ANNUAL REPORT 2013 EUROJURIS.

Transcription

1 ANNUAL REPORT EUROJURIS We provide companies, corporations, public authorities and private clients with direct legal advice and local representation worldwide.

2 . PRESIDENT S INTRODUCTION Dear colleagues, members and friends, The year has been behind us for few weeks already. A lot of new initiatives were undertaken throughout by Eurojuris International and by the national Eurojuris associations, and, as I look back on last year, I have to thank some of the most active members in our Eurojuris network. At the well-attended and successful yearly Jurismus conference in Madrid in early June, Thomas Benson (from Bodo, Norway) stepped down as President of Jurismus. As the representative of Jurismus at the Board meetings of Eurojuris International, Thomas showed extraordinary commitment to our network. His contributions to these board meetings were second-to-none. Thank you, Thomas. At the Jurismus conference in Madrid, Olivier Vibert (Paris, France) was elected as the new Jurismus President. Later, in September, we were invited by Michael Vesthardt to his beautiful estate of Helsinge, Denmark, where he lives and practices law. There, the board of Eurojuris International convened and welcomed Olivier Vibert. Eurojuris International also owes a debt of gratitude and thanks to Michael Vesthardt and Bert Dehandschutter (Brussels, Belgium). Both have served as members on the board of Eurojuris International for three years, elected at the annual conference in Rome, and both of them stepped down at our annual conference in Vienna last Autumn. Michael Vesthardt and Bert Dehandschutter, thank you for your hard work for the benefit of the Eurojuris network. And finally, a special word of welcome for the two new members of the board of Eurojuris International, elected at the Vienna conference: Pietro Bembo (Milano, Italy) and Niels Eriksen (Odense, Denmark). The initiatives mentioned above are just some of many. Apart from the above, I might also remind you of, for example, the affiliation of the International Business Group of Eurojuris International with the AM&AA, a network of merger and acquisition advisors, and with ECLA, a network of in-house lawyers. In the slipstream of a EUROJURIS trademark violation last year, Eurojuris International was able to reach a close co-operation with ERA, one of the most prominent educational institutes of European law. A further co-operation with IBWF/BVMW, a German member organisation of businesses (with approximately 250,000 companies as members) was also achieved last year. There are many more new initiatives to mention. Not all of them are or will be successful. Most of these initiatives are reviewed on a monthly basis in the Eurojuris Newsletter, Stay Tuned, which was launched last year in close co-operation with journalist Julien Oeuillet.

3 . PRESIDENT S INTRODUCTION There has been one setback for our Eurojuris network that I have to mention. As of there is no longer a national member association in Sweden. However, the Board and the General Assembly of Eurojuris International were very pleased to learn that a few of the Swedish member firms of the former Eurojuris Sweden decided last year to remain members of our Eurojuris network, as Partner Firms. Both annual events of Eurojuris International, the Practice Groups Days in London (UK) in May and the conference in Vienna (Austria) in late October, were relatively well attended. The programmes of the practice groups in general, both in London and Vienna, were outstanding and offered a great variety of activities and contributions. The organisation and venue were excellent, so special thanks to Eurojuris Austria & member firm Proksch & Partner for this. The plenary part of the Vienna conference was dedicated to the quality of legal services. On the one hand, quality issues within the Eurojuris network, and on the other hand, the marketing and communication of Eurojuris. Such issues will constitute the most prominent challenges for our Eurojuris network this year and for years to come. These issues, as well as the internal organisation of our Eurojuris Network, shall be the topics at a full extra day of meetings of the Eurojuris General Assembly, in Spring On behalf of the board and the secretariat of Eurojuris International, I wish you all the best for I hope I will meet many of you this year at the numerous events organised by Eurojuris International (Practice Group s Days in Milano, Italy in May and Annual Conference in Tenerifa, Spain in October), by Jurismus (in Luxemburg in June) and organised by our national member associations. With kind regards, Hans Jonkhout President Eurojuris International

4 . EUROJURIS INTERNATIONAL 602 EUROJURIS is the leading network of law firms in Europe, covering 650 different cities/locations in more than 50 countries worldwide. Almost every European country has a national EUROJURIS Chapter which selects as members medium-sized independent law firms well established in their country and who satisfy the Eurojuris selection criteria. The objective is to provide companies, corporations, public authorities and private clients with direct legal advice and local representation all over Europe and beyond. MEMBER COUNTRIES IN

5 SECRETARIAT REPORT Eurojuris International has welcomed Egypt in the network which is a great opportunity for development of collaboration with new countries in the Middle East. Maher Milad Iskander & Co. represented by Maher Iskander is ackjällgren and we:de advokatbyrå. We asked the Presidents of the National Chapters about what services they did expect Eurojuris to improve. Issues such as the hotel price during the congress, the overloading of some programs, a need of more communication between associations and a better visibility of Eurojuris were raised. Those points will be discussed during the next Practice Groups Days in Milan in May. The Eurojuris webplatform has been extended to Italy and Germany. Both websites will go live in the begining of Special thanks for Christian Veh and Pietro Bembo for their support and collaboration in those projects. The secretariat plans to improve the Eurojuris e-marketing via the development of new tools and a better use of the social medias independent Law Firms professional lawyers events in Acceeded Members: -3,8 % Web unique visitor: +10,4 % direct members worldwide million est. annual turnover

6 Jurismus International Meeting Madrid, Spain - Digital Marketing for lawyers. JURISMUS From May 30th to June 2nd, Jurismus International held its annual conference, this time in beautiful Madrid, Spain. A total of 59 lawyers participated from all over Europe and also this year from Costa Rica. Digital Marketing the combination of Marketing and internet - was the main topic for the weekend and we focused on how lawyers and law firms can take advantage of new technologies and online marketing towards new markets and potential clients. It is a reality that many customers today are using internet to find the right lawyer for their case. This means that also lawyers needs to adjust their way of marketing and take advantage of the possibilities that digital marketing offers. The goal is that new potential clients will find your name or law firm, when searching for an expert within your field of expertise. The first day of the conference started out with speech by expert in marketing on line, Pablo Melchor, who gave a great and inspiring speech about how to get relevant on internet. Further, we learned about the importance of optimising the position of personal and company websites so that search engines as Google, puts your company in the top positions of a Google search. Pablo related theory and his experience from building up internet companies in a great way and showed how you can use online marketing strategy to grow from a small to a large business. In short, the main thing is to attend the different arenas on the internet like writing articles and commenting on cases / articles written by others within your field of expertise. By posting links to your own articles and comments on relevant social media, you can increase the marketing effect. If digital marketing is done well - over a period of time - internet search engines will start to register you or your company as relevant. The effect is that you / your law firm will be among the top search results when future clients search for lawyers within the actual field of expertise. Hopefully all Jurismussers who attended, have already started to optimise their own digital marketing based on the many good tips from Pablo Melchor. The next speaker Efa Rimoldi, General Director of Etrasa (company of Springer group) gave a speech about How to profit from Communication. She pointed out the different aspects of communication and how to profit from communication as a person and as a professional. After a coffee break in the beautiful backyard of the Spanish Bar Society, the participants had a workshop where internet marketing and use of social media as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter was discussed in groups. Marjolaine Ratier (Eurojuris, France), Loes Roze (Van Dam & Kruidenier Advocaten, Netherlands) and Erik Ulvesaeter (Law firm Stiegler ANS, Norway) were elected as new members to the board. Olivier Vibert was appointed the new president of Jurismus International. After the assembly, Javier Pérez Expert in SEO and positioning strategies had a speech about «Internet Positioning Strategies» Pérez fulfilled the speech from Melchor and gave good points on how to enter the world of online marketing for lawyers.

7 . JURISMUS JURISMUS LUXEMBOURG MEETING 2014 THURSDAY 12/06 20:00 Welcoming Dinner FRIDAY 13/ Guided visit of the European Court of Justice Speeches over European law Lunch & speeches about banking law Departure to Saarlouis Guided tour of the fortress of Vauban Dinner in the garden of Dr. Geiben law firm PRE-PROGRAMME SATURDAY 14/ General assembly Cross-border cases presented by Jurismusseers / Professors art lunch at MUDAM museum Departure to castle Sierck-les-bains with stopover in Shengen-Treaty Museum Arrival at Perl-Borg (Germany) in a Roman country house for dinner and activities SUNDAY 15/06 10:00 Optional visit of the UNESCO world heritage Völklinger Hütte Hotel Meliá Luxembourg JUMP EXCHANGES SUPPORTED BY EUROJURIS INTERNATIONAL Jurismus has set up a marketing program to encourage young Eurojuris lawyers to exchange with colleagues in other countries and to market their law firms during their stay. Participants can set up their own programme including for example visits of business relevant contacts or insight views in the local way of work. To support this JUrismus Marketing Partnership ( JUMP ), Eurojuris International created a travel cost fund. The allowance of travelling costs is subject to some minor requirements, such as setting up a schedule and writing a short report. contact info@eurojuris.net for more information

8 . PRACTICE GROUPS Corporate law chaired by Ardreas Fuglesang International Business Group chaired by Lorenzo Bacciardi Employment Law chaired by Ron Meulmeester International Litigation Law chaired by Dominique Walravens Family, Inheritance and Succession Law chaired by Michael Hayes Law Firm s Management & Quality training session chaired by Judith Adam-Caumeil avocats@adam-caumeil.com Insolvency and Banking Law chaired by Wim Heetem wheethem@racine.eu Real Estate Law chaired by Niels Eriksen ne@bonnesen.dk Intellectual Property Law chaired by Thorsen Hauröder thauroeder@hp-legal.com International Trade Transport and Insurance Law chaired by Gilad Berman gberman@gbolaw.com

9 . EUROJURIS REPRESENTATIVES BOARD OF DIRECTORS Hans Jonkhout Nederlands Marcus Pilla Germany Bertrand Wambeke France Niels Eriksen Denmark Pietro Bembo Italy Olivier Vibert France NATIONAL PRESIDENTS Eurojuris Austria ROEHLICH Edmund Eurojuris Belgium DAENEN Yves Eurojuris Denmark JORGENSEN Susan Eurojuris Finland MÄENPÄÄ Timo Eurojuris France DEPONDT Jérôme Eurojuris Germany BOCK Christian Eurojuris Italy BEMBO Pietro Eurojuris Liechtenstein LAMPERT Siegbert Eurojuris Netherlands VAN LEUVEREN Wytze Eurojuris Norway ROYRVIK Bjarte Eurojuris Spain BUGALLAL Marina Eurojuris Switzerland EISNER Beat Eurojuris UK - Ireland SALISBURY Rob president@uk.eurojuris.net

10 E - Eurojuris website maintenance - Twitter & LinkedIn - Graphic services - Web site creation for members - Promotion for seminars, incentives and events - Corporate Law - Employment Law - Energy and Environment law - Family, Inheritance and Succession law - Ibero-Francophone Group - Insolvency and Banking Law - Intellectual Property Law - International Business Group (IBG) - International Litigation and ADR - International tax law - International Trade, Transport & Insurance Law - Real Estate Law SPECIALISATION COMMUNICATION DIRECTORY NE - International directory on - Permanenet secretariat assistance - Martindale cooperation - National Chapters directories - Specialized practices pages (dedicate - Printed directories

11 EUROJURIS: YOUR LEGAL TOOLBOX UROJURIS TOOLS TO IMPROVE YOUR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS in Eurojuris Congress & Practice Groups Days - ELLA (Eurojuris Ladies Lawyers Association) - Jurismus (Lawyers under 40) - IBG (business law firms with an international client base) - National Chapters Conferences - Referral services (about 400 requests each year) - Eurojuris Sport Challenges (Golf cup, sailing cup, football tournement,...) TWORKING TRAINING - Practice Groups coordination - Management & Quality training sessions - Eurojuris training (100 training opportunities accross EU) - Language school - Eurojuris Summer University - Jump Programme (exchange program between Jurismussers) - ISO Quality assitance uris.net d webpages for specialists) contact us for more information: info@eurojuris.net

12 THURSDAY 08/05/ BOARD Meeting (for board members only) GA of Eurojuris International (only for presidents of the national chapters) Informal dinner at the Pizzeria Fabbrica ( walking distance) FRIDAY 09/05/ Extra meeting for the Presidents and Board IBG meeting (only for IBG members) Departure for dinner at Bagutta s (Dress code: Casual) SATURDAY 10/05/2014 HILTON MILAN milan_info@hilton.com Tel: Practice Groups Day starting Coffee break Lunch Practice groups meetings to be continued End of the meetings PG Chairs debriefing Football Ella Departure for dinner at the Palazzo Visconti Socrea (Dress code: Business Suit) SUNDAY 11/05/2014 Departure or sailing Regatta register online: