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LAW MEETINGS

New Delhi Hosts Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting

On March 2-4, 2006, the Asia-Pacific Region of LAW held its meeting in New Delhi, India. P.H. Parekh & Co. hosted the event, which was held at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Members attending the meeting had the unique opportunity to meet the Chief Justice of India, take a tour of the Supreme Court and meet members of the Bar Association on Thursday afternoon.

Meeting sessions included presentations on Doing Business in India as well as work generation. The meeting was followed by an optional tour of New Delhi on Saturday afternoon and an optional dinner that evening. On Sunday there was an optional all-day tour to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

The other regional meeting dates are approaching quickly, so we hope you will start making plans to attend:

• Americas Regional Meeting in New Orleans – April 20-22, 2006
• Europe, Middle East & Africa Regional Meeting in Dublin, Ireland – May 11-13, 2006

LAW NEWS

Member Survey Generates Terrific Response

We recently conducted a member survey for LAW, the results of which will be studied for ways to improve the organization. Representatives from 74 of our member firms took the time to complete the survey. A report on the results has been sent to the primary contact in each member firm.

Thank you for participating in the survey and for the many thoughtful comments and good ideas you presented. The results will be presented and discussed at each Regional Meeting of LAW.

MEMBER NEWS

Grüninger Hunziker Roth Rechtsanwälte Admitted to SWX Swiss Exchange as Knowledgeable Representative

Grüninger Hunziker Roth Rechtsanwälte, our LAW member in Switzerland, is pleased to report that the firm has been recognized by the Admission Board of SWX Swiss Exchange, Zurich, as a knowledgeable representative of the issuer for equity securities pursuant to art. 50 of the SWX Listing Rules (see http://www.swx.com/admission/partners/lawyerlist_en.html).

As a recognized representative, Grüninger Hunziker Roth Rechtsanwälte is entitled to represent an issuer in the listing procedure and to lodge the listing application on behalf of the issuer. Recently, Grüninger Hunziker Roth Rechtsanwälte advised Esmertec AG, Zurich/Dübendorf (www.esmertec.com), a leading global provider of software solutions and technologies for mobile phones and embedded devices, in its initial public offering at SWX Swiss Exchange and a private placement to qualified institutional buyers in the United States in reliance on Rule 144A of the U.S. Securities Act. At an offer price of CHF 18 per share, the offering was oversubscribed six times and resulted in IPO proceeds for Esmertec of roughly CHF 100 million. If you have any questions, contact Michael A. Meer, LL.M. Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law at michaelmeer@ghr.ch.

New Partner and Name Change for Fruytier Firm

Mr. Mic van Bremen has become a partner in the Fruytier firm, LAW Member in The Netherlands, and the firm has changed its name to Fruytier & Van Bremen. For the last 20 years, Mic van Bremen has specialized in the areas of venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions, finance and restructuring on behalf of national and international clients. The firm also welcomes Mr. Roger ten Hagen, who will assist Mic van Bremen and the mergers and acquisitions practice.

Beijing Member Announces Move

Ray Yin & Partners PRC Lawyers, our LAW member firm in Beijing, China, has relocated to a new address:
Room 02, 15/F, Office Tower 15
Jianwai SOHO, No.39 Dongsanhuan
Zhonglu, Chaoyang District,
Beijing 100022, P.R.China
www.rayyinlawyer.com

Florida Lawyer Receives Award

Patricia Lebow, managing partner of the West Palm Beach office for Broad and Cassel, our member firm in Florida, received the Sun-Sentinel’s distinguished Excalibur Award for Palm Beach County recently. The award, which honors outstanding business leadership and community contribution, was presented during a ceremony at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. Lebow founded Broad and Cassel’s West Palm Beach office in 1983, building it into the firm’s second largest office in the state, with 26 lawyers and 40 support staff.

Ulmer & Berne’s Growth Continues

Ulmer & Berne LLP, the Ohio-based member of LAW, continues its pace as one of Ohio’s fastest growing law firms. The firm has expanded its Financial Services Industry Group with the addition of Shawn R. Russell to the team. Ms. Russell concentrates her practice on bank regulatory and financial services law, as well as regulatory compliance, new product development, and corporate governance. Her experience includes serving as General Counsel for Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc.’s national credit card bank subsidiary, Credit First National Association. Along with Russell’s expertise in counseling financial institutions, her practice also includes bank holding company formations; de novo banks; purchases and dispositions of banks, savings and loans and their branches; development and implementation of regulatory compliance programs; representation of financial institutions before federal and state regulatory agencies on compliance and enforcement matters; and SEC work including registration, reporting, and 1934 Act compliance.

The firm also added a number of associates to its ranks, including:

• James K. Keller (Cincinnati) in the Corporate Finance, and Acquisition and Development Groups
• Patrick J. Egan (Cleveland) in the Employee Benefits Group
• Paul R. Harris (Cleveland) in the Litigation Department
• Natalie M. Hostacky (Cleveland) in the Litigation Department
• Shannan L. Katz (Cleveland) in the Litigation Department
• Stanley D. Prybe (Cleveland) in the Business Law Group
• Lesley R. Avery (Columbus) in the Business Litigation and Real Estate Groups
• Megan Hensler (Cincinnati) in the Litigation Department

SOLON Attorneys Expands in the Stockholm Area

Mrs. Charlotte (“Lottie”) Adding has become a partner at SOLON Attorneys, our LAW member in Stockholm, Sweden, and is heading up Solon’s new branch office in the county of Täby, north of Stockholm (population 10,000). The branch office will also service clients in four more counties in the Stockholm region (Danderyd, Vallentuna, Vaxholm and Österåker) with a total population of 75,000. Lottie is working primarily in the areas of Family Law, Insurance Law, Citizenship and Personal Injury Litigation, areas in which SOLON previously had virtually no experience.

Costantini Becomes Partner at Studio Legale Maccallini

Carlo Maccallini, from our member firm Studio Legale Maccallini in Rome, Italy, is pleased to announce that Alessio Costantini has become senior partner of the Firm. Alessio has attended several LAW meetings, including those in Capri, Tallin and Toronto.

Jacoby Donner Adds Public Contract Lawyer

Jacoby Donner, our LAW member in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is pleased to announce that one of the City of Philadelphia’s most experienced public contract lawyers has joined its ranks. Christopher I. McCabe practiced in the Commercial Litigation Unit of the City of Philadelphia Law Department for over 13 years – regularly advising and representing the City’s departments and agencies on questions of public bidding and contract procedures, on construction claims, and on real estate disputes. Chris’ experience at the City included the Procurement Department, the Department of Public Property, the Water and Streets Departments, the Philadelphia International Airport, and the Capital Program Office. Said firm chairman, Henry Donner, “We are thrilled to have Chris join us and bring his experience to our clients. McCabe is the only lawyer in private practice in the City who has had such a lengthy tenure with the City in the area of public contracting and construction claims.”

Howard Kennedy Advises on £70 Million Joint Venture

Howard Kennedy has recently acted for Romney House Developments Limited, a joint venture between Galliard Homes Limited and Frogmore Property Company Limited, in relation to the re-financing of a loan from Irish Nationwide Building Society by Anglo Irish Asset Finance Plc. The facility, which totals c.£70 million, is being used to fund the construction of 170 prime residential units at Romney House, 47-61 Marsham Street, London. Howard Kennedy's role involved negotiating documentation for back-to-back finance for the participation, as well as the negotiation with Addleshaw Goddard of the funding structure and the full security package. Howard Kennedy’s team was led by banking partner Claire Wheatley assisted by property partner Chris Langan and construction partner James Stewart.

CHAIRMAN'S CORNER

On the Road in China

The Chinese economy is growing at breakneck speed. That is why in January, during the week leading up to the Chinese New Year, LAW was on the ground in several key Chinese cities, recruiting new law firms to join our organization.

Although LAW already has 3 fine member firms in China with offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, we need to recognize that China is a vast country with a massive population (1.3 billion) and many major commercial centers. China’s 9.9% growth in GDP during 2005, the third straight year that GDP growth was roughly 10%, has vaulted China into 4th place in the rankings of the world’s largest economies – behind only the United States, Japan and Germany, but now ahead of the U.K., France, and Italy.

The top 4 busiest ports in the world are all found in Southeast Asia, with 3 of them located in China – Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen. (Singapore won the #1 ranking again for the second year in a row.) PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, the international accounting and consulting firm, noted that 55% of business leaders planned to do business in China in the next 3 years in a report released in January at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. While 48% of respondents surveyed said that they were investing in China to lower their labor costs, 75% said they were doing so to win new customers, i.e. to expand market access in the PRC. The PWC survey was conducted in the last quarter of 2005 and included 1,410 executives in 45 different countries.

The above statistics, plus a host of others, combined with my own “unscientific sampling” of opinions and plans, have led me to conclude that the vast majority of our business clients will be setting up operations in China, or engaging in other business relationships with Chinese suppliers or distributors, within the next few years. We, as their legal professional advisors, need to be geared up to assist these clients to meet their needs for legal services in this rapidly developing part of the world.

On this recruiting trip, we visited law firms in Tianjin (population 10 million), Xiamen (population 1.25 million), Shanghai (population 13 million) and Nanjing (population 5.35 million). The story about Lawyers Associated Worldwide, its 17-year history, and its emergence as one of the fastest-growing, premier legal associations of its type in the world, was well received by all of our gracious hosts. As the “Year of the Dog” progresses, look for LAW’s representation in the Asia Pacific region to grow with the addition of several new, highly-respected, Chinese law firms whose practices will fit the profiles and meet the service standards that we have established for membership in our organization.

If our China recruiting efforts are successful, LAW will have more independent law firm members, in more important Chinese commercial centers, than any other international association of law firms in the world, and we will have substantially broader geographic coverage in the PRC than any of the large, multi-national law firms. It could be a very exciting year!

Oh, by the way, see you in Beijing in October at the AGM.
Best regards,

Christopher C. McCracken, Chairman
Ulmer & Berne LLP
Cleveland, Ohio USA

LAW SUCCESS STORY

San Diego Client Benefits from LAW Network

Heather Rosing of Klinedinst PC, our LAW member in San Diego, reports that a client, the general counsel of a computer company, has been just thrilled with the LAW network. To date, the client has worked with several LAW member firms, including those in Italy, Spain and South Africa, and all has worked out well. She is a true LAW client success story.

LEGAL UPDATE

U.S. Department of Labor Issues Regulations Implementing USERRA

Mark D. Katz, a lawyer with the Cleveland office of Ulmer & Berne, has provided this update. On December 19, 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its final regulations designed to implement the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 detailing how employers must treat employees who leave and then return from military service. These regulations do not impose any new legal requirements but serve to interpret and clarify existing rights and responsibilities of both returning military service members and their employers.

The regulations published in the Federal Register are written in a question and answer format and are extremely comprehensive in nature. They are intended to summarize the principles and precedents which have been established under USERRA and its predecessor statutes. These regulations are well organized and cover topics including servicemen’s protection from employer discrimination and retaliation; eligibility requirements for reemployment; entitlements upon reinstatement such as seniority rights, rate of pay and protection against discharge; and issues regarding health insurance and pension plans.

According to the Secretary of Labor, some of the key points discussed in these regulations are:

• The general requirement of employers to reinstate returning service members within two weeks after they apply for reemployment;
• Explanation of the “escalator in principle” which is designed to return the servicemen to the same status, seniority and pay as would have been attained had military service not intervened;
• Time tables and procedures which service members must follow in reporting back to work;
• The employer’s obligation to make reasonable accommodations in the event a returning service member suffered a disability while in military service; and
• Restoration of health care and retirement plan benefits.

In addition to these interpretive regulations, the Labor Department also issued final regulations concerning the requirement that employers post a notice at work sites explaining to employees their rights under USERRA. This poster is available on the Labor Department’s website. For further information, contact Mark D. Katz, Esq. at mkatz@ulmer.com.