Foley Hoag LLP

Our Malaysian corporate clients include Petronas, the national oil company, which we advise on international legal matters; Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad, a major conglomerate that asked for our help in international business transactions; and Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the national power company, which we advise on international corporate matters

Assisted the Government of Kenya in connection with matters relating to elections, international assistance, counter-terrorism activities, and other issues of interest to the U.S. Government

As part of our global technology practice, we helped a prominent Saudi businessman and royal-family member structure and negotiate the first international joint venture for telemedicine in the Middle East. As a result, Saudi hospitals will have online access to state-of-the-art medical knowledge and clinical practice in every field, from pediatrics to gerontology.

An innovative Swedish software company seeking equity investments from U.S. venture capital funds was challenged because many funds have charters prohibiting investment in non-U.S. companies. We solved the problem by helping our client create a corporate headquarters in the United States and convert its Swedish operation into a research, development and intellectual property subsidiary of the U.S. parent. This tax-free reorganization enabled the new U.S. parent company to consummate a significant private placement with U.S. venture capital funds.

Our lawyers were counsel for Nicaragua in its historic legal triumph over the United States at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The court issued a landmark ruling that U.S. mining of Nicaragua’s ports and support for rebels seeking to overthrow the Nicaraguan Government violated international law. The United States was ordered to cease its aggression against Nicaragua. Uganda also chose us to represent it before the court, in a case filed against it by the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We were counsel in a billion-dollar merger that created a Luxembourg-based, multinational cellular telephone company, and one of the cellular industry’s first international data and financial clearinghouses. We also helped a Luxembourg-chartered, satellite-based broadband Internet and interactive digital television company with a successful private placement involving high-profile U.S. and European investors.

Represented the Government of Uganda before the International Court of Justice in a case brought by Congo

When the euro became the European Union’s official currency, the Government of France turned to Foley Hoag for a legal opinion on the impact of a single European currency on public and private contracts governed by U.S. law

A client asked us to create a new investment vehicle to operate and manage renewable forestry assets in New Zealand. Because the investors were tax-exempt pension funds and university endowments, our international team had to devise a multi-layered structure using offshore vehicles in the British Virgin Islands, which avoided taxation by any country. The result was hundreds of millions of dollars in forestry investments in New Zealand.

Represented the Government of Guyana in an expedited arbitration relating to an investment dispute in connection with the privatization of the country’s electricity sector

On behalf of Philippine coconut oil exporters, our international team lobbied successfully to defeat measures in the U.S. Congress and the Food and Drug administration that would have restricted our clients' access to the U.S. market. Our team's lobbying for the governments of Uganda, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Guyana, among others, helped increase U.S. economic and security assistance by many millions of dollars.

On behalf of a large multinational petroleum company, we prepared a seminal human rights impact assessment on a proposed facility in Papua, Indonesia. The assessment included a risk analysis of issues related to human and labor rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, security, transparency and the environment. The company adopted our recommendations and set the industry standard for best corporate practices.

On behalf of a multinational client with a famous consumer trademark and operating and holding companies around the globe, we devised a corporate reorganization strategy to centralize control and enhance the value of its intellectual property, while reducing costs and minimizing taxes. Our strategy included the assignment and licensing of patents, trademarks in more than 100 countries.

Among the many U.S. clients we helped launch in China is the world’s largest trade journal publisher. We helped our client structure a range of strategic initiatives, starting with investments in Chinese publishing companies, and building joint ventures and licensing arrangements to publish and distribute Chinese versions of popular Western fashion, business, trade, technical and media journals. In addition, we have represented major investment funds and target companies alike in closing millions of dollars in investments in emerging technologies being developed and marketed in China.

When the African Development Bank (ADB), based in Cote d'Ivoire, sought legal advice about its participation in a new venture capital fund for private investments in Africa, it retained Foley Hoag to structure and negotiate the transaction. The ADB also asked us to advise its board on privatization and law reform in Africa.

A large U.S. bank asked us to help it capitalize on the wealth of software talent in India by creating an Indian company to develop financial services software. We negotiated a joint-venture agreement for the bank with a major U.S. computer manufacturer and local Indian partners. The joint venture financed the new software company with a $100 million investment.

When our client sought to restructure its worldwide cellular telephone holdings, we devised a cutting-edge tax structure. The structure included a cross-border triangular merger of a publicly traded U.S. cellular telephone company and a European affiliate that transferred direct ownership of the European affiliate's stock from the U.S. company to the latter's stockholders. This unlocked substantial shareholder value without imposing U.S. tax.

When the Government of Nicaragua sought to end a destructive civil war, it asked a member of our international team to help it negotiate with rebel forces. Our efforts contributed to an historic cease-fire agreement that led to rebel disarmament and Nicaragua’s first democratic elections. Our lobbying in Washington, D.C., helped the new government secure more than $200,000,000 in U.S. economic aid.

Researched and analyzed, on behalf of The World Bank Group, the corporate social responsibility codes of conduct of over 100 different companies in five different industry sectors operating in Vietnam, El Salvador, the Philippines, and Angola

A U.S. publicly traded company acquired our client, a UK-based software company, in a transaction that gave our client’s stockholders illiquid stock. Our solution: a private tender in the United Kingdom by the acquirer of our client’s shares, followed by a series of secondary offerings in the United States resulting in more than $100 million in liquidity for our client’s stockholders.