RECENT LAW MEETINGS

Americas Meeting is a Great Success

The 2005 Americas Regional Meeting was held in Lima, Peru on April 7th through 9th. Our host firm, Berninzon, Loret de Mola & Benavides, Abogados, S.A.C., welcomed 37 delegates and 23 accompanying persons. In addition, we were joined by two observer firms, Gerli & Co. from Panama City, Panama, represented by Ismael Gerli, and Fontaine & Cia Abogados from Santiago, Chile, represented by Francisco Fontaine who was accompanied by Paula Izquierdo.

Meeting speakers included Alvaro Diaz Bedregal, the General Counsel for the Peruvian Trade Administration, Desirée Orsini, the General Legal Counsel for Lan Perú S.A., and Aldo Defilippi, the General Manager of the American Chamber of Commerce of Peru.

Highlights of the meeting included presentations regarding the Free Trade Area of the Americas and Developing the Airline Industry in Latin America, dinners at La Huaca Puallana and Rosa Nautica, tours of Pyramid Temple and the Inca Ruins at the Pachacamac Temple, and a Peruvian horse show. Many LAW members took advantage of their time in Peru to take a tour of Cusco and Machu Pichhu before or after the meeting. We are pleased to announce that the Chile firm, Fontaine & Cia Abogados, has expressed interest in becoming a member of LAW.

MEMBER NEWS

Immigration Law Practice Returns to McCandlish Holton

McCandlish Holton, our Richmond, Virginia LAW member, will once again become home to the largest immigration law practice in its region. The immigration practice was founded at McCandlish Holton in the mid-1990s, but moved to a top 50 global law firm in early 2003. Three attorneys, including lead partners, Mark Rhoads and Helen Konrad, and a seven-person support staff will join McCandlish Holton.

According to Tom McCandlish, firm chairman, “We are particularly pleased to welcome back the immigration group, which we believe has the premiere immigration practice in the country.” The immigration practice provides counsel on all immigration issues affecting overseas nationals moving to the United States. It assists multinationals, businesses and universities in obtaining work visas for executives, managers, high tech personnel, researchers and professors. It simplifies complex procedures for individuals and employers trying to obtain visas and green cards in the United States. For further information, contact Tom McCandlish at tmccandlish@lawmh.com.

MARKETPLACE

Caterer Seeks Partner for Eastern European Event

A client of Todtman, Nachamie, Spizz & Johns, our LAW member firm in New York, has received an offer to cater food services at a major multi-day sporting event to be held in Eastern Europe at the end of the summer. The company seeks a European partner that can assist in this task with resources in Eastern Europe. If any member has such a client or can arrange a contact, please contact Barton Nachamie at bnachamie@tnsj-law.com.

Board Certified Physicians Needed for Review in Great Lakes Region

Provider Resources, Inc., which is organized in Pennsylvania and renders medical billing and related services, is expanding to include utilization review services for health insurers, specifically Highmark BC/BS. Provider Resources coordinates utilization reviews for Highmark and pays the physicians for the service. Highmark indemnifies Provider Resources and the physicians who render the utilization review. Currently physicians in all specialties in the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania and DC areas are needed; however, it is possible the review service could expand to the rest of the U.S. For additional information, contact David M. Mosier, dmosier@kmgslaw.com.

Non-profit Seeks Help Tapping Into EU Development Funds

Mansfield Tanick & Cohen, our LAW member in Minneapolis, does work for the Sirolli Institute, a non-profit organization committed to fostering economic development through the principles of enterprise facilitation developed by Ernesto Sirolli. The Institute typically works with a smaller community to help entrepreneurs and spur small business growth. The Institute now has a program in England and two in Scotland and is interested in possibly getting access to European Union (EU) development funds. They are looking into forming a subsidiary corporation in either the UK or Italy in order to have a European presence; there could be good growth opportunities for them in Eastern Europe, but they would need access to EU money to fund it. Although they are a non-profit, they would be able to pay for some consultation. If you know an expert in navigating this process, contact John Ella at jella@mansfieldtanick.com.

Strategic North Sea Facility for Sale in Scotland

David Laing from Ledingham Chalmers, our LAW member in Scotland, reports an interesting opportunity for anyone with clients in the shipbuilding, construction and marine engineering sector. Kellogg Brown & Root is advertising for sale its fabrication yard and dry dock facility in northern Scotland which has been used to provide a construction base for the North Sea. The Nigg Yard in Tain (near Inverness, Scotland) is a unique 96.14 ha (238 acre) facility combining extensive fabrication/warehouse buildings, generous yards, craneage, dry dock, and quayside, in a strategic North Sea location.

For more information visit www.niggyard.com. Click on "information pack". Do not request a password but enter the username "guest" and the password "Edinburgh"

CHAIRMAN'S COLUMN

Why We Have Regional Meetings

One way to learn more about LAW and its members is to attend each region’s spring meeting, as I have done as your Chairman over the past three years. What a diverse group of members we have!

In April, our Americas members met in Lima, Peru. We welcomed new firms from the tropical island of Barbados, West Indies, and from the much cooler, northern region of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Over 80% of the Americas members were present, including ten delegates attending their first LAW function. Observer firms from Santiago, Chile, and Panama City, Panama also made appearances. We hope to have several new Central and South American members by the end of this year, and we currently have more than 1,000 lawyers in the Americas Region firms.

In early May it was off to Hong Kong for the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting. By many accounts, this was the best regional meeting ever held in the Asia Pacific – 83% of the Region’s members attended, along with 3 observer firms from the People’s Republic of China and Seoul, Korea, and several other member firms from outside the Region. We welcomed our newest member from Adelaide in southern Australia to its first meeting, and met first-time attendees from four other current member firms. By the time that the snow begins to fall in Cleveland, Ohio (your Chairman’s home town), we are hopeful that we will have several new Asia Pacific members. Additionally, our “Doing Business in China Workshop” was so well received that we may attempt to recreate at least part of the program at the Toronto AGM this October.

Rounding out the Spring meeting schedule was a trip to medieval (but very modern) Tallinn, Estonia, for the gathering of the Europe, Africa and Middle East Region that just concluded in early June. Although only 73% of our members in the Region attended the meeting, it was still a very active group. Observers from Latvia, Lithuania, and Kiev, Ukraine were present (as were several members from outside the Region), and “Doing Business in the Baltics” was the theme. At least nine new faces were among those present, attending their first LAW event ever (or, in some cases, in a very long time).

I have come away from these three unique and distinctive regional meetings with renewed enthusiasm for the people who make up the law firms that make up LAW. It is a diverse group, from large and small firms, spread out over a vast world that is shrinking daily thanks to the ongoing march of technology. It is an educated group of people, with unique areas of expertise that serve as resources to all of our clients. It’s a group that is intensely focused on and interested in better serving the growing cross-border needs of “middle-market” clients. And, it is a group that knows how to have fun when the business meeting has concluded.

We are all very fortunate to represent our firms at these regional meetings. We have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with our colleagues from our own region as well as those from other parts of the world. We have learned to share success stories, best practices and ideas to generate business, and we pave the way to make sure that our clients’ interests are well-served when we place them in the hands of another LAW member from the other side of the world. That is what LAW is all about, and it is working better each year as LAW continues to mature.

I look forward to seeing you again in Toronto later this year for what will no doubt be our largest and most informative, beneficial and enjoyable Annual General Meeting in LAW’s history. You will not want to miss it.

Sincerely,

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

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Great Lakes Sub-Regional Meeting Scheduled for August

The LAW Great Lakes Sub-Regional Meeting will be hosted by LAW member Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C. in Erie, Pennsylvania on Friday and Saturday, August 19 and 20. On Friday, there will be a casual dinner. On Saturday, the tentative schedule includes introduction of the host firm lawyers and two substantive discussions: Commercial Aspects of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005; and Rejecting Collective Bargaining Agreements in Chapter 11.

An agenda, hotel information and directions will be forwarded in the near future. In the meantime, if anyone has any questions, please Dave Mosier at dmosier@kmgslaw.com.

Toronto to Host AGM

The 2005 LAW Annual General Meeting will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the 20th through 22nd of October. To help with planning, we are asking members to let us know the number of delegates and accompanying persons planning to attend this meeting. Please respond as soon as possible to Ryan Kovich at ryankovich@schmidt-marketing.com.

ADMINISTRATIVE NEWS

New Address for Schmidt Marketing

Please note that Schmidt Marketing, Inc. will have a new address beginning June 29, 2005.

You will be able to reach us at:

The Dacotah Building
370 Selby Avenue, Suite 300
Saint Paul, MN 55102
USA