January 2006
The
IN-HOUSE COUNSEL
Newsletter to the member associations of ECLA
ECLA's Annual Pan- European Conference May 4 - 5, 2006
ECLA’s Annual Pan-European Conference will be held in Brussels on May 4 - 5, 2006. The two days conference is for the first time organised in cooperation with the European Academy of Law (ERA). ECLA and European Academy of Law in 2005 agreed to a long-term cooperation in organising ECLA conferences and seminars. The ECLA Annual Pan-European Conference 2006 will be focusing on the increased effect of EU law on global business emphasizing themes such as moving to another member State, merging with a company in another member state, enforcement actions across borders, private action for antitrust violations (Commission's green paper). The program is designed for in-house counsel and priced in a manner allowing all ECLA members to participate.
ECLA and Eversheds agree on extending the Foundation Sponsorship Agreement
ECLA and Eversheds Law firm in October agreed to extend the Foundation Sponsorship Agreement. The agreement that was signed in 2004 made Eversheds the foundation sponsor for ECLA in 2005 and now 2006. "The agreement has been a great success and we are delighted to extend the agreement with ECLA", says Robin Johnson of Eversheds. "We will now make further efforts within ECLA to promote the Foundation Sponsorship Agreement", says Bengt Gustafson, President of ECLA. "A number of our national member associations e.g. France and Belgium have organised joint events with Eversheds during 2005 and arrangements have been made, inter alia in Norway, for joint activities in 2006. We must make sure that our members in the various ECLA associations benefit from the opportunities the Eversheds Foundation Sponsorship Agreement brings", concludes Bengt Gustafson.
ECLA Board Meeting in Rome
ECLA held its autumn board meeting in Rome 2005. The meeting was organised by AIGI the Italian in-house counsels association. The meeting was held in the facilities of UNIDROIT - the fantastic Villa Aldobrandini. UNIDROIT's secretary general Dr Herbert Kronke welcomed the participants and gave a tour and presentation of the venue - that dates back to the 17th century. All associations were represented except Norway and the UK.
"The meeting was efficient and we achieved a lot", commented Kristian Merser – representing DFVJ, the Danish in-house counsels association. The meeting also saw representatives from Eversheds, Translegal and Academy of European Law each presenting ongoing projects.
Translegal presents its proposal to ECLA Board of Directors at the ECLA Rome meeting
Translegal - Europe’s leading firm of lawyer-linguists - presented its joint project with ECLA – the Language portal on ECLA website - and its project with Cambridge University – the International Legal English language Certificate. The President of Translegal, Michael Lindner, informed the Board that the International Legal English language Certificate will be launched in spring 2006. The language certificate should help members of ECLA's member associations in their career development, and will be accessible i.a. through ECLA. Mr John Kokko, Director of Digital Media Development at Translegal, presented a language portal to be included in the ECLA website which would give ECLA members free access to computer based training in English legal language. The ECLA board fully supports this project.
Finance report October 2005
At the Rome board meeting Petr Smelhaus, treasurer of ECLA, presented the financial statements of ECLA as of October 2005 and commented that ECLA's finances are now better than ever. The improvements are largely due to the Eversheds Foundation Sponsorship Agreement but also due to the loyal payment of the membership fees by all member associations.
ECLA's Website
ECLA's website has been deemed to need a major update, including a change of operator. The executive board has initiated the work, which is estimated to be completed in June 2006. "The purpose of the overhaul is to make the website more user friendly", says Jettie Van Caenegem, Secretary General of ECLA and responsible in the executive board for the update and rework of the website. "External expertise has been engaged to make the ECLA website a more informative and interesting site for our members and all other lawyers”, says Jettie van Caenegem further.
ECLA and AIGI organises conference in Riccione in May 2006 sponsored by Freshfields in Italy
AIGI the Italian in-house counsels association will together with ECLA organise a conference in Riccione – on the Italian Adriatic Riviera at the end of May 2006. The conference is sponsored by Freshfields, Italy, which will provide speakers and participate in the organisation. ECLA will provide speakers on Pan-European topics.
Sabine Lochmann, executive board member of ECLA, will speak on "Class actions in Europe" and present recent trends in France and elsewhere on this current topic.
Macedonia to become member of ECLA
The in-house counsels association in Macedonia has at its meeting in November 2005 removed the last obstacle to become member of ECLA. By adopting its articles of association and introducing provisions on sanctions and ethical rules the Macedonian association has fulfilled all statutory requirements for the Macedonian association to become member of ECLA. The application for membership will be submitted to the General Assembly of ECLA in spring 2006.
ECLA forms team on "Class actions"
ECLA has decided to form a Pan- European taskforce in order to participate in and influence the debate and attitudes on class actions within Europe. Sabine Lochmann, member of the executive board of ECLA, heads the task force.
Individual members of ECLA interested in participating in the task force on "class actions in Europe" should contact Sabine. Contacts to Sabine and all other ECLA office bearers can be found on ECLA's website -
ECLA and International Law Office (ILO)
ECLA and International Law Office (ILO) have agreed that ILO will become the "European online media partner to ECLA".
ILO's Newsletter will carry the ECLA logo, and the line "European Online Media Partner", on all ILO e-mails and promotion material where appropriate. Where possible the ECLA logo will link directly to the ECLA website, or the web address will be listed.
ILO will in addition promote appropriate ECLA events/ conferences on the ILO website and appropriate ILO e-mails.
In return ECLA will promote the ECLA-ILO partnership to each of ECLA's member associations. This will include a description of ILO and a link to the registration page on the ILO website. Each member association will then decide or not to forward on the information to its members.
The cooperation will allow all individual members of ECLA's national associations to receive -free of charge - the International Law office newsletter. The newsletter is distributed to over 20.000 lawyers and contains interesting articles in various areas of law. ECLA's individual members can by registering for the newsletter on the ILO website – - sign up for the newsletter and select areas of particular interest.
ECLA and Law Europe
At the Rome meeting in October 2005 the Board mandated the Executive Board to commence discussions with Law Europe on cooperation between ECLA and Law Europe. Law Europe has expressed interest in becoming a sponsor to ECLA in 2006 and initial meetings have been held during the fall of 2005. A meeting is scheduled to be held between representatives of ECLA and Law Europe on January 31, 2006 in Brussels.
ECLA organises together with KRRP- the Polish in-house counsels association - a conference in Warsaw which is sponsored by Eversheds, Poland
The conference on competition law scheduled for November 18, 2005 in Warsaw organised by ECLA and ECLA's Polish member association KRRP has been postponed and will now be held in the first half of 2006. The conference is sponsored by Eversheds Polish associate - Wierzbowski Eversheds Law firm - that will also provide speakers in addition to ECLA and KRRP. Further information on the conference will be published on the ECLA website – and the KRRP website –.
Information about ECLA to member associations and their members
The Board of ECLA endorsed the Executives' plans to visit each member association of ECLA in order to broaden the interest and knowledge about ECLA. The first visit was made during autumn 2005 and visit will continue throughout the year 2006. For planning purposes member associations are kindly requested to provide details of suitable events and dates for such visits.
ECLA participates in conference organised by Hawksmere in London May 10 - 11, 2006
ECLA will participate in and provide speakers for the conference on International Acquisitions and Disposals organised by Hawksmere in London May 10 -11, 2006. ECLA's President Bengt Gustafson will chair the first day of the conference and he will also be one of the speakers at the conference.
Individual members of ECLA will receive a 20 % discount on the conference fee. More information on this conference can be found on ECLA's web site - www. ECLA.org
ECLA participates in conference organised by AFJE and Mar-Tech in Brussels on European Benchmark IT law on June 19 – 20, 2006
ECLA will participate in and provide speakers for the European Benchmark IT law conference organised by AFJE – the French in-house association - and Mar-Tech in Brussels on June 19 – 20, 2006. Sabine Lochmann - member of the executive board of ECLA - will chair parts of the conference and she will also be one of the speakers at the conference.
Individual members of ECLA will receive a 20 % discount on the conference fee. More information on this conference can be found on ECLA's web site - www. ECLA.org
ECLA and ASDA – the German in-house lawyers association organise Pan–European ECLA conference in Berlin on November 11, 2006
ASDA the German in-house counsels association will together with ECLA organise a Pan- European conference in Berlin on November 11, 2006 with speakers provided by ASDA and ECLA. The conference will be held in English language and cover topics of interest to the in-house lawyer working in a global environment as well as legal management issues.
ECLA participated in conference organised by Ark in London on January24, 2006
ECLA's Secretary General, Jettie van Caenegem, participated in a conference organised by Ark in London on January 24, 2006 "The General Counsel Strategic Summit 2000". Except for raising the profile of ECLA with the participants, Jettie Van Caenegem gave a speech on Legal Privilege.
Anne Scheltema Beduin retires
On Friday January 20, 2006 ECLA was represented by the Secretary General, Jettie Van Caenegem, at the farewell party for Anne Scheltema Beduin, secretary general of the Dutch in-house lawyers association, the NGB. As many of you will know, Anne was for many years the secretary general of ECLA and was one of the founders of our association. Anne was also instrumental in the change of the law in the Netherlands some years ago allowing in-house counsel to become - or remain - members of the Bar. We understand she is going to start her retirement with a trip round the world and we wish her well in this and all future endeavors and thank her again for her many years devoted service to the in house counsel profession and ECLA in particular.
ECLA is Europe's leading association of in-house counsel in Europe. ECLA represents more than 20.000 individual in-house counsels and is represented in seventeen European countries.