Finnish law offices follow their clients Published: 2003-12-17 Author: Ieva Dambe In Latvia currently there are two major law offices operating in cooperation with Finnish partners, though within slightly different frameworks, -- Liepa, SkopiĦa / BORENIUS and Sorainen Law Offices. The legal business world is dominated by the trend to follow the clients. This trend serves as the basis for the expansion policy of law firms. Therefore major companies upon entering Latvia are bringing along the law firms servicing them. As concluded by Db, currently the closest ties with foreign partners are practised by Sorainen Law Offices. "The firm was founded by Finns in 1997 to expand the legal service area," explains Ăirts Rūda, attorney-at-law cooperating with Sorainen Law Offices. "Initially the clientele was dominated by Finnish clients, while now the business has acquired a more global aspect and the circle of clients represent the whole of the world, though certainly retaining the Finnish The leader in Baltics. "The key connections. Though in each of the countries we are asset provided by the Finnish considered a legally independent entity, in our activities we partners has been the knowledge function as one big company," adds Mr.Ă. Rūda. "Foreigners and experience from the Western perceive the Baltics as one region, therefore we address the markets," claims Mr. Rūda, world as one pan-Baltic law firm," relates the attorney-at- attorney-at-law, cooperating with law. the network of attorneys’ offices Sorainen Law Offices. Quality indices Sorainen Law Offices has offices in all the three Baltic countries and in Finland. All the offices have a common database – client and transaction data, whereby the client service on a pan-Baltic level may be provided from a single office. "Our advantage lies in the fact that the close cooperation among the Baltic offices enables us to provide the clients with a reply to any pan-Baltic question as soon as within an hour’s time, and we believe that by providing services of this high a quality on a pan-Baltic scale we are the largest local attorneys-at-law office" highlights Mr. Ă. Rūda. Employing 40 attorneys-at-law and lawyers in all the Baltics, Sorainen Law Offices has provided services to ca. 500 clients of Finnish origin (companies incorporated in Finland or owned by the Finnish). "In general we have provided services on almost 1500 cases for various Finnish clients, starting with simple company registrations and down to major merger and acquisition transactions," informs us Mr. Ă. Rūda. Ă. Rūda comments on the significance of the experience Integrated. "Our alliance is from other countries where most investments and cash extremely successful, since we flows have been received from the moment when the may provide a unified solution country voiced its intent to join the EU until its actual from a single position," says Lauris accession. Also in Latvia, there is a trend of foreign Liepa, attorney at the attorneys companies and investments entering the market, mostly office Liepa, SkopiĦa / BORENIUS. coming from the Scandinavian region, which is where we belong. With the economic development, the work volume of Sorainen Law Offices indicates a stable annual growth by the average of 15 - 20%. Ă. Rūda voices hopes for a continuous increase in the work volume and the ability to retain the leading position among the law firms and attorneys-at-law offices in the Baltics. Lauris Liepa, attorney-at-law of the attorneys-at-law office Liepa, SkopiĦa / BORENIUS admits that with the growing number of the clients interested in complex modern law fields and cross- border business transactions, attorneys-at-law are in need of contacts or relationships with foreign partners, therefore there is a practice to search for cooperation partners abroad. L. Liepa’s law office of cooperates with its Finnish partner already for 3 years, and he claim’s that by now this has been a 100% successful collaboration. "Differently from Sorainen Law Offices, which is more of a pan-Baltic attorneys-at-law office with the presence of a Finnish office, BORENIUS is the largest office in the law office network in Finland volume- and competence- wise – with more than 50 lawyers in 3 offices in Finland," relates Mr. L. Liepa. For comparison note that the Riga and Tallinn office each employs ca. ten lawyers. Mutually beneficial "They (Finnish partners) are experienced in areas that are to gain increasing significance in Latvia," says Mr. L. Liepa. From its Finnish partner that is among the top 4 largest law firms in Finland, Liepa’s office acquires knowledge in modern technology law and other experience in delivering services of increased quality to the clients. "We also acquire experience in office management, as well as more skills in handling international cases. It was a pleasure to join and cooperate with them, since, first of all, the similar mentalities make it very pleasant to work together with the Finnish partners, and their professional level and high quality level enables us to significantly improve the quality of our work. We provide our partners with a potential and possibility of expansion by accompanying their clients in their activities in Latvia," says the attorney. According to Mr. Liepa, the key to success lies in the fact that the parties are independent full- fledged partners with their relationship based on the principle of horizontality and equality. Cooperation to be expanded The forthcoming objectives of the group of BORENIUS attorneys’ offices include strengthening the cooperation with Lithuania, which, though already being a cooperation partner, has, nevertheless, not yet been included in the group of law firms. "The offices” unified by the brand name BORENIUS and the associative ties, operate in line with the cooperation agreement wherein the partners have laid down the cooperation strategy," says Mr. L. Liepa. A distinctive feature compared with other cooperation partners of the office lies in the fact that the BORENIUS associated offices would never represent clients with mutually opposed interests, since the association is to remain prioritised. "Upon further development of the Latvian legal system and with Latvia adopting the EU regulation for the free professions, we may clearly become a network of law firms similar to, for instance, that of Baker McKenzie from the USA," predicts Mr. L. Liepa. The document has been printed out from the information web page www.db.lv © 2003 SIA "Diena Bonnier" .