Articles

LAW's Americas Regional Meeting Is Outstanding Success

"Not the Last Tango In Buenos Aires"

By Seymour J. Mansfield, Attorney at Law

As many of you already know, since 1997, our Firm has been a longstanding and leading member of Lawyers Associated Worldwide, www.lawyersworldwide.com. I have been a member of LAW's Executive Committee (its Governing Board) since 2004. This worldwide network of over 100 law firms, with over 3,000 attorneys in over 50 countries, is divided into three regions: (1) The Americas, (2) Europe, Africa, Middle East, and (3) The Asia-Pacific Regions. Each Region meets at least annually and all members convene for the Annual General Meeting ("AGM"), which rotates between three regions. This year's AGM will be held in Washington, D.C. in late September.

Having just returned from the excellent meeting in Buenos Aires, I can attest to LAW's strength in Latin America.[1] The meeting was attended by nearly all our Canadian, United States and Latin American members, and extended from Thursday night through Saturday evening, joined by an observer and potential member, the Pittaluga & Associates firm from Montevideo, Uruguay.

LAW has long emphasized the importance of firm leaders getting to know each other personally and professionally before entrusting their respective clients to each others' care. Meetings are mandatory and high ranking partners are expected to and do attend. Collegiality is very strong and excellent client care is the core value. Thus, our Firm knows when we need the help of our member firms from Argentina-to-Mexico, from New Zealand-to-Beijing, or from Sweden-to-the U.K., we can rely on leading partners and true colleagues, Susana Strunz and Pablo Suinaga, Brian Everett and Yi Zhou, and Bjorn-Anders Feijen and Martin Davies. Those partners ensure both the personal attention and competence of the assigned lawyers in their firms, and serve as an immediate accessible recourse if expectations seem not to be met. This is a distinctive feature of LAW, and reinforced by LAW beyond any other international network of which I know.

In addition to networking during the program, at meals, into evenings and while on tours, we had presentations and open forums on Americas Region Cross Border Issues - NAFTA and beyond; Multinational Environmental Law practice; Meeting Client Expectations: Our Common Goal, and other "hot" topics for the Americas, followed by our short one hour formal Regional Meeting and elections on Saturday.

For those of you that have not been to Buenos Aires or Argentina, it claims to be the birth of Tango dancing, which permeates its culture and is the cycactyc rhythm of the high energy, passionate and intelligent Argentinean people.

Argentina has made an amazing rebound from its terrible economy a few years ago, and now is the second fastest growing economy in the Americas. (Brazil is number one.) Approximately 97 percent of its 40 million people are literate, with 13 million living in the Buenos Aires Metro Area. The U.S. is tied with Spain as Argentina's second largest trading partner after Brazil, with trade of over $8 billion, divided approximately equally between U.S. exports and imports. U.S. exports grew at over 17 percent annually in 2005 through 2007.

Clearly, the trade is on the upsurge with Argentina. This is not the last Tango in Buenos Aires!

Taking Latin America as a whole, imports/exports trade with U.S. totaled an impressive $556 Billion (60 percent / 40 percent U.S. imports to exports) in 2006, but over one half of this was generated with Mexico. Indeed, excluding petroleum from Africa (Middle East), Latin America is the United States' fastest growing trading partner, with total trade growing an average of about 150 percent annually between 2005 and 2007.

Thus, it is no surprise that LAW has worked so hard to establish leading mid-sized law firms as its members in nearly all Latin America's major commercial centers. We are proud to proclaim that backed up by LAW, Mansfield, Tanick & Cohen can deliver high quality legal representation to meet your needs and provide solutions in Latin America, as well as worldwide.

[1] The Caribbean, Central America and South America, with Miami, New Orleans, San Antonio and El Paso also being active members in the Latin American Subregional Group.