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international - USA and Canada

Team leaders:

• Nick Mallett, Partner

• Geraldine Tickle, Partner

• Andrew Whitehead, Partner

• Richard Wrigley, Partner

Experience:

We represent a significant number of businesses (large and small) from the USA and Canada across a wide range of industries. We are particularly active for clients in the education sector, the direct selling industry, the energy and climate change arena, the automotive sector, travel and tourism.

As well as advising on UK and EU law, we handle one-off assignments and retainers to advise and represent clients on the framing of UK and EU policy and legislation. For this purpose, the firm is a member of a variety of trade associations and other industry bodies, e.g. the Direct Selling Association, the British Wind Energy Association and London Climate Change Services.

• Acquisition by CTI Group Inc of Ryder Systems £6.5m (Telecoms)

• Acquisition by Tessenderlo Chemie NV of Chemical Plants €22m

• Sale of 3Way Networks to Airvana Inc $ND (3G Telecoms)

• Banking Facilities by US Bank to UK Borrower $23m

• Acquisition by Homeserve plc of Leakguard Inc $5.5m (Policy Book)

• Establishment of International trade marks Joint Venture $20m (Brand)

• Reorganisation and new credit facility For RTI International Metals Inc (Engineering)

• Acquisition by Convergys Inc of Geneva £490m (IT)

• LBO of Golddigga £19m (Brand)

• Public offer by Claverley Company For AIM quoted The Guiton Group £74m (Retail)

• Acquisition by City Hopper of Blackpool Airport £11m (Transport)

• Syndicated Investment in Closed Loop £3.6m (Biofuels)

• Syndicated Investment in Oxonica Limited £4.2m (IT)

• IPO on AIM of Freshwater plc (Agency)

• Fund Raising For Cabvision £90m (Technology)

• Sale of Windfarm £10m (Renewables)

UK & US:

George Bernard Shaw is one of many sages credited with the observation that the UK and the US are two nations divided by a common language. Or as one wag on the BBC wryly acknowledged, "Yes, the English-speaking nations may be said to include the United States."

Businesses tackling transatlantic ventures bump up against semantic differences between the two countries every day. (A first floor office in London, after all, is one floor above a first floor office in New York.) These challenges occur just as often in the world of commercial and corporate law as in every other aspect of British and American culture, but not understanding subtle differences in legal terms can be perilous when negotiating.

Useful links:

• US Embassy

• UK Home Office

• UK Immigration and Nationality Directorate

• UK DBERR (ex-DTI)

• British American Business Council

• American Chamber of Commerce

• Advantage West Midlands

• British Midlands

• London Chamber of Commerce

• Direct Selling Association ( UK)

• Direct Selling Association (US)

• Multilaw

• State Law Resources

Publications:

• Not only the alligators bite in Florida! - December 2007

For businesses seeking to expand their consumer sales operations internationally, the attached paper has some suggestions which will, we hope, be helpful - details

STOP PRESS:

In June and August Richard Wrigley was a member of a trade delegation organised by Advantage West Midlands and hosted in the USA by British Midlands. The delegation addressed a variety of technology companies in Silicon valley and on the Eastern seaboard on the opportunities and support available to companies wishing to use a west Midlands location as their platform for Europe.

On 17 October, Nick Mallett visited clients and contacts in Dallas TX, Tulsa OK, Los Angeles CA before travelling to Brazil to visit clients in Sao Paulo. Before leaving the USA, Nick was joined by Andrew Whitehead for the Fall meeting of State Law Resources, in Santa Fe NM.