providing the delegates with an overview about their firm and its specific legal specialties. For additional information about these firms, please visit their websites. Alan proceeded to update the delegates with the main activities of the administration since the last Annual Conference in Seattle. ILN Recruitment Update – 2003/2003 Alan Griffiths reported that the ILN had a very successful year in recruiting eight new firms since the last Annual Conference in Seattle. The administration had focused its efforts on European recruitment and was committed to provide representation in jurisdictions in the newly expanded EU not presently covered by the ILN. Considerable success had been achieved in this regard as can be noted by the addition of a Romanian member and the ongoing discussions with firms in Spain and Poland. Alan noted that the administration would continue to concentrate its efforts in Europe but will also be pursuing firms in North America, especially Southern California, North and South Carolina and Vancouver, Canada. Central and South America continue to be a challenging region for the ILN. The administration is working with M & M Bomchil, Argentina and members of the Bomchil Group to provide the ILN with complete coverage in Central and South America jurisdictions not currently represented. The Asia-Pacific region continues to expand with the addition of CHLY & Partners, Taiwan and other recent members in India and Singapore. These additions bring the total number of ILN firms in the region to 13. The administration will focus its efforts in the region to secure firms in South Korea, Vietnam and New Zealand. ILN Member Firms – Impressive Growth The expansion of the ILN and its members is very important for future growth, but equally important is the impressive growth being experienced by most of the ILN member firms themselves. In order to highlight this aspect of Network growth the administration gathered information and conducted surveys of the member firms. Alan provided the delegates with some examples of this growth. For example, based on a recent survey by the Corporate Legal Times, 14 of the ILN’s North American firms were listed in the top 1000 US firms. Each firm experienced considerable growth during the past five years in both legal services provided and in total fee earners (an average increase of approximately 30 %). Similar expansion for ILN member firms was true in Europe. To highlight this Alan provided a few representative examples: Lefèvre Pelletier & associés (LPA)- One of the largest law firms in France with more than 130 fee earners and 29 partners - LPA was ranked the15th largest law firm in 2002 in the Juristes & Associés Survey;Goehmann Wrede Haas Kappus & Hartmann , one of Germany’s largest firms in the field of business law with more than 80 attorneys & notaries; Hellström & Partners Advokatbyrå recent merger with Michelson & Werner brings their total of fee earners to 35. These firms were chosen to highlight the growth that most ILN member firms seemed to have experienced during the same period. In
order to emphasize the point Alan detailed the growth of attorneys
in the Group from 3,000 to 4,500 during the past five years. It
was estimated that total billings for all firms in the Network
was in excess of US $ 1,250,000,000. At this time Alan moved on to describe the marketing efforts of the administration during the past year. A database including more than 700 senior executives and general counsel of major international corporations was created. An electronic newsletter “The International Legal News” containing articles exclusively authored by ILN members was published on May 3, 2004. Statistics show that the newsletter was viewed by more than half of the recipients within the first week of publication. The inaugural issue of this publication can be viewed at the following web address; http://www.iln.com/2004_newsletter/may/ Alan detailed the next stages of this program which will include the addition of member firm’s clients to the database, and working with International Trade Associations to further add to the database. The ILN brochure has been completely redesigned and supplies sent to all ILN member firms. The administration intends to distribute copies of the new brochure, including a complete membership listing, to all companies in the corporate database. Alan also provided activity information about the ILN website and the associated articles written by members for the Bullet”iln” for the period May 2003 – May 2004 Referral Tracking Alan noted that we have now complete two full calendar years of referral data. The data shows a steady growth, both regionally and in total, demonstrating that inter-regional referrals continue to be very prominent and provide the largest source of referrals. The data also reflects a steady growth in referrals of approximately 11 % comparing 2002 with 2003. A significant increase in referrals of 250% within the Asia Pacific group was noted. This was due in large part to the increase in membership firms in the region. ILN Practice Groups Development Since the last Annual meeting, three ILN practice groups have been formed. The Practice Groups are Tax, Intellectual Property, and Insolvency and Restructuring. Each group is in a different stage of development, with the Insolvency and Restructuring being the most recent addition. Tax Group Development Committee Co-Chair
- Peter Kirpensteijn – Udink & De Jong, The Hague During the past year all tax professionals within the ILN were contacted by the administration to request additional information about their practices, including specific specializations of the firm and individual attorneys. This information was gathered and a database was produced providing the data to all ILN members and the public via the ILN website (www.iln.com/PracticeAreas.htm). In addition, the survey asked for the specialists to provide the committee with their goals for this group. The Tax Group met during the conference in a separate breakout session on Friday afternoon. This session included an update on the group’s progress by Mr. Peter Kirpensteijn and discussion of a case study presented by Mr. Gary P. Kaplan. Members from London, France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands prepared flash presentations about their country’s pex rules. In addition to the conference delegates, it should be noted that a special effort was made by Ms. Griet Vanden Abeele of Vanden Eynde & Partners, Brussels, Mr. Thierry Pons of Lefèvre Pelletier & associés, Paris and Dr. Florian Hartl of Goehmann Wrede Haas Kappus & Hartmann, Hanover to participate in the one day tax session. The session was very well attended and proved to be a great success for the first ever ILN Tax seminar. It should be noted that both Peter Kirpensteijn and Gary Kaplan have worked tirelessly during the past year in order to bring the tax group to this point.
Development Committee Co-Chair
- Marga Wolpert - Goehmann Wrede Haas Kappus & Hartmann, Frankfurt The ILN’s IP Group was formed shortly after the tax group and thanks to the efforts of its development committee, has made significant progress in a relatively short time. At the recent INTA Annual Meeting in Atlanta the ILN hosted an IP luncheon for members attending the INTA conference. Members from the following firms joined us for lunch: Dej-Udom
& Associates Ltd. Thailand The lunch was extremely successful and provided members with a perfect opportunity to become acquainted with each other in a relaxed atmosphere. The IP Group met on Friday afternoon to hold a workshop session devoted to the future development of the Group and provide members with an outline of its objectives. This session was also very well attended and the member participation was extremely valuable.
Development Committee Co-Chair
– Marc Udink – Udink & De Jong, The Hague The development committee met for the first time to discuss how to achieve the goals and objectives of the members. These discussions included requesting member firms to supply the names of two main contact persons responsible for this practice group and possibly renaming the group to incorporate Banking and Finance. It was suggested that regular communication between the main contact persons of the group would be beneficial and could be conducted, either via teleconference, emails or newsgroups. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Development Committee for taking on the task of forming and promoting this group to all ILN members. I can assure the committee that the administration will do everything possible to achieve their desired goals. This concluded the ILN business session of the morning. After a short break the meeting was reconvened for a session on “Projecting the Right Image – Sporting Deals” The session was chaired by Brian Moore, Partner, Memery Crystal. Brian is an excellent lawyer but may be better known for his distinguished career playing rugby for England: 64
caps, 3 Grand Slams, 3 World Cups SAM RUSH, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SFX SPORTS GROUPS (EUROPE) Sam Rush, a solicitor, is the Chief Operating Officer at SFX Sports Group (Europe) Limited, Europe’s leading sports management company, whose clients include Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Steven Gerrard, Gary Linekar and Gabby Logan. Sam has been responsible for the legal affairs of SFX since joining the parent company Clear Channel in January 2002. Clear Channel are the largest providers of live entertainment in the world.Sam is a graduate of Oxford University where he earned a double blue in Rugby Union and Rugby League and played first-class rugby for Saracens. Formerly with the city law firm Bird & Bird, Sam has acted for clients across the sport and entertainment industry including premiership footballers, top tennis players, world champion boxers, music promoters, theatre owners, and film and television production companies. Sam is a committee member for the British Association of Sport and Law, and was appointed Chief Operating Officer of SFX in September 2003.
Mark specializes in litigation and arbitration, concentrating on international disputes, intellectual property matters and has a particular expertise in motorsport matters. For the past ten years he has acted for the Formula 1 team Jordan Grand Prix and advises them on all aspects of their business, from negotiating contracts to dealing with litigation, domain name disputes, passing off matters and general commercial advice. As well as motorsport, Mark is involved with cycling and football. Recent cases of Mark's have included the ground breaking image rights case of Eddie Irvine -v- Talk Radio, a successful $25 million claim for the US computer games retailer Electronics Boutique, and many trade mark/passing off disputes.
Michelle Drake qualified as a UK solicitor in 1998. Working in private practice until she made the move at the end of 2001 to work as one of four legal counsel for Formula One Management Limited. Formula One Management Limited is the operating company of the Formula One Group, the exclusive commercial rights holders of the global motor sport series, the Formula One World Championship. The Formula One World Championship was established in 1950 and today is the most renowned international motor sport series, staged annually as 17 (or so) Grand Prix races in 16 countries across 5 continents. This year, the Championship will include new circuit venues in Bahrain and China. Each race is broadcast live on network TV in hundreds of countries to a global live audience of approximately 360 million viewers. Michelle’s primary role in Formula One Management’s legal team is working on the legal aspects involved in the licensing of global television rights and the rights to stage Formula One events world-wide. She also works on a range of other general commercial matters within the company. DAVID HANSEL, PARTNER, MEMERY CRYSTAL David Hansel specializes in the law relating to copyrights, trade marks and other soft intellectual property rights and their use in relation to sectors such as I.T., media, sports and entertainment, fashion and marketing. As well as being a commercial contracts draftsman and negotiator, he also deals with the resolution of copyright, trade mark and other intellectual property rights disputes. Much of Memery Crystal’s intellectual property practice is international in its nature. Both transactional work and litigation will usually involve at least one foreign party. Indeed, sometimes the only “English” element will be the law and/or the forum. David Hansel is a law graduate of Warwick University with post-graduate qualifications from the College of Law, Chester. He also holds a post-graduate diploma in copyright and design law from King’s College, London. The panelists provided the delegates with an extremely interesting and informative session on many of the nuances of Intellectual Property rights with regards to today’s multi-billion dollar sporting industry. If you would like additional information, a copy of each presenter’s PowerPoint presentation can be obtained by contacting Alan Griffiths via email alangriffiths@iln.com. The morning session was adjourned and the hosts, delegates and companions met for lunch at the Kensington Roof Gardens nearby. Friday 4th June, 2004 – Business Session “IS LONDON THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS?” This session considered the advantages of investing and raising money in both London and the US. Speakers outlined the respective benefits of these centers, while the ILN panel session promoted the benefits of other financial centers, including France and China. The session was chaired by Mr. Tony Halmos
(From Left to right: Mr. Michael Charlton; Mr. Tony Halmos: Mr. Graham Dallas: Mr. Alex Hickson) MICHAEL
CHARTLON Michael directs a team of 30 staff at London First Centre (LFC) with responsibility for world-wide promotion and business development for London. Michael was previously Consul for Investment at the British Consulate, Atlanta, Georgia, where he was on secondment from KPMG. Trained as a Chartered Accountant, he spent nine years with KPMG managing audit and corporate finance assignments. He has a BSc in Business Finance from Loughborough University. LFC is the investment promotion agency for London. LFC is a not-for-profit, private/public sector partnership sponsored by the London business community, together with central and local government.
Graham Dallas is responsible for the London Stock Exchange’s International Business Development activities in Western Europe and the Americas. He plays an integral role in building and maintaining the Exchange’s profile and presence in the adviser communities in London and the finance centres of the USA, Canada and Europe, focusing on attracting international companies to the London markets. Graham has worked in exchange-traded and over the counter markets, in equity, fixed income and derivative products and has over twenty years of experience of international capital markets. He has worked in the capital markets of London and New York, and established the Asian office of Guy Butler (now ICAP) in Hong Kong. He joined the London Stock Exchange from NASDAQ in 2002. ALEXANDER
HICKSON Alex Hickson, a Vice President in the Bank of New York’s ADR Division, has fourteen years’ experience of providing ADR services to corporate issuers. Based in London, Alex was responsible for developing the South African market subsequent to the lifting of sanctions in 1993. Since that time ADR’s in issue have risen from $150 million, with a value of $ 1.3 billion, to almost 600 million, with a value of close to $6 billion CHARLOTTE
CROSSWELL Charlotte is in charge of NASDAQ International, located in London. She is responsible for managing NASDAQ’s relationships with its 162 listed companies located in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). These companies have a Global Market Capitalization of $ 300 billion. In addition, she is charged with Business Development for the EMEA region. NASDAQ International also supports all NASDAQ-listed companies to develop their relationships with the analyst and investor community in Europe and Asia through conferences, specialist research and web-based activity. Following the speakers, a panel of ILN experts, Mr. Lowell S. Lifschultz, Epstein Becker and Green, New York, Mr. Robert Bijloos, Lefèvre Pelletier & Associés, Avocats, Paris and Mr. Stan Abrams, Lehman, Lee & Xu, Beijing provided the audience with a different perspective of the theme “Is London the Global Center?” A short coffee break was taken to allow the delegates to meet and discuss the session with the speakers. The last session of the morning was chaired by Mr. Peter Crystal, Senior Partner, Memery Crystal, London and provided the delegates with a view of: “Expanding a UK company on a global scale” KEITH HARRIS Dr Keith Harris obtained his doctorate in 1977 and embarked on a career in investment banking. Following eight years at Morgan Grenfell in London and New York, where he was President of Morgan Grenfell Inc., he went on to become Managing Director and Head of International Corporate Finance at Drexel Burnham Lambert, CEO of Apax partners Ltd., and, in 1994, was appointed Chief Executive of HSBC Investment Bank plc. In 1999, Keith left HSBC to pursue a number of interests as chairman or non-executive director of a range of public and private companies. These now include his chairmanship of Investment Management Holdings PLC. From August 2000 to August 2002, Keith served as Chairman of the Football League. In January 2001, he joined the board of Wembley National Stadium Limited. In July 2003, Keith became Executive Chairman of Seymour Pierce Limited upon its acquisition from Investment Management Holdings 151c.
Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young, London, and graduated in Law from Cambridge University, Karan Bilimoria developed a less gassy, premium lager brewed to perfectly appeal to both ale drinkers and lager drinkers alike, and to complement food. Fourteen years later, Cobra Beer is one of the fastest growing beer brands in the UK and was ranked in the 1999 Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100, the list of the UK’s fastest growing unquoted companies. The brand has a current retail value turnover of £56.9 million and is sold in over 6,000 restaurants and leading multiples throughout the UK and has been exported to 30 countries worldwide. Cobra has been awarded Gold for three successive years at the 2001, 2002 and 2003 Monde Selection World Quality Awards, and was presented with the Monde Selection International High Quality Trophy in 2003 for its achievements. In
1999, Karan launched the General Bilimoria Wine brand, which is
now the house wine of hundreds of restaurants, including being
listed in top Michelin-starred restaurants. A range of South African
wines were added to the General Bilimoria portfolio in 2002.
Anthony Wagerman is Head of Group Marketing & Communications for Travelex plc His responsibilities include corporate communications, media relations, advertising and brand identity. Following the acquisition by Travelex of Thomas Cook Global & Financial Services in March 2001, Anthony was charged with developing the new integrated Travelex corporate identity which is now employed in all collateral and foreign exchange branches around the world. He
is also responsible for Travelex’s sponsorship properties,
which currently encompass Anthony has a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry & Business Studies, and an MBA specializing in Marketing. After
lunch the delegates reconvened for a short general session, which
included a presentation by Mr. James Lockhart, Lommen Nelson Law
Firm, Minneapolis on the imminent decision by the US Supreme Court’s
ruling on “The Global Reach of American Antitrust Laws”.
This session concluded the general business element of the conference and the delegates proceeded to their respective breakout sessions.
Panel: Understanding
the Practice of Corporate Law in Member Countries Litigation Breakout Group Moderated
by: Panel:
Discussion included the following topics: Mr. Jeffrey Shapiro “Recent developments concerning The Hague Convention for the Taking of Evidence Abroad as it relates to matters in the federal district courts of the United States.” Mr. Jim Lockhart “U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Global Reach of American Antitrust Laws” – The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that would allow foreign companies to bring suit in U.S. courts alleging violations of U.S. antitrust laws based on foreign transactions. Mr. Robert G. André Asbestos – The Expansion of Mass Tort in Europe
The business sessions of the conference were a tremendous success, but without question the gala evening was the highlight of the week’s events. Held at Madame Tussaud’s, the delegates were surrounded by world leaders, celebrities and sports figures, including Hugh Grant, Jennifer Lopez, Gandhi, Tony Blair and Beckham. Even for our distinguished members it was indeed an honor to be seen with so many famous people. Many delegates were seen to be having in depth conversations with many of the invited celebrities. (Interesting!)
The evening was concluded by Peter Crystal, who thanked everyone for making this such a memorable conference.
Lowell Lifschultz thanked both host firms for hosting such a wonderful conference. As a show of our appreciation, Lowell presented Peter Crystal and Simon Ekins with a unique Royal Delft inscribed plate to commemorate the occasion. The delegates and companions were then entertained by the “Beatles”, an impersonation group, who obviously struck a chord with all since the dance floor was completely engulfed for the remainder of the evening.
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Lowell
Lifschultz opened the ILN Business Session on Thursday 3rd of
June, by welcoming all the members to the16th Annual Meeting.
