International

THE CHALLENGE

Seeking legal advice outside of your home jurisdiction can be a daunting prospect – you may be unfamiliar with how the relevant legal system works or what type of firm would best suit your particular needs. This, taken together with the often pressing nature of advice required, can make the whole process challenging and time consuming.

At Walker Morris we are committed to providing our clients with the best possible English law advice and to introducing them to, and seamlessly working alongside, the right overseas firms. In doing this we strive never to lose sight of the commercial factors relevant to our clients and their businesses.

THE RESPONSE

We firmly believe that clients' interests are best served by introducing them to the right overseas firms for the matter in hand. The "one size fits all" approach, whereby English law firms simply push their clients towards the firm's overseas' offices or an exclusive partner firm in a particular jurisdiction, rarely has the clients best interests in mind.

Walker Morris' work with overseas firms is coordinated through a dedicated group of partners drawn from across the firm's practice areas. This group visits regularly a number of key jurisdictions across the globe to build and strengthen relationships and to discuss topical issues facing those doing business there. Our understanding of, and relationships with, these firms is based on a shared approach to client service. We work hard to develop these links through regular contact including the exchange of secondees and know-how and present joint seminars on a wide range of issues.

All of this leads to a deeper understanding of the likely issues that our clients may face when seeking to do business overseas and helps us to manage and guide them through the process. At the same time we become closer to the overseas firms which enables us to suggest to our clients the right firm in a particular jurisdiction, drawn from firms having similar values and attitudes towards client service (including fees) as us.

Depending on the type of advice sought and client's wishes, we will coordinate the chosen firms to ensure that the advice given is practical, commercial and in a style and form the client is used to.

THE EXPERIENCE

Some, but by no means all, of our recent experience in international matters includes:

• advising a UK listed company on the disposal of one of its divisions which involved Walker Morris leading a cross border team from nine countries (including France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany)
• advising and coordinating lawyers in Norway, Belgium, United States and Korea in relation to the sale of a business and security and financing issues
• acting for a major UK bank in connection with the provision of Euro denominated facilities to a US private equity group to refinance the acquisition of Italian and Spanish based businesses, which involved significant legal input from Spanish, Dutch and Italian firms
• advising one of the world's biggest contract research companies on the UK and European implications of a multi-jurisdictional technology outsourcing with IBM
• acting for one of the world's largest manufacturers of agricultural, construction and mining equipment, which involved advising on the corporate, commercial, regulatory and employment aspects of a reorganisation of its Nordic and Baltic financial services operations and coordinating lawyers throughout the region
• coordinating advice throughout Europe and the Americas for a global contract research business on its and its sponsors’ liabilities in tort and under indemnities
• acting in injunction proceedings in the English courts and coordinating similar applications being made in the US and Germany to restrain the misuse of confidential information
• co-ordinating local law firms and local investigators in a successful application before the Hong Kong Courts to obtain an order freezing the assets of PRC based defendants.