A GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM REQUIRES A GLOBAL NETWORK OF SOPHISTICATED LITIGATION COUNSEL

The Creation of the International Financial Litigation Network

The international financial crisis and recent cases that have involved simultaneous proceedings in multiple court systems around the world have highlighted the need for coordination among courts and lawyers that deal with cross-border litigation to ensure the fair and efficient administration of justice.

Responding to this need, more than 40 law firms in 20 countries have formed The International Financial Litigation Network (the “Network”) to provide the experience, resources, communication and know-how to effectively apply and maximize the use of collaborative tools in complex cases.

Founding members include law firms from the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Colombia, Israel, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Italy, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Japon, Lebanon, Macao, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Canadá and Greece. The Network is in membership discussions with other leading financial litigation firms in other jurisdictions.

The Network's member firms represent a broad spectrum of parties, both plaintiffs and defendants, involved in complex, cross-border financial disputes -- such as individual and institutional investors, banks, hedge funds and insurers.  The Network is designed, in part, to help attorneys better serve their clients in financial matters by identifying sophisticated and experienced counsel in other jurisdictions in which their clients may have financial disputes to ensure quality advocacy -- whether for individuals seeking redress or financial institutions that find themselves as defendants in unexpected venues.

The Goals of the International Financial Litigation Network.

The Network plans to help members and their clients share information about local and global financial litigation practice and legal developments, to facilitate and disseminate information among its member law firms, and to enhance the capabilities of its members to serve the needs of their respective clients in financial litigation.

The Network aims to promote collaboration in international financial matters to help facilitate cost-effective resolution of disputes and avoidance of duplicative and inconsistent adjudication of the same matters in different jurisdictions, thus increasing the likelihood of resolving financial disputes in a way that all market participants will find to be substantively and procedurally fair.

The Network also seeks to develop best practices and sharing of ideas among inside and outside counsel and judges across jurisdictions to make the global litigation experience more transparent and more comprehensible -- thereby reducing risk, promoting trust and encouraging safer investments.

Among the activities planned for its members, there will be various seminars, annual summits, coordinated activities, etc.

The Network aims to attract only those firms that are leaders in their respective jurisdictions in Financial Litigation Practice.

Founding Statement of the International Network

The official launch and the adoption of the Constitution of the International Financial Litigation Network occurred on May 22, 2013 in New York City and on May 23, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Headquartered in New York, the International Financial Litigation Network will also have a strong presence in Europe, with its General Secretariat located in the offices of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo in Madrid.

Working with Cremades in the new organization will be vice chairmen Iacopo Destri (C-Lex Studio Legale) of Italy; Paul Kennedy (Dillon Eustace) of Ireland and the Cayman Islands; and Glen DeValerio (Berman DeValerio), Paul Sarkozi (Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt, LLP) and.Lawrence Sucharow (Labaton Sucharow), all of the United States. James Duffy, of Berg & Duffy (U.S.) was appointed secretary.

As its first order of business, the International Network issued a declaration calling for the need to improve the legal security of financial markets, introduce best practices and promote collaboration of regulators – measures the founding members believe are needed to effectively promote their clients’ interests.