Member News

Effective Business Development For Lawyers & Consultants – 10 Things To Think About

For lawyers and consultants at large and small firms alike, growing a personal book of business can be a challenge. Partners who are deeply engaged in complex technical matters and tending to the needs of their clients often relegate the important tasks of rainmaking and cultivating new clients to the back burner. For senior and junior associates and staff, developing the skills and having some successes along the way that allow you to point to concrete examples of rainmaking...

Read more

Member News

New Consul General Manu Virtamo Starts in New York

Manu Virtamo assumed his duties as the new Consul General of Finland in New York on September 1.  Mr. Virtamo and his wife, Liisa, moved to New York from another hectic city, Tokyo, where Mr. Virtamo served as the Ambassador of Finland to Japan for the past three years. Mr. Virtamo has a long career with the Finnish Foreign Service: He has been posted in Stockholm, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Tokyo, and now New York. In Helsinki he has served,...

Read more

Chapter News

EU budget: how to make it more efficient and flexible

The EU’s budget has been criticised for years for relying too much on member states’ contributions and for being too inflexible when unexpected crises occur. MEPs discussed the issue with their national counterparts during a conference on how to finance the EU's budget on 7-8 September. Most panellists agreed that a reform was necessary to ensure more transparency and efficiency. In 2014 a high-level group on own resources was created to come up with solutions for the future financing of...

Read more

Chapter News

A better Europe: group leaders set out their expectations for the State of the EU debate

From Brexit and the economy, to the migration crisis and the terrorism threat, Europe is facing many challenges. The annual State of the EU debate on 14 September is an opportunity for MEPs to discuss the direction for the EU to take with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Read on to find out what political group leaders expect and how you can follow it yourself. The State of the Union speech and debate takes place every year since 2010 during the...

Read more

Member News

Houlihan Lokey Advises Metcalfe’s skinny

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that the shareholders of Metcalfe's skinny Ltd have sold the remaining 74% of the company to Snyder's Lance (NASDAQ: LNCE), who initially acquired a 26% stake in January 2016. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Metcalfe's skinny and assisted in structuring and negotiating the transaction on their behalf. This deal represents another successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the Food & Beverage industry. Founded...

Read more

Member News

Vistra Completes Rebrand of Orangefield Offices

Vistra today announced the successful rebranding of all Orangefield offices to Vistra. Following Baring Private Equity Asia’s acquisition of a majority stake in both Vistra Group and Orangefield Group in October 2015, the decision was taken to rebrand Orangefield to Vistra. Over the course of this year, all Orangefield offices have been rebranded, resulting in some of the larger offices moving to new premises.  The last office to rebrand was one of the largest, Amsterdam, which was the location of Orangefield...

Read more

Chapter News, Trade & TTIP Related

Boosting EU Innovation With TTIP

The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership offers an opportunity for the European Union (EU) to improve the innovativeness of its economy. The EU is a political and economic union of twenty-eight European nations with a collective GDP of 16.5 trillion USD and a population exceeding half a billion. Yet, despite high standards of living, education, and technological access, innovation in the EU trails far behind that of the United States (US). The Global Innovation Index ranks the US the fifth most...

Read more

Chapter News

Making a difference: young people reveal their 50 ideas for a better Europe

For the best ideas for Europe's future, why not ask the next generation? In May 7,000 young Europeans gathered in Strasbourg for the second European Youth Event (EYE) during which they discussed how to best tackle the many challenges facing Europe. Fifty of the best ideas have been collected in a report, which was presented to Parliament on 6 September. Some of the ideas will be forwarded to parliamentary committees, which starting 11 October will discuss them with the...

Read more

Chapter News

Introductory statement to the ECB press conference

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. We continue to expect them to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the...

Read more

Member News

The EEOC’s New Wide-Reaching Retaliation Guidance: What Should Employers Do Now?

On August 29, 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the release of its long awaited Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues, replacing Section 8 of the EEOC Compliance Menu published in 1998. The guidance, which is accompanied by a companion Small Business Fact Sheet, sets forth the EEOC’s expansive analysis of retaliation, which is now the most frequently asserted basis of discrimination in all sectors.  Covering issues related to retaliation applicable to all of the laws for...

Read more