Focus on excellence

The demand for high quality, integrated multi-jurisdictional legal services has never been greater, as the barriers to multinational business continue to fall and more and more businesses seek to exploit the opportunities presented by international markets.

Our response has been the creation of CMS – one of the world’s largest groups of legal service organisations, with over 2,800 lawyers operating throughout Europe and beyond.

CMS is more than international in focus. Our aim is to be truly transnational; operating strong local law practices in key business centres worldwide. Each of the CMS member firms is a leading firm in its own jurisdiction. They are:

• CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni (Italy);
• CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo, S.L.P. (Spain);
• CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre (France);
• CMS Cameron McKenna LLP (UK);
• CMS DeBacker (Belgium);
• CMS Derks Star Busmann (Netherlands);
• CMS von Erlach Henrici Ltd. (Switzerland);
• CMS Hasche Sigle (Germany); and
• CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz Rechtsanwälte GmbH (Austria).

The member firms of CMS have the resources and experience to provide clients with access to a wide range of integrated pan-European legal services, managed by a single point of contact and with common high calibre service standards. We are building seamless transnational services for the benefit of our clients.

Whilst each CMS member firm continues to develop its national strength, CMS is focused on achieving excellence in a number of key practice areas, reflecting our core strengths. Pan-European practice area groups have the express aim of integrating our services and developing leading edge capability.

The practice area groups are:

• corporate (mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures; strategic alliances; corporate finance; privatisations; private equity and MBOs);
• banking and finance (including capital markets);
• tax;
• real estate, construction and environment;
• technology (IT, telecoms, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals);
• utilities and projects;
• competition and European law;
• employment and pensions;
• entertainment and intellectual property;
• financial services;
• insurance and reinsurance;
• litigation and arbitration; and
• product liability.

Within these practice areas we are developing a number of specialist industry subgroups, combining lawyers with first-hand knowledge of key industry sectors.

Satisfying our clients’ demands is our overriding objective. Our clients benefit from:

• expert legal advice through our focus on building core strengths on a Pan-European basis;
• commercial advice based upon our experience of having worked in a diverse range of industries;
• consistency in service through common service standards, providing a seamless service, irrespective of location or jurisdiction and with the minimum disruption;
• single points of contact with the power to commit CMS resources anywhere in the world;
• growing international coverage through the recruitment of additional law firms;
• cutting edge know-how through common training and development programmes for our staff; and
• working with talented international lawyers as a result of our enhanced ability to recruit and retain the very best staff.

CMS is not a loose association or referral group of national law firms. CMS firms have a long history of co-operation; they know each other well and have a track record of working together for the benefit of clients. Above all they share a ­common commitment to the full integration of their practices.

CMS firms have a deep understanding of their home markets – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Each has an extensive network of contacts with fellow professionals and institutions. Each is accustomed to making deals happen both at home and abroad. Each has adopted a commercial approach to advising clients and an entrepreneurial approach to the development of their business.

Together, CMS firms are a formidable force within the world’s market for professional services.

Outside traditional home markets, CMS is a major force in Central Europe and the CIS with offices in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and the Russian Federation, and has a strong presence in Asia.

We are committed to providing the highest quality professional advice and building enduring relationships with our clients. We place great emphasis on the training and development of our partners and staff in both current legal and business issues. Our investment in know-how and information systems allows us to share our knowledge and experience throughout the CMS member firms, helping to ensure that all our lawyers add value to the services they provide. We work with our clients to identify their business needs and recognise that clients bring their disputes to us so that we can apply our experience and expertise to assist them with achieving comprehensive and practical solutions to commercial problems as quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

We pride ourselves on aiming to find the speediest and most cost-effective way to resolve our clients’ disputes, either by negotiation, mediation (as well as other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods) or legal proceedings. It is our job to assimilate the facts and issues leading to the dispute or potential dispute and to consider with our client the tactics and strategy for bringing the dispute to an end successfully and at an appropriate time. It is our task to help clients develop and improve their bargaining positions. Most importantly, it is for us to use our resources, expertise, experience and skills to help clients to handle their disputes constructively, practically and effectively in the wider context of their ongoing businesses, business needs and strategy.

We are committed to resolving disputes without recourse to legal proceedings wherever possible. But where proceedings are unavoidable we will give you the advice, support and resources needed to bring them to a successful conclusion.

We are committed to the use of ADR to complement conventional litigation and arbitration procedures and have been at the forefront of its development.

Properly handled arbitration can provide a radically different and highly effective method of resolving international commercial disputes.

The CMS member firms have litigation, arbitration, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) experience in all areas of commercial dispute resolution (domestic, European, and other foreign jurisdictions), including arbitrations under ad hoc arbitration rules and international institutional rules, such as the ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, and other national and international rules. The CMS member firms also have a proven track record in the field of investment arbitration.

CMS member firms have advised and acted for a wide cross-section of the global business community in all matters of domestic and international trade and industry, including aviation, banking and financial services, commodities, corporate, construction and infrastructure projects, building, engineering, insurance/re-insurance, information technology, intellectual property, transport, motor industry, oil and gas, public works, chemical industry, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, rent review and other commercial areas, as well as in investment arbitration.

The CMS Dispute Resolution Practice Area Group comprises lawyers specialising in particular industries or types of dispute, bringing in-depth business understanding to the circumstances in which disputes may arise; within this group the CMS International Arbitration Group assembles an impressive number of arbitration specialists with a profound knowledge of the international arbitration process. The CMS member firms have a wealth of experience and the depth of resources to conduct all types of dispute, whether by litigation, arbitration or Alternative Dispute Resolution. CMS approaches disputes as commercial problem solvers determined to make things happen, giving a business lead, not just a legal opinion.

Drafting the dispute resolution clause
A well-drafted dispute resolution clause maximises the chance that any problems will be resolved with the minimum of delay and cost. As well as advising on straightforward arbitration clauses, we are often called on instant to provide dispute resolution clauses suitable for every variety of contractual arrangement, including clauses involving multi-party disputes and consolidation of arbitrations, good faith negotiations and provisions requiring the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution methods.

Choosing the arbitration rules
A wide range of arbitration rules exist for incorporation in arbitration agreements. CMS has the expertise and experience to advise you on the most appropriate choice of procedural rules to meet your requirements.

Selecting your arbitrator
The selection and appointment of the arbitrator is crucial to the effectiveness of the arbitration proceedings. We can advise you on the issues to consider, taking into account the type of dispute which has arisen, the points likely to be in issue between the parties, the place and language of the arbitration, the chosen procedural rules of arbitration, the appropriate expertise required of the tribunal and other relevant matters.

Supporting arbitration proceedings in other jurisdictions
Through its network of offices and connections in other countries, CMS can provide resources and local advice in relation to protective measures available worldwide before or after the commencement of proceedings.

Enforcing arbitral awards
Through our experience and international contacts we can assist with the enforcement of arbitral awards in any jurisdiction.