A Message from Our Chairman

This looks to be an exciting year for TerraLex! This Fall we will have our Twentieth Annual General Meeting in Washington, D.C. Before then we will have adopted a tightly focused Strategic Plan for 2010-2012, based on our full-day Board Strategic Planning Session last November in Hong Kong. Our Practice and Sector Groups are becoming increasingly active. Several have had successful fly-in/fly-out meetings, and a number will meet Saturday morning at a Spring Meeting in Rome. And we are already realizing the benefit of having added nine strong new Members during 2009, in: France (Paris); Germany (Cologne); Germany (Stuttgart); Latvia; Lithuania; Russia (Moscow); Sri Lanka; Uganda; and the State of Louisiana.
 
We hope soon to fill five vacancies left by firms who departed the network last year: Bangladesh; Ecuador; Sweden; and the States of Arizona and Georgia. Two of those Members (Sweden and the State of Georgia) left as the result of mergers with multinational law firms.
 
We continue to work to increase referrals and to help Members grow their practices using the TerraLex relationship. Consistent high-quality referral performance is critical to our success and we have instituted programs designed to assure it. In addition to improving network performance and supporting expanded Practice and Sector Group activity, we are taking steps to increase recognition of TerraLex as a premier network of high-quality law firms among in-house counsel and other target markets.
 
I hope to see all of you at our 2010 meetings. The June 10-13 EMEA Regional Meeting in Rome will be hosted by Italian Member Carabba & Partners. The 20th Annual General Meeting in Washington, D.C. (Sept.. 30 - Oct. 1) will be co-hosted by  Maryland Member Miles & Stockbridge P.C. and Virginia Member Troutman Sanders LLP.
 
Please encourage all of your lawyers to register on the TerraLex website (a very easy process) and to join and become active in one or more of our Practice and Sector Groups. The more links we can build among the lawyers within our respective firms, the more value we will generate for each of our Members. 

Charles McCallum, Chairman

This article presents an in depth and thorough analysis on the tax and practical aspects of estate planning for the international family.  When you are done reading this article you will know everything you ever needed to know (and then some) concerning non resident aliens doing business and owning property in the United States. 

In view of recent amendments to Russian antimonopoly legislation (relating to agreements and concerted practices that restrict competition), the authors of this article will analyze the practices applied by European antitrust agencies and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation ("FAS Russia") to identify and investigate antimonopoly cases.

This article provides an introduction to and discusses real property law in Turkey as it affects the acquisition of immovables (e.g., lands, houses and farms) and/or real rights other than ownership over immovables by both foreign real persons and legal entities.

This paper focuses on the review of climate science in the U.S. courts.  The author identifies numerous federal and state court decisions that acknowledge the scientific basis for climate change and concludes that although the debate "is not over" pending tort claims provide the most likely opportunity for a thorough judicial review.

The Competition Commission of India ("Commission") became operational on September 1, 2009, heralding a new era of enforcement of antitrust laws in India. The Act is of critical importance for mergers happening abroad and locally in India and establishes India at par with other leading economies in regulating mergers and acquisitions.

Class actions are designed to avoid inconsistent results by offering the efficiency and predictability of a unitary adjudication or settlement of claims of a numerous group to whom the defendant may be liable based on the same facts. Poland will be one of the first jurisdictions in Central and Eastern Europe, which will provide the class action procedure.