AROUND THE WORLD WITH SEYMOUR MANSFIELD
Legal News with an International Perspective

Lawyers Associated Worldwide:
"Networking Globally, Acting Locally"

Seymour J. Mansfield, Attorney at Law

This past week, my partners, Earl Cohen and Jeff O'Brien, and I attended the 2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Lawyers Associated Worldwide (LAW) in Washington D.C., along with 140 representatives from member firms.

As many of our readers know, LAW is an association of 100 independent commercial law firms located in 55 countries and 148 key cities, comprising over 3500 lawyers worldwide. Each member firm has local and international legal expertise and firsthand knowledge of the customs and practices, government and judiciary, in its own jurisdiction. All member firms adhere to uniform standards of competency, responsiveness and state-of-the-art law office technology and management. The goal is simple: provide top notch and instantly accessible national and global advice and representation to each member firm's clients.

LAW's member firms are far more than a "referral list." Indeed, acting as a consortium of well-acquainted firm leaders-they have many of the characteristics of a single international mega firm-with a singular prime objective to deliver sophisticated, high quality and reasonably priced legal representation to our respective clients across national and state boundaries.

Membership in LAW allows Mansfield Tanick & Cohen, just like all the member firms, to have access to excellent legal guidance outside of their home locations. Our membership is just a phone call or an email away from responding to a client's needs, whether they arise in another state, in Canada or Latin America, the Asia Pacific region or in Europe, Africa or the Middle East.

Beyond the obvious, core representation in cross border matters, the following are some of the advantages for our clients of our firm's membership in LAW:

• Because of the strong professional relationships between the member firms' key partners, in urgent situations, our members will give advice in disparate time zones, late at night or on weekends-keeping in mind that overseas countries vary from our time from 5 to 14 hours.
• Short initial consultations are often all that are needed, and these are given without fee, as a matter of LAW policy.
• We assist clients through our LAW "leads and needs" list serve in searching for qualified buyers, sellers, strategic alliance partners, investors, investment property, raw materials, suppliers and outsourced manufacturers, etc.
• We assist in-house, company counsel in connecting them to the member law firms (or lawyers or other professionals recommended by them) to handle particular transactions or litigation matters.
• We provide alerts and articles as to changes in foreign law, investment, economic trade requirements and the like.

At the AGM, Earl, Jeff and I reconnected with our professional colleagues from more than 35 cities in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, and across the oceans, another 50 cities from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the South Pacific. We were reacquainted and, in the case of new members, learned a lot about these firms, their practice areas and their capabilities, the market places and major business sectors in their locales, and, more importantly, in what types of transactions, products and services our respective clients might be interested in Minnesota or our fellow member's locale.

To give you a snap shot of how quickly LAW continues to grow and the diversity of its international membership, the following are the 12 members admitted since the 2007 AGM who attended their first AGM in Washington:

1. United Arab Emirates, Dubai - Habib al Mulla & Co. (27 lawyers)- November 3, 2007
2. El Paso, Texas - Gordon & Mott P.C. (19 lawyers) - November 3, 2007
3. San Jose, Costa Rica - Oller Abogados (8 lawyers) - November 29, 2007
4. Nairobi, Kenya - Daly & Figgis, Advocates (17 lawyers) - November 29, 2007
5. Australia, Darwin - Ward Keller (19 lawyers) - January 24, 2008
6. Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur - Tay & Partners (32 lawyers) - February 25, 2008
7. Korea, Seoul - Horizon Law Group (56 lawyers) - March 12, 2008
8. Singapore - De Souza Lim & Goh LLP (7 lawyers) - June 4, 2008
9. China, Qingdao - Wincon Law Firm (65 lawyers) - June 20, 2008
10. Romania, Bucharest - Tuca Zbarcea Asociatii (81 lawyers) - August 15, 2008
11. Vietnam/Ho Chi Minh City - DC Law (19 lawyers) -August 18, 2008
12. Uruguay, Montevideo - Pittaluga & Associates (14 lawyers) - September 2, 2008

Three law firms from Madrid, Guatemala City and Eugene, Ore. who are under serious consideration for membership attended as "observers."

Earl, Jeff and I were attended informative educational sessions on global title insurance, marketing, practice management and a panel of general counsel from large companies discussing what they look for in retaining outside counsel. I was a presenter on a panel discussing global alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

At this year's AGM, my six-year tenure on LAW's Executive Committee (Governing Board) came to a close, per LAW's term limits. It has been an honor and privilege for me to serve during a period of rapid growth and expansion for this organization. I have been a leader in recruiting some fine members from the U.S., Latin America and Europe, establishing and expanding our administrative staffing, changing to merit driven standards for selecting members in commercial centers and establishing LAW's ADR Neutral Directory. I am pleased to see my partner Jeff O'Brien step up to an active role in LAW, Earl Cohen's continuing role, and I look forward to many more years of my own active involvement in LAW.

Our LAW membership is another component (along with our various educational programs and our very successful INCubation Center® program) of our firm's emphasis on practicing "value-added law." We take pride in, not only providing top-quality legal services in the areas of business and real estate law, employment, labor and disability law, civil litigation and estate planning, but we also strive to add both a global dimension and a cross-disciplinary dimension to link our clients to non-legal "know how" such as financial, insurance, planning and other professionals.

It is a top priority of the firm to maximize the advantages of our LAW membership - and what it can do to benefit our clients - in the coming year. Our event on September 25, featuring eight lawyer partners from Chinese inaugurates of our China US LAW Connections Program-providing expert support for clients pursuing business with the world's fastest growing economy and seamlessly connecting you to top notch legal talent in China's leading commercial centers. If you missed the event, we can brief you on this value-added program for tapping into the China business and growing your own venture's revenues even as the U.S. economy continues to lag.

Stay tuned for future editions of this newsletter which will call your attention to both the opportunities and challenges to growing your business in China and other foreign countries. This presents a way for you to, not only survive, but to thrive in the current domestic down economy; a way to not only assist you in opening or expanding your foreign export or import operations, but also in helping to match you with investors, investment properties, strategic alliance partners, suppliers, distributors and others from outside Minnesota and/or outside the U.S.

We are proud that LAW empowers Mansfield Tanick & Cohen to provide our clients with international lawyer access comparable to the largest multinational law firms. At the same time, working with LAW's mid-sized member firms (to whom, like to us, your business is important), we preserve your ability to work with senior lawyer talent, with the intimacy, flexibility and dexterity of mid-sized law firm and to receive local "on the ground" legal expertise and governmental and judicial connections-all at a reasonable cost.

If you are in need of a top notch attorney in another U.S. state or in another country, please contact any of the following Mansfield Tanick & Cohen attorneys at 800-401-6194 or :

Seymour J. Mansfield: smansfield@mansfieldtanick.com

Earl H. Cohen: ecohen@mansfieldtanick.com

Jeffrey C. O'Brien jobrien@mansfieldtanick.com

A founding shareholder of Mansfield Tanick & Cohen, P.A., with 39 years of diverse lawyer experience, Seymour Mansfield now focuses on business, complex and class litigation, mediation, executive employment and employee benefits, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, international business law and acts as legal counsel to emerging medical device companies. He is the firm's primary representative to Lawyers Associated Worldwide (LAW), an association of 100 independent commercial law firms located in 55 countries and 148 key cities, comprising over 3500 lawyers worldwide, and served on LAW's Executive Committee (governing board) from 2002 through 2008. LAW empowers our firm to serve the needs of our clients in domestic and foreign markets worldwide.