IAG International Assembly
GOTHENBURG
22nd September 2000
MINUTES
Present:
AUSTRIA
Neudorfer Griensteidl Hahnkamper Helmut Neudorfer
& Stapf Vice Chairman
Lawyers, Vienna
BELGIUM
ERYV Sprl Etienne Laurent
Tax Counsel, Brussels
Simonet Kelder Philippe Luc Simonet
Domont Lories & Mertens
Lawyers, Brussels Jean-Pierre Domont
CANADA
Cain Lamarre Casgrain Wells Francois Tremblay
Lawyers, Quebec
CHANNEL ISLANDS
Edgerton Vernon & Partners Kiran Patel
Lawyers, Jersey
CZECH REPUBLIC
Mgr Monika Wetzlerova Monika Wetzlerova-Deisler
Advokata
Lawyers, Pilsen
DENMARK
Valentin law offices John Valentin Madsen
Lawyers, Odense
Fjelsted & Partners Hans Fjelsted
Lawyers, Copenhagen Inger Fjelsted
ENGLAND
Bentley Jennison Arthur Bailey
Accountants, Stoke on Trent Secretary
Leicester office Mike Higgins
Grundberg Mocatta Anders Grundberg
Lawyers, London Bernard Mocatta
Fredrik Lager
Lena von Finckenhagen
Shakespeares Charles Flint
Lawyers, Birmingham Chairman
Wollastons Richard Wollaston
Lawyers, Chelmsford Alan Wyatt
IAG Administration Office Christopher Whitamore
FINLAND
Borenius & Kempinnen Mika Salonen
Lawyers, Helsinki
FRANCE
Conseil & Expertise Sylvain Koskas
Accountants, Paris Treasurer
Lefèvre Pelletier & Associes Thierry Bernard
Lawyers, Paris Marie-Daphne Fishelson
GERMANY
HTG Handels-und Till Bartelt
Finanztreuhand GmbH
Accountants, Berlin
Fingerhut Karg Maul Mathias Schrder
Lawyers, Munich Committee Member
Thomas Maul
Dr Zacharias Predeek & Partner Heidi C. Wilden
Lawyers, Paderborn
ISRAEL
Shenav Elrom Konforti & Shavit Yaron Shavit
Lawyers, Tel Aviv
Koskas & Co Philippe Koskas
Lawyers, Tel Aviv
ITALY
Rubini Marzari Brendolan & Partners
(formerly Marzari Maestroni Maggiora Nicolini)
Lawyers, Verona Roberto Nicolini
Studio Legale de Capoa e Associati Simon Dix
Lawyers, Bologna
LIECHTENSTEIN
Juricon Trust Company Kerstin Schwald
Lawyers/Accountants
NETHERLANDS
Schipper Van der Mersch Peter van der Mersch
Lawyers, Rotterdam Committee member
NORWAY
Codex Advokat AS Espen Juul Haugan
Lawyers, Oslo
RUSSIA
Alrud Vassili Rudomino
Lawyers, Moscow
SCOTLAND
Morison Bishop James A. Millar
Lawyers, Glasgow
SWEDEN
HOST FIRM
Rosengrens Advokatbyrå Lars Rosengrens
Lawyers, Gothenburg Carl-Fredrik Furtenbach
Lennart Broden
Lennart Strom
Jan Wieselgren
Catharina Wolof
Ulf Saline
Ulrik Hägge
Nicolas Carling
Stefan Jevinger
Mikael Claes
Katarina Hallin
Yvette Rosen
Nicklas Gransmarker
Borås office Olle Lindeblad
Johan Hermansson
Anders Lewerth
Christian Andersch
Uddevalla office Susanne Wiklund
Gunnard & Co. Birger Gunnard
Lawyers, Stockholm Committee member
Asa Gunnard
Monika Nsberg
Mikael Holst
Jon Eklund
SWITZERLAND
Acton Treuhand AG Flavia Blum
Accountants/Tax Advisors, Zug
Staiger, Schwald & Roesle Michael Hamm
Lawyers, Zurich
USA
Allegaert Berger & Vogel LLP Christopher Allegaert
Lawyers, New York
Perkins Smith & Cohen LLP Harvey M. Burg
Lawyers, Boston & Washington DC Committee Member
PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS
ENGLAND
Ward Hadaway Robert Elliott
Lawyers, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
ITALY
Studio Legale Diurni Amalia Diurni
Lawyers, Rome Antonio Diurni Jr.
USA
Gilliss & Valla Antonio Valla
Lawyers, Lafayette CA. Ann M. Dalsin
Novack & Macey Stephen Novack
Lawyers, Chicago
OBSERVERS
ITALY
Robert Stocco & Associati Michela Pellizer
Accountants,
Castelfranco Veneto (TV)
SWEDEN
Finnhammars Revisionsbyr Ola Spinnars
Accountants, Stockholm
Chairman’s welcome
The Chairman welcomed delegates, applicants and observers to the meeting.
1. Minutes of the Dresden Assembly, 18th May 2000
The minutes of the last meeting were proposed, seconded and duly approved.
2. Financial Report
The Committee presented their draft budget for the year to 31st December 2001, which had been previously circulated accompanied by a letter from the Secretary.
The inadvertent omission from the 31/12/2000 budget column, of an item of CHF 14,000 was pointed out, and it was noted that it did not affect the total.
The Secretary reiterated the Committee’s three main proposals for 2001, set out in his letter.
i) That accounts for the year ending 31/12/00 will be produced in Euros, alongside Swiss Francs for comparative purposes
ii) That subscription notices from 01/01/01 will be in Euros
iii) That the subscription for 2001 will be EU 3350 and the joining fee EU 2000
(equivalent to CHF 5000 and CHF 3000 at current rates)
The Chairman invited questions or comments. None emerged.
The budget and accompanying proposals was formally proposed, seconded and duly approved and adopted.
3) Membership matters
Applicants and Observers were asked to withdraw briefly and four applications were reviewed. The Chairman invited members to raise any questions, points or objections. He confirmed that the Committee recommended all four for ratification by the Assembly and the applications of
Ward Hadaway (lawyers, Newcastle upon Tyne, England)
Studio Legale Diurni (lawyers, Rome, Italy)
Gilliss & Valla (lawyers, Lafayette, California, USA)
Novack & Macey (lawyers, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
were duly ratified.
The Applicants and Observers were asked to return and the Chairman congratulated the four firms on becoming members of IAG.
He then invited the Observers to make presentations and both Michaela Pellizer, of Roberto Stocco e Associati, and Ola Spinnars of Finnhammars Revisionbyra, made interesting presentations on their respective firms, which were welcomed by the Assembly.
4) Articles of Association
The Chairman introduced the set of draft changes to the Articles of Association which he had circulated, accompanied by an explanatory letter, dated 24th August 2000. He reminded the Assembly that there were three key areas of change proposed:
- greater responsibility on Members to keep the Committee up to date with any changes in the member firm or its activities
- bringing the application procedure for new members in line with the practice adopted by the committee some time ago
- requiring an Agenda and relevant papers to be circulated 14 days prior to a meeting, shortening the period slightly.
A single typographical error was noted and the Chairman was asked to see that this and any other non-material corrections were made.
The revised Articles were then proposed, seconded, duly approved and adopted with immediate effect.
The Chairman also drew the Assembly’s attention to another area of his letter, although the newly revised Articles did not contain any changes to this effect. These were the possibilities of reducing the Chairman’s term to two years, altering the role of Vice Chairman to become ‘Chairman in waiting’, and allowing the Chairman or other officers to serve more than 6 years on the Committee. He asked members to consider the implications of these suggestions, and to send him any feedback informally, or discuss it with him as the opportunity arose.
5) EEIGs
The Chairman reported briefly on the current position of the EEIGs.
Currently two tenders were under appraisal by the European Commission. The award of a further tender to a competitor, on what the EEIG board considered were unsound grounds, had been challenged and stayed in court. The final outcome remained in the balance, but he felt that winning the stay had helped to hold up the position of the IAG EEIGs in the market.
Options for the administration of the EEIGs were under review and would be reported on at the February meeting.
6) Future meetings
The Assembly listened with eagerness to the plans of Roberto Nicolini, of Rubini Marzari Brendolan, for the February 2001 meeting in Verona, and to Yaron Shavit outlining the plans of his own and Philippe Koskas’ firms for the 2001 Assembly in Israel.
7-10) Product/ Services package cooperation and development
The Chairman suspended the formal element of the meeting, which moved into pre-allocated groups for the brainstorming and reporting elements outlined in separate briefing papers.
11) Discussion of new meeting format and points for future meetings
The Assembly reconvened and the Chairman asked for views on the experiment of devoting much of the meeting to working together in small interactive ‘brainstorming’ groups.
Several views were expressed to the effect that, almost regardless of any practical outcome of the discussion, this principle was valuable simply for the opportunity to work actively on a business topic with a range of IAG colleagues, getting to know them as individuals and to understand more of the practicalities of their business culture. Where practical progress in furthering IAG’s aims could also be achieved, as it would on some but not all topics, this was highly valuable, so the principle was approved.
The Chairman emphasised that a rapid receipt and dissemination of reports from the groups would be important in seizing any practical opportunities.
He invited members to raise general points and suggestions, and several were made.
It was agreed that it would be desirable to continue the practice of sending out an advance/ draft attendance list with the meeting papers, so members could plan contacts they wished to make, but this should not revert to the previous practice of being bound into the papers as there were always a few changes by the actual meeting. Finalised attendance list would continue to be given out as delegates arrived.
Christopher Whitamore explained some intended improvements to the mechanics of the website, and confirmed that these would include the creation of password protected areas, as Tony Valla suggested. One immediate use would be the availability within the group of an email circulation list.
The Chairman thanked all present for their contributions to the success of the meeting, and closed the formal proceedings with special thanks to the host firm, Rosengrens Advokatbyra.
______
The two delegates who had notified topics for the Business Exchange Forum were then invited to speak, and the delegates heard brief presentations from Simon Dix of Studio Legal De Capoa e Associati, and from Vassili Rudomino of Alrud.
Finally a video, as background for the Israel Assembly, was shown to those delegates who had not already had the chance to see it in Dresden.
4