Most companies with international operations rely on an in-house or outside lawyer to manage their cross-border deals and investments according to a consistent, effective legal approach. Their needs may range from individual transactions or investments in specific countries to complex, multi-country programs with substantial corporate implications for tax, finance, employment, and intellectual property. Multinationals may also face complex dispute resolution issues, including international arbitration.
Faegre & Benson has built an experienced team of lawyers who focus on cross-border transactions and understand their nuances and special challenges, including cultural and legal variations in different regions. We work with clients to manage and staff transactions, as well as dispute resolution, in a way that best fits the needs of a particular client, project, or region. This concept of an "international managing counsel" may take several forms:
- Sometimes the "managing" role involves a Faegre & Benson lawyer serving broadly as an international coordinating counsel, working closely with in-house counsel to understand the business considerations and retaining local counsel in relevant jurisdictions around the world to help get the job done.
- In other cases, the "managing" role is filled by our client's in-house lawyer, who relies on a trusted outside international lawyer to provide backup and/or additional depth of experience in certain subject matters, or certain world markets.
- And sometimes, the client's need is somewhere in between.
Whatever the need, the goal of our international practice is to build a consistent and informed working relationship with our clients so they can turn to us as trusted advisors at a moment's notice on international matters.
Our colleagues in Faegre & Benson's offices in London, Shanghai, and Frankfurt serve as invaluable partners in providing these world-wide services. But we do not limit our resources -- or our practice -- to those cities or countries in which we have offices. Indeed, in today's global marketplace no law firm can have as many offices as there are places where their clients do business around the globe.
To address that need, Faegre & Benson has two significant resources in addition to its own international offices in China and the EU.
First, the firm is a member of the World Law Group (WLG) which is an association of 48 law firms in 37 countries organized to provide quality, service and value to their mutual clients. Our international lawyers have close working and personal relationships with many members of the WLG to ensure that our clients are receiving the most expert legal advice wherever and whenever the need arises.
Second, the firm has its own proprietary internal international law firm referral database that captures information about the best of the law firms around the world with which our lawyers have worked on past deals. Our referral database focuses not just on the law firm, but on the lawyer that provided the excellent service that caused us to list them in our database. This referral database provides information to our lawyers on law firms in more than 60 cities around the world.
We do not rely on any one firm or lawyer in any one country to meet all needs. Instead, we look for local counsel whose specific experience is best for a given transaction, depending on the area of specialty needed, geographic area, budget, complexity, and other factors.
Our ability to efficiently assemble an experienced, flexible, and knowledgeable team of lawyers in key countries to address your business issues on a timely basis keeps your business moving forward.
We welcome the opportunity to work with you to develop a reliable process for serving your international legal needs.
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