International and Cross-Border Transactions

Holland & Knight represents foreign and domestic clients in international and cross-border litigation, business, real estate and governmental matters. The firm is counsel to multinational concerns, international sea and air carriers, insurers, manufacturers, international banks, and entrepreneurs. We represent overseas clients doing business in the United States as well as U.S. and foreign concerns doing business abroad. The firm has long-standing and significant commitments to, and practice teams focused on, Asia and the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. Our practice teams represent a vast range of clients in major transactions and privatizations throughout various industry sectors.

Holland & Knight's attorneys have vast practical knowledge in specialized international transactions and disputes. Our extensive cultural familiarities and foreign language capabilities improve efficiency and directly benefit our clients by avoiding expensive coordination mistakes, delays and confusion that frequently frustrate commercial law firms attempting to lead transactions outside the United States.

Among our international business practice areas are:

International Trade

The International Trade Group at Holland & Knight represents U.S. and foreign companies, institutions, associations, and foreign governments on virtually all aspects of international trade matters. Through our familiarity with the trade policy process in the United States, our contacts within the Executive Branch and Congressional offices and committees, and our experience in the application of U.S. trade laws, and multilateral and bilateral trade agreements, we can assist clients in understanding trade issues and resolving trade problems. We are well versed in dealing with the regulatory agencies that oversee international trade matters and regularly appear before these agencies. As a result of doing business in and with many countries around the world, our Trade Group has developed an in-depth understanding of differing business cultures and legal systems. This experience and knowledge provides a direct benefit to our clients.

Trade Litigation

Holland & Knight has an active international trade litigation practice, including participation in antidumping, countervailing duty, safeguard (Section 201) proceedings before the Court of International Trade, and other trade remedy litigation. For two decades, we have initiated representations on behalf of domestic and foreign manufacturers, trade associations and multinational trading companies. Our Trade Group has extensive experience providing counsel and representing clients in original investigations, administrative review, changed circumstances reviews, scope determinations anti-circumvention investigations and sunset reviews. In addition, our Trade Group has extensive experience in litigation of Customs cases and those of other trade agencies before the Court of International Trade.

International Tax

Holland & Knight's International Tax Practice provides comprehensive guidance concerning a broad range of international business activities and taxes with the goal of minimizing global taxation. We provide ongoing counsel to U.S.-based multinational businesses regarding all U.S. federal and state income tax rules relevant to international operations, and work closely with local foreign counsel to provide general advice with respect to local country taxation. We work with clients to develop capital structures and repatriation strategies for minimizing worldwide taxation, including customizing repatriation strategies. We also structure and negotiate acquisitions and dispositions of foreign companies, planning for the most tax-efficient structures from both a U.S. and foreign tax perspective. We have extensive experience working with entities in tax haven jurisdictions such as Bermuda and have long relationships with leading counsel in such jurisdictions.

Asia Practice

Holland & Knight's team of attorneys have extensive experience in advising multi-national corporations and financial institutions, private investors and other clients in their Asia-related activities, including advising on transactional, regulatory, government relations and dispute resolution matters. Several lawyers are all bilingual (English and Chinese) and have substantial experience working both in China and the major financial and commercial centers of New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. This mix of experience enables the Holland & Knight team to be particularly effective in representing both Chinese and Japanese clients. We assist clients engaged in a wide range of business matters and investment goals within the Asian markets.

Our South Asia practice has represented numerous Indian companies (and companies doing business with Indian companies or in India) in matters in the U.S. and India. We have long standing relationships with the leading corporate and commercial law firms in several major Indian cities.

Our Asia practice is generally engaged in the following practice areas: aviation, banking and finance, construction, corporate, dispute resolution, energy (including oil & gas, coal, electricity, nuclear and renewables), entertainment, foreign direct investment, regulatory and restructuring, intellectual property, international trade, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, project development and finance, real estate, telecommunications and media, tax, trusts and estates and transportation and logistics.

Middle East Practice

Holland & Knight assists clients in the Middle East in connection with a wide range of activities such as conventional banking and finance, Islamic Finance and Islamic Law, construction, hospitality, energy, joint ventures, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, international trade and security matters, and transportation. The firm also represents clients from the region in connection with their U.S. activities, including regulatory and compliance matters. Our clients in the region include international and local private companies, investors, sovereign governments, and local and foreign government military departments.

Holland & Knight professionals understand local customs and have extensive experience and knowledge about working in and representing clients from these regions. We utilize our close working relationships with many of the leading locally-based firms throughout the region to provide our clients the full range of legal services required to maximize business opportunities, avoid risks and solve problems effectively when they arise.

Mexican and Latin America Practice

Holland & Knight lawyers have substantial experience in counseling our corporate clients on doing business in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Our services range from advising clients on commercial agreements appointing local distributors, agents or sales representatives, to assisting clients in organizing start-ups and in acquiring an interest in a going concern either completely or through a joint venture with a local partner. Private equity, venture capital and capital markets financing also form part of the range of transactions that are being considered in cross-border deals. Holland & Knight lawyers have worked with all of these investment models and have attained the requisite on-the-ground experience to successfully guide the client through the numerous pitfalls that are present in these challenging emerging markets.

We have extensive experience in cross-border transactions and have represented major international clients in establishing and maintaining operations in Mexico, including specific in-bound programs (such as have been established by Jabil and Celestica) in order to provide in Mexico outsourcing manufacturing services, as well as establishing outsourcing entities that provide general services to Mexican subsidiaries of international corporations.

Our Mexican and Latin America practice is engaged in the following practice areas: corporate and commercial transactions, including distributorships, agencies and franchises; mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures; privatizations and government concessions; international capital markets transactions, including securities offerings through American Depositary Receipt transactions; infrastructure project finance, including significant power plant projects; commercial finance; cash flow and asset-based lending; trade finance; foreign exchange transactions; contracts for the sale and purchase of commodities (coal and petroleum, fertilizers and perishables); mining; real estate finance; workouts, debt restructure and recovery; hotel development and management; technology and e-commerce projects; licensing and franchising transactions; telecommunications matters, both transactional and regulatory; international trade matters, both transactional and regulatory; government relations and representation; aviation matters, both regulatory and transactional; rail infrastructure; shipping, maritime and admiralty; representation of financial institutions in corporate, regulatory approval, consumer financial services including credit cards and ATM networks and commercial credit transactions; international arbitration and dispute resolution; divestitures and down-sizing; and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

European Practice

Holland & Knight and its predecessors have been serving European clients in the U.S. and internationally for over 150 years. We are probably the best-known U.S. firm in the Nordic Region as a result of our long-standing and pre-eminent maritime and commercial practice. We have represented European commercial interests, banks, ship owners and insurers both here in the United States and around the world for decades.

Today, our European practice continues our centuries-long relationships with the maritime and commercial interests of the region, but is continually expanding to encompass a far broader group of industries and practice areas. Over the past decades we have represented European companies in a wide range of industries spanning from insurance, defense, aviation and construction to telecommunications and biotechnology to fashion retail, sports training, furniture and baby products. The scope of matters we have handled include not only maritime and aviation finance and disputes, but global stock offerings, biotech licensing, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, products liability, class action defense and venture capital.

Our core European practice team is supported by all of the resources of the lawyers and staff in our offices around the United States and abroad. We work to become a bridge to business success for our European clients in the challenging U.S. and Latin American markets, as well as other markets where we have a presence. Our objective is to help our clients achieve their business goals, while recognizing and avoiding legal problems. If a dispute is involved, we aim to find an efficient, out-of-court resolution which is in the best interests of our client. In contested matters, we help our clients safely navigate the litigation environment in the U.S.