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Overview

Calfee’s International group offers a broad range of commercial insight and practical legal advice and counseling services to companies transacting business across the border or overseas as well as to international clients venturing into the United States.

Our cross-practice team of attorneys handles a wide variety of transactions and matters on behalf of clients, and we have been involved with matters on virtually every continent.

Global Reach and Client Service With Lex Mundi

Calfee is the exclusive member firm in Ohio for Lex Mundi – the world’s leading network of independent law firms with in-depth experience in 125+ countries worldwide.

As part of the Lex Mundi global network, we can provide our clients with preferred access to more than 22,000 lawyers around the world – all from a single point of contact. Individually, each Lex Mundi member firm is a leader in its local market. Collectively, Lex Mundi firms provide global legal resources with unmatched depth and breadth. Working with other Lex Mundi firms, we are able to seamlessly handle our clients’ most challenging cross-border transactions and disputes.

We are proud to be a founding member of this leading organization, using the organization to extend our global reach and that of our clients since 1989.

Professionals

Professionals

Brad  Liu
Partner; Associate Director, International Business – Asia
John J. McGuire
Co-Chair, Corporate and Finance
H. Jeffrey  Schwartz
Co-Chair, Business Restructuring and Insolvency
Todd  Tucker
Partner; Director of International Business

Experience

Experience

  • Represented a U.S. multinational corporation in action to recover from a foreign shipper for failure to obtain requisite bills of lading for major medical equipment delivered in China.
  • Represented a U.S. multinational corporation in arbitration proceedings to enforce a breach of contract and collection claims against Argentina and Brazilian companies and entities.
  • Represented a French-based company in actions and proceedings for breach of contract and fraud against British and U.S. companies and principals.
  • Represented a U.S. company in action on a guaranty contract governed by English law against a British company.
  • Represented a U.S. internationally-based corporation in action to recover from U.S. and foreign insurers in respect of goods lost in transit in the Middle East.
  • Represented the Industrial Development Board of Northern Ireland in connection with the establishment of funding facilities for Northern Ireland development projects involving a U.S. company.
  • Represented a U.S.-based public company in a multi-million-dollar supply agreement with a Hong Kong intermediary for the supply of products by Chinese factories and provided advisory services regarding country of origin marking requirements for goods imported into the U.S.
  • Represented a U.S. private company as the distributor in an international distribution agreement with an Italian manufacturer; issues included the choice of law and jurisdiction for arbitration, international payment, and transportation and import-export issues.
  • Active as an adviser to several Swedish-based entities to identify contacts in the bioscience area in Sweden and develop relationships in bioscience and stem cell research programs being conducted in the Northeast Ohio region.
  • Ongoing representation of a U.S.-based subsidiary of a publicly traded German-based manufacturer relating to, among other international matters, a joint venture in Japan and its operations in Mexico.
  • Ongoing counseling of a local company concerning updating and revising the terms of its worldwide sales representative, distributor, dealer, and licensee agreements as well as a restructuring of its European operations.
  • Represented a U.S.-based public company in the divestiture of its 50% interest in its Slovenian operations and its German manufacturing operations.
  • Represented a U.S. private company in revising its form of international licensing and reseller agreement to be used in a transaction involving a Japanese distributor.
  • Advising a U.S. software company as to the impact of the privacy laws of Japan and potentially other Asian countries in connection with a transaction involving the client’s hosting a database that could potentially contain information subject to the privacy laws of several jurisdictions.
  • Represented numerous U.S.-based clients in the acquisition of the capital stock or assets of Canadian entities and for those clients with operations in Canada, have assisted them in reincorporating, by amalgamation, their current Canadian subsidiaries into Nova Scotia unlimited liability companies (NSULC).
  • Served as special local counsel to an English law firm in connection with the purchase of the stock of a UK-based company with multiple U.S. subsidiaries; the representation included advising the English firm as to appropriate due diligence and then forming the U.S. holding company and conducting corporate due diligence on the U.S. subsidiaries; we also counseled the company regarding a multi-million dollar financing with Bank of Scotland.
  • Represented a U.S. company in connection with international litigation with a French company involving the enforcement of a non-competition provision (interpreting French, English, and U.S. laws).
  • Ongoing representation of several multinational corporations in connection with acquisitions (by merger and by the purchase of stock or assets) of companies throughout the U.K., Western Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Israel.
  • Advising clients on asset protection strategies through the use of off-shore entities organized in various jurisdictions including Nevis and the Cook Islands.

Services

Services

Our cross-practice team of attorneys handles a wide variety of transactions and matters on behalf of domestic clients transacting business outside of the U.S. and for businesses outside of the U.S. seeking to transact business within the U.S. 

We have been involved with matters on virtually every continent including Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Our attorneys are skilled in assisting with the following legal matters on an international level:

  • Mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures/sales
  • Joint ventures
  • Trade and competition counseling
  • Commercial finance
  • Product and service marketing issues, including distributorships, franchise, and other sales structuring techniques and regulations
  • Supply and distribution agreements
  • Protection of intellectual property rights, including patent, trademark, and copyright protection
  • Licensing agreements
  • Technology transfer and computer law
  • Privacy and data protection/cyber security
  • U.S. foreign investment reporting requirements
  • Import and export trade regulations
  • Off-shore asset protection
  • Tax
  • Labor and employment relations
  • Securities
  • Employee benefits
  • Dispute resolution including international mediation, litigation, and arbitration.

China - U.S. Business

China - U.S. Business

With attorneys in our Intellectual Property and Litigation practice groups who were born and educated in China before moving to the U.S. for law school and fluent in both Mandarin and English, Calfee has unique capabilities and talent able to assist several clients with legal issues associated with opening and running businesses in China and with Chinese R&D and manufacturing facilities, including the following:

  • Vetting business partners
  • Drafting NNN agreements
  • Overseeing the formation of joint ventures
  • Managing IP assets developed in China
  • Enforcing IP in China

Additionally, Calfee has helped several Chinese companies enter the United States market. By working with companies on both sides of the Pacific – and addressing their specific legal and business needs, in their native language when helpful – Calfee has a unique perspective on China-U.S. business relationships and is well positioned to help clients succeed, efficiently and with high confidence.

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