• Litigation – Our extensive experience guiding international corporations facing litigation in the United States has earned us a strong reputation internationally. We understand and anticipate the unique challenges that European and other non-U.S. companies face in defending or prosecuting litigation in the United States. Our publication, Understanding Litigation in the United States: A Guide for Foreign Executives and Attorneys, explains the complex U.S. litigation process simply and directly, and provides concrete advice about the issues a company confronting U.S. litigation need to consider.
  
  
• Intellectual Property and Patent Matters – Our team has substantial experience with patents, trademarks, copyrights, counterfeiting and trade diversion issues, both internationally and in the United States. We regularly litigate these issues as well as counsel clients on the protection and licensing of their intellectual property assets.
  
  
• Site Selection – We have assisted international project teams to conclude their projects within their anticipated time frames and obtain their targeted incentives pursuant to comprehensive agreements. Our lawyers involved in site selection are experienced and up-to-date with all available incentives, and negotiate the myriad issues involved in site selection with a full understanding of the practical and political factors unique to such large scale projects.
  
  
• Executing Corporate Strategies – We regularly represent European clients in their acquisitions of U.S. companies and in cross-border strategic alliance matters. We also represent international clients in a variety of complex transactions requiring sophisticated structural, documentation and negotiating services.
  
  
• Financing and Banking Issues – We regularly represent clients with financing transactions related to acquisitions, leveraged buyout transactions, traditional term loans, credit facilities and mezzanine financings. We represent foreign banks operating in the United States and are fully conversant with the issues unique to these banks, such as labor and employment matters, reserve requirements, interstate banking and branching rules, and restrictions on non-banking activities.
  
  
• Regulatory Compliance – The firm’s Washington, D.C. office specializes in handling numerous regulatory compliance matters, particularly EU export controls. That office advises European companies and their U.S. subsidiaries on their obligations under both EU export control laws and U.S. export control regulations that affect their worldwide operations. Our Brussels office advises clients on the business effects of evolving EU legislation such as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances (REACH) legislation.
  
  
• International Project Finance – We have substantial experience with leveraged leases, build-own-operate (BOO), build-own-transfer (BOT) arrangements and securitization structures. We have advised sponsors, lenders, lessors, rating agencies, equity investors, financial advisors and foreign sovereigns with respect to these issues.

• Represented a German automobile company in a series of transactions involving the divestiture of approximately $10 billion of diverse loan portfolios consisting of aircraft, ship, commercial real estate and asset-based financings. Assisted client with the underlying due diligence, the bidding structure and process, the negotiation and documentation of the underlying sales agreements, and the implementation of the transactions.
  
  
• Representing a California subsidiary of a large German pharmaceutical company in the defense of separate lawsuits filed by the United States and Attorneys General from 27 states challenging pharmaceutical pricing practices. Have successfully settled most of these cases.
  
  
• Represented a large German construction conglomerate and its subsidiaries in a major U.S. litigation. The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed a victory we secured when it denied certiorari of the case.
  
  
• Represented a large Hamburg-based shipping company and obtained and enforced a $6 million judgment against the Government of Romania. The claim arose out of a French arbitration award against a Romanian company based on a shipbuilding contract. The Romanian company had used a variety of strategies to avoid paying the award.
  
  
• Represented a European pharmaceutical company in connection with a structured buyout of an early stage U.S. pharmaceutical company from venture capital investors and employees. The acquirer agreed to purchase the stock of the target company in stages, based upon the successful attainment of certain milestones specified in the development plan for the target company’s principal compound. The acquirer has the right to elect to terminate development of the compound, while retaining a reduced ownership interest in the target company, at any time prior to a specified stage of the development process.
  
  
• Assisted a German automobile manufacturer in the establishment of an assembly plant for its M-Class SUV. This project resulted in our client receiving, from Alabama, what was then the largest incentive package ever obtained for a new manufacturing facility in the United States. The facility employs more than 4,000 people and has been expanded for production of its “R” Class automobile.
  
  
• Assisted a European aerospace company with their site selection project for the development of an assembly plant for aerial refueling tanker aircraft. The agreements were contingent upon the aerospace company and its teaming partner receiving a contract award from the United States Air Force for supplying aerial refueling tanker aircraft.

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For further information about Kelley Drye's Europe practice group, please contact:

André Van Landuyt
(32)(2) 646-1110
avanlanduyt@kelleydrye.com

Peter Wolfram
(212) 808-7854
pwolfram@kelleydrye.com