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Around the World with Seymour J. Mansfield:

Legal News from an International Perspective

LAW'S 18TH AGM IN SWITZERLAND IS AN EXTRAORDIANRY SUCCESS!

Since 1997, Mansfield, Tanick & Cohen has been a member of Lawyers Associated Worldwide (LAW), www.lawyersworldwide.com, an international commercial network of leading law firms. Since 2002, our founder and partner, Seymour J. Mansfield, has served on LAW's Executive Committee (i.e., governing board). Through LAW, we are able to provide our clients outstanding worldwide legal and business connections and to match or exceed the depth, expertise and reach of the world's largest international law firms. As one example of many, we are now in the midst of negotiating the acquisition of our Minnesota-based medical device company by a large German device company initiated through the connection between Seymour and that German company's lawyers, our LAW member in Cologne, Germany.

On October 31 through November 3, 2007, LAW held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for its worldwide membership in Lucerne, Switzerland. Our firm attended through our founder and partner, Seymour J. Mansfield. By all measures the meeting was an extraordinary success! There were 120 member delegates who attended (from all but a few of LAW's 98 members coming from 50 countries) the meeting. Ten new members were admitted from new locales (e.g., Ghana, Panama and Johannesburg, South Africa) and specifically qualified law firm candidates from eight new countries (e.g., Malaysia, Vietnam and Korea) were present as observers, to mutually acquaint both those potential members and LAW leadership with each other.

After an ExCo Board Meeting and reception/dinner on Wednesday night, Thursday's proceedings focused on the introduction of our ten new members and six candidate observers, followed by caucus meetings of the three regions: the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe-Middle East-Africa, and then an evening at our sponsor, Bank Julius Baer Group's headquarters in Zurich, for a very provocative lecture by a world-ranking economist on 5-10 year international trends - those winners and slipping among nations. On Friday, the membership attended plenary meetings and workshops, including a "speed networking" exercise (modeled on speed dating), which left the participants both exhausted and energized with ideas for collaboration between "speed dating" firms. LAW had eight smaller group workshops on topics from tax aspect of international relocation to china law updates to latest in law firm management.

Seymour accompanied by a mediation expert and teacher, Eduardo Wolle, from the Gilbert Mediation Center, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, presented the workshop on uses of alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") worldwide. The focus was on mediation, which is the most prevalent form of ADR in the U.S. and Canada, but rarely used in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The short official AGM of the membership was then conducted for the next three hours Saturday afternoon, with the presentation of the various progress reports, amendments to LAW's articles, and future strategic planning initiatives forming the centerpieces of the discussions and voting.

In addition to Seymour leading LAW's ADR Committee (our partner Teresa J. Ayling is a member), Seymour also led the Sponsorship Committee's successful efforts this year which resulted in three excellent sponsors: the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), Bank Julius Baer Group and Legal Toolbox & Logic 100. These sponsors underwrote part of the meeting costs and provided educational forums for the members.

Please contact Seymour, Earl Cohen or Jeff O'Brien to learn more about how LAW can help advise your business whether in the U.S. or internationally.