The EC has been very busy and successful! We are delighted to report that we have successfully recruited a prominent firm from Shanghai and another excellent firm from Mumbai and Delhi to join us as Observers at the next conference in Dublin in September.
Our new friends, Owen Cox and George Wang, from the Corporate Department of Global Law Office in Shanghai (glo.com.cn) will represent that firm. GLO is the oldest firm in China (founded in 1984) and has close to 300 lawyers. It is a full service firm, with offices also in Beijing and Shenzhen. Many thanks to Carl Hinze of Holding Redlich for introducing us to Owen Cox, as they formerly worked together at GLO. In the small world department, Evan Sun, a former partner at Zhong Lun in Shanghai, our former member firm, also contacted me to let me know that he just joined GLO! That contact even heightened our credibility with GLO and certainly made their decision easier.
We are also looking forward to meeting Shardul Thacker from Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe (mullaandmulla.com). This firm is full service, and is quite established with over 100 lawyers, boasting offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. In another small world tidbit, Shardul actually recruited our colleague, Vijay Sambamurthi from Lexygen, to work at Mulla & Mulla right out of law school. Vijay spent 2-3 years there and it was great for us to reconnect the two. Many thanks to Sunita Singh-Dalal from ACH in Dubai for introducing us to Shardul.
Finally, we are tantalizingly close to finding a great Observer firm from Spain to replace Ventura Garces. We have been actively involved in discussions with two prominent mid-sized full service firms in Barcelona. Lewis Isaacs and Kristiaan Caluwaerts visited both firms on 26 July as the final step in the process to decide which of the two to invite to Dublin (alas, being the prudent stewards of LEI capital, your intrepid Expansion Committee Chairman remains sitting behind his desk in Chicago instead of joining this exploration).
We are still looking for good quality firms in Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, perhaps Argentina, and Miami and Seattle…as well as any whom you suggest and meet the LEI criteria. Please remember the best leads are those whom you already know and respect, so please keep your eyes and ears open for possible member firms in these countries and others you feel make us stronger and deeper. Our goal is to cover 80% of the world’s GDP with mid-sized, quality typically full-service firms where we can be big enough to cover most of the word yet small enough where we retain our collegiality, efficiency and responsiveness.
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