Corporate counsel address a kaleidoscope of values and interests. They contribute to their companies' highest-level decisions in boardrooms and executive offices. They also work quietly behind the scenes advising personnel at all levels in their companies' day-to-day business. Highly visible before judicial, legislative and other bodies, corporate counsel play critical roles when their companies' fortunes and reputation are at stake.
Whether advocating in public forums or private transactions, corporate counsel are invaluable to a healthy business environment. Their debate helps assure the resolution of differences with the predictability needed for a prosperous, stable economy.
In the heart and spirit of the legal profession, corporate counsel not only serve their companies' business interests, but also invest their talents and resources to benefit the public as well. In this issue, we give examples of how general counsels' respect for human rights has enhanced diversity throughout the legal profession.
Commitment to diversity is set within the context of our broader focus on globalization. In this issue, lawyers in public service and private practice discuss how they are helping Iraq to determine what law and order is going to look like as a stabilized government emerges. It is our hope that the region will soon enjoy the collegiality between business and the bar reported in our interview with leaders of the Washington, DC's industry and services community.
Leaders of in-house, state, local and specialty bar associations share their insights on our pages. We invite you to reflect on your own practice and encourage you to join these efforts of leading the way to a stronger, healthier global economy.
Kristi Vaiden
Deputy Editor
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We are pleased to welcome Arent Fox PLLC as a Supporting Firm. From its beginnings more than 60 years ago, two features have characterized Arent Fox's practice: its knowledge of and expertise in the regulations and affairs of the Government, and its ties to and representation of participants in the national and international business community. The cornerstones of the Firm's practice today - litigation, intellectual property, federal regulation and government relations, real estate and finance, general corporate, and international business - can be traced back to the work of the Firm's founding partners. Today the Firm's practice not only consists of client representation in those areas, but its attorneys also work on cutting-edge cases with today's "new economy" clients in the technology, e-commerce, e-health and telemedicine, and biotechnology arenas.
The Firm's office in Washington, D.C. has allowed it to develop solid contacts with those U.S. Government and multi-lateral institutions that play a significant role in both national and international projects. The Firm's office in New York City is involved in the representation of major corporations and financial institutions in the areas of corporate law, litigation, securities, finance, health care, intellectual property and insolvencies and reorganizations. In most of the other major trading countries of the world, the Firm also has a network of foreign correspondent counsel to assist its clients on matters involving questions of foreign law.
Published March 1, 2004.