Thelen LLP has represented its clients around the world in all of their international endeavors. To assist our clients in international matters, we have affiliations and ongoing working relationships with law firms around the globe, and, since the earliest years of the firm, a rotating basis of lawyers on staff from other countries to help us meet clients' needs. Many of these lawyers have risen to become partners in law firms abroad. In addition, our lawyers are fluent in several languages and have lived abroad gaining familiarity with Latin American, European, and Asian cultures and legal systems.
Thelen's objective, regardless of the type or size of a matter, is to represent our clients as effectively as possible. To do this, we utilize the appropriate level of skills and experience to ensure both quality work and efficiency. We also recognize that the needs of non-U.S. clients are often different from their U.S. counterparts. Our extensive foreign language capabilities and knowledge of different cultures and legal systems allow us to better understand the particular needs of our international clientele, and to translate that knowledge into the effective and efficient resolution of problems and attainment of objectives.
Our experience indicates that timely information on new developments pertinent to international business, as well as good contacts, are often valuable complements to the specific legal advice received from lawyers. For this reason, we devote special effort to collect and relay information we believe would be useful to our clients. We also follow the progress of our clients' activities and, when able and appropriate, furnish suggestions and seek to make our contacts accessible to them.
Thelen actively participates in over 40 international associations. We are a sponsoring firm of the Institute of the Americas, and many of our attorneys are active in Chambers of Commerce involving Latin American, European, and Far East countries, as well as in various international committees of the American and International Bar Associations and the United States Council for International Business.
A brief summary of select areas for international clients follows:
Investments and Joint Ventures
Inbound Investments. Thelen's clients benefit from our advice on foreign investment in manufacturing, commerce, energy, banking, real estate, and securities in the U.S. and abroad. Our multidimensional practice teams help to choose the proper structure for an investment-whether wholly owned direct investment, joint ventures, acquisitions and mergers, or licensing, distributorship, or agency arrangements. Inbound investments take many different forms and include:
We handle all aspects of these transactions, including governmental approvals (Hart-Scott-Rodino, Exon-Florio, and filings with other federal agencies), and have particular expertise in advising on antitrust, corporate, employee benefit, environmental, financing, real estate, securities, and tax questions that arise.
Outbound Investments. Thelen represents U.S. companies that are engaged in overseas acquisitions and investments, and frequently advises major U.S. companies on the preferred structure of overseas investments and subsidiaries for U.S. tax and financial purposes. This work focuses in particular on analyses of:
Joint Ventures. Thelen structures joint ventures of all kinds in the United States and overseas, including multi-national ventures. We advise on the appropriate form, whether corporation, partnership, Limited Liability Company or other entity organized under foreign law, taking into account the relevant tax, finance, and other issues that may affect the formation, operation, sale, and dissolution of the venture.
Finance and Securities
We advise on public and private securities offerings, Securities and Exchange Commission matters, ADRs, aircraft, ship and equipment finance, project financings for energy and other infrastructure development, trade finance, and multicurrency credit finance, involving billions of dollars annually. We also serve the offshore fund and mutual fund industries and provide legal counsel to banking, financial, and securities firms.
Thelen clients benefit from the firm's numerous contacts and familiarity with investment bankers, banking institutions, other private financial sources, and capital markets - as well as with international and U.S. government institutions such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency, U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and U.S. Export-Import Bank.
Government Contracts and Relations
Attorneys in our Washington, DC office provide expertise in U.S. government relations, including government contracts, legislative assistance, and regulatory work. Several of our attorneys have served in U.S. government positions. Thelen's knowledge of Washington and our insights into international affairs provides clients with considerable added value.
Intellectual Property Protection
Thelen is experienced in intellectual property, including patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret protection. Clients value our globally oriented advance planning strategies designed to defend their intellectual property rights or to enforce their rights to sell products or services, notwithstanding intellectual property rights owned by others. We also provide strong litigation and antitrust capabilities in the field, when necessary, to complement and enhance our protective role.
Information Technology
We advise foreign IT clients on establishing operations in the U.S. We provide corporate and tax structuring advice, regulatory legislative compliance, labor and immigrations advice and compliance, equity and debt finance structuring, IPO offerings and other Capital Markets advice, mergers and acquisitions structuring, international IT contracts negotiation and drafting, among other legal advice. We also represent U.S. IT companies in similar legal matters worldwide using our active affiliate firms.
Trade Law
We provides advice on all aspects of trade regulation, including countervailing duties, import tariffs, antidumping law, high-tech export licensing, government embargoes, and free trade agreements. We also counsel on U.S. anti-boycott laws, sanctions legislation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and foreign assets control regulations. Clients benefit from our contacts with officials in the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Trade Representative's Office, Treasury-Customs, International Trade Commission, and Internal Revenue Service.
Arbitration, Litigation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Thelen is well known for its international arbitration and dispute resolution expertise. We represent companies in numerous arbitrations under the rules of the AAA, ICC, UNCITRAL, the London and Stockholm Arbitration Courts, and others. In fact, international specialists lead our Commercial Litigation practice group of over 100 lawyers. One of Thelen's partners served as General Counsel of the American Arbitration Association for 15 years and is a world-renowned authority of international arbitration and mediation.
International Tax Capabilities
Our tax clients include foreign corporations from over 40 countries and U.S.-based multinational corporations and institutional investors. Thelen's attorneys are also frequently selected to act as tax counsel by foreign legal, tax, and financial advisors in the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Korea, Japan, India, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. We are equally adept at counseling U.S.-based companies on foreign investments in Latin America, Africa, India, and other Asian countries.
We have extensive experience in the U.S. taxation of foreign activities of U.S. multinational corporations, particularly in the area of foreign tax credit and "Subpart F" planning. We also plan cross-border mergers, migrations, realignments, spin-offs, and liquidations. In the context of outbound investments, our tax group has been extensively involved in the tax structuring of foreign power, communication, and infrastructure projects in order to reduce host country taxes, withholding taxes, and to maximize the U.S. creditability of such taxes or in some instances, to defer taxes. Our tax lawyers have been involved in the formation of offshore funds targeted for investing in particular markets, such as India, Russia, and Israel, or particular industries.
Real Estate
Thelen provides our international clients with a full range of real estate services in the U.S. Our practice includes acquisitions and sales, leasing and sale-leasebacks, project financings, development agreements and loan workouts, as well as structuring the most appropriate ownership vehicles. Our attorneys with extensive experience in real estate tax, finance, and environmental law complement our real estate contracting skills.
Environmental
Thelen's Environmental team analyzes contractual obligations, conducts investigations and review, and advises on permitting, licensing, and compliance. We consult on environmental laws in the U.S., World Bank lending guidelines, and international environmental treaties and policies. Thelen's attorneys provide advice on the disclosure of environmental issues and conduct diligence into environmental matters involving the financing, sale, and acquisition of land and commercial or industrial properties in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, as well as Canada and Mexico. We also advise clients on environmental risk management and negotiate risk allocation. Our environmental law clients include financial institutions, engineering and construction companies, electric and gas utilities, petroleum and chemical companies, manufacturers, hospitals, and environmental consulting firms.
Labor and Employment and Immigration
Thelen represents foreign-owned and domestic employers through the U.S. in virtually all aspects of labor and employment law and litigation, including employee handbooks and policies, employment discrimination, sexual harassment, affirmative action, wrongful discharge, union organizing, and labor arbitrations. We also advise on labor issues in business sales, mergers and acquisitions, reorganization and bankruptcies. By representing many foreign-affiliated clients in the U.S., we are particularly attuned to the special issues confronting them in the U.S. labor scene.
In the immigration field, Thelen helps clients obtain nonimmigrant visas, including B-1 business, E-1 and E-2 treaty trader and treaty investor, H-1 professional, H-3 trainee, J-1 exchange visitor, and L-1 intracompany transferee visas. We also assist clients in applying for labor certification, permanent resident status and U.S. citizenship, and we counsel employers on their compliance obligations under the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Industry Focus
Energy, Infrastructure, and Construction Projects. Thelen has continuously advised developers, investors, and other clients in international energy projects since 1935, and we represent leading engineers and constructors of infrastructure projects and other civil works. Our representation includes negotiations with local governments, sales and purchases of energy facilities, regulation of projects under domestic and foreign laws, privatizations, reorganizations of companies and their capital structures, preparation of engineering, construction, and operation and maintenance contracts, equipment supply agreements, and consultation in corporate and tax matters.
Thelen's attorneys are experienced in dealing with government agencies, government-owned industries, and major energy and infrastructure or privatizations. We advise, either directly or in joint ventures, both the private and public sectors on sales of properties, reorganizations of capital structures, finance and capital markets, and contracting and regulatory procedures.
Oil and Gas. We advise clients on the development of oil and gas projects and other fuel-related activities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Our clients include over 100 electric and gas companies in their involvement with the oil and gas industry, including natural gas pipelines, gas distribution companies, oil and gas producing and marketing companies, and power plants as fuel purchasers. Thelen is well experienced in preparing joint venture arrangements and acquisition agreements for fuel-related projects worldwide.
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