Pangea celebrates 10th anniversary

Our international lawyers network, which not only are we an active member of but also co-founded in 2009, celebrated its 10th anniversary from the 27th to the 30th of June in Amsterdam. 120 Lawyers from over 20 countries around the world came to our AGM (Annual General Meeting), which was hosted this year by our Dutch partner-firm Valegis (www.valegis.com). During our work sessions, we focused on developing strategies to intensify our international cooperation and to enable us to participate even more in international pitches involving more than two or three-member firms.

UEPA benefits enormously from the network. We are in contact with other member-firms almost on a daily basis and constantly work on cases referred to us by other members, and are also increasingly able to give work into the network. Besides this, another important aspect for UEPA is that our lawyers, in case of need, can always simply call colleagues from within the network who are experts in special areas. For instance, we were able to cooperate with a member-firm that has a large aviation law department when we were involved in drafting contracts for the acquisition of helicopters by a European client from a US manufacturer. In such situations, it is invaluable to talk to colleagues who do this kind of work every day. This is because — as every lawyer knows — besides legal aspects, practical aspects can be added to contractual solutions, which is very beneficial for the client and also cost-saving.

Needless to say, our colleagues Lucie Hladenova and Tomas Mudra, who represented us at this year’s AGM, also had enough time to intensify friendships and celebrate the great success of our network. The trust based on years of experience and cooperation with most network members is very solid and the exchange of professional opinions is very welcome. Many AGMs were remarkable, but our Valegis partners exceeded all expectations.

Before the plenary sessions began, our UEPA lawyers attended four out of five practice group meetings in which we are active.

Afterwards, a special program was offered for the first time for young colleagues who attended the AGM in great numbers. The juniors discussed new demands in offering legal services in times of social networks, whilst the seniors discussed further growth options for the network and also elected new board members. The outgoing Chairman Declan Cushley (www.brownejacobson.com) received a warm farewell and Jens Förderer Wenner (www.wenner.eu), a partner at one of our two French member-firms, was equally warmly welcomed. We wish Jens all the best and are convinced that he will successfully work on the further growth of our high-quality network.

To sum up, we at UEPA consider these annual meetings to greatly assist in strengthening our approach and influence through establishing friendships across borders in the extensively interconnected field of international law. These annual meetings held by Pangea are particularly effective as the network vows to ensure that its members really get familiarized with each other and this is exactly what we have experienced over the years. We are grateful for this opportunity to widen our scope and cannot wait to attend next year’s conference in February 2020 in New Delhi, hosted by our Indian partner firm ILG (www.ilgindia.com)