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Free Trade Area of the Americas
Inside game
Local lawyers found dozens of opportunities to try to impress foreign business leaders in Florida for FTAA talks
November 24, 2003
By Matthew Haggman
While trade ministers and protesters stole the headlines during the Free Trade Area of Americas talks in Miami last week, dozens of South Florida attorneys toiled behind the scenes —formally and informally — to promote free trade and the city of Miami.
Law firms spent thousands of dollars and sacrificed countless billable hours as their lawyers worked all week — and in the weeks leading up to the conference — helping to organize the event and serving on policy committees that made recommendations to trade ministers from 34 nations.
It was an insider role that is certain to pay dividends for law firm clients in the future — clients who have a stake in how the FTAA treaty ultimately will take shape.
“The only people who made money this week were those who sold tear gas, riot gear and hotel rooms,” said Eduardo Palmer, chair of Steel Hector & Davis’ international litigation and arbitration practice group. “Instead, this was an opportunity to make contacts with those in international trade so in the future, if the FTAA does materialize and they need legal help, they will think of you.”
The firms contributed to both FTAA Miami, the group that staged the event, and to Florida FTAA, the group promoting Miami to host the secretariat. And they orchestrated public and private receptions with ministers and business leaders in an effort to build relationships and lobby for treaty provisions.
Hunton & Williams, White & Case and Steel Hector & Davis all ranked among the largest private donors supporting the conference. Seven of the 11 Americas Business Forum workshops were presided over by local attorneys. Two of the six people on the ABF technical committee were Miami lawyers. Although he is not a lawyer, Luis Lauredo, the executive director of the ABF and ministerial, is employed as an international consultant in the Miami office of Hunton & Williams.
“From the very beginning, lawyers have been one of the three most numerous and active business sectors promoting the secretariat,” said Hugh Simon, a Coral Gables business consultant who was formerly undersecretary of state for international affairs in Florida. He said the two others were banks and international couriers, like FedEx.
Attorneys said their involvement was driven by public service. But more often than not it centered on making an impact on the contents of the treaty and, in particular, having an opportunity to generate business in the future.
That future involves a potential 34-nation trade bloc that would stretch from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Although ministers left town with only a general framework in place for a treaty, they did keep the FTAA process alive, a prospect that could bode well for legal professionals with trans-national contacts.
During the last decade, several Miami law firms have built practice groups and reorganized their firms with the hope that increased legal work will come to Miami as it becomes a more important economic crossroads in the Americas.
Virginia-based Hunton & Williams opened an office in Miami three years ago. Last year, White & Case moved a trade lawyer from its Mexico City office to Miami with the intention of building a trade practice here. Both Steel Hector & Davis and Ferrell Schultz Carter & Fertel have opened offices throughout the Americas.
Such strategies would pay off if the FTAA is enacted, attorneys said, and more so if the permanent secretariat and dispute settlement arm of the trade bloc are located in Miami.
Michael J. Buchenhorner, a partner at Holland & Knight in Miami who specializes in intellectual property, said he decided to serve as vice rapporteur in the intellectual property workshop of the ABF for two days because participating was a way to ensure that IP gets fair treatment in the treaty. He also wanted to help the process toward creating an FTAA. He said the creation of the FTAA will boost his practice in Miami — regardless of whether a secretariat is located here.
“Most of my clients are not in the area. I would like to have more clients here,” Buchenhorner said. He added that having a hand in the ABF’s recommendations to the ministers was a “rare opportunity to get involved in the treaty process.”
David Bond, a partner with White & Case in Miami who served as vice rapporteur in the agriculture workshop, said the benefit of participating in the ABF was that “being part of the debate is relevant to our clients.”
Three of the largest law firm donors — Steel Hector & Davis, White & Case and Hunton & Williams — had the largest contingent of attorneys serving as rapporteurs or vice rapporteurs. They were responsible for leading the conferences and making the recommendations. Combined, the three firms filled six of 22 positions.
Carl Cira, director the ABF technical committee who chose the rapporteurs and vice rapporteurs, said financial contributions had no bearing on the selection of workshop leaders. Instead, he said, he sought attorneys with expertise in the area of concern for each workshop.
“I had no idea who was contributing what and was never asked to put anyone as vice rapporteur on any criteria other than the one I was using,” said Cira, who heads the Summit of the Americas Center at Florida International University.
Meanwhile, large contingents of attorneys were hired to advocate positions on behalf of clients in each of the workshops in hopes of having their clients’ recommendations forwarded to the ministers.
Shanker A. Singham, a partner at Steel Hector & Davis in Miami, led an eight-member team that included an economist, marketing professional and diplomat who moved between each of the 11 workshops.
Armed with 100-page briefs on each workshop topic, the team members attended meetings with a Blackberry and cell phone to relay what was being discussed in each venue. When a topic important to a client was being discussed, Singham had several members of his group rush into the workshop to argue a particular issue.
“When trying to win a point,” Singham said, “it is sometimes useful to have people with different skill sets to make these points. An economist, for example, might be particularly useful to make a very specific economic point.”
Singham said his group would start with a 7 a.m. strategy session each morning and meet at every break thereafter. He said the strategy succeeded in changing “virtually every discussion.”
But many firms eschewed the ABF and sought to build relationships and to lobby for treaty provisions by meeting privately with ministers.
“We thought it would be much more effective to do it in one-on-one small groups,” said Cesar L. Alvarez, chief executive officer and chairman of Greenberg Traurig in Miami, “to deepen relationships that we already have and for them to see that they are important to us.”
Milton Ferrell, the chairman of Ferrell Schultz Carter & Fertel, said his firm did not participate in the ABF but did conduct a half-dozen lunches and breakfasts. He also hosted the Argentine delegation at his firm on the eve of the conference.
Some firms didn’t play any role. Hogan & Hartson, for example, a leading international firm that launched a Latin America practice in Miami two years ago, decided to have virtually no presence at the conference. Miguel A. Zaldivar Jr., a partner at Hogan & Hartson, said that was because the firm runs its trade practice out of Washington, D.C., and Brussels, not Miami.
“In March, we ran a workshop for Latin American ambassadors on the FTAA in Washington,” Zaldivar said. “Unless Miami is chosen as the city that will be hosting the FTAA, we will continue to run our trade practice from D.C. and Brussels.”
But most firms in South Florida saw a distinct advantage in becoming involved with the FTAA process in Miami.
“If you are well-placed, you will automatically end up with at least a proportionate share of business,” Alvarez said, “if not a disproportionate share of business.”
Matthew Haggman can be reached at mhaggman@floridabiz.com or at (305) 347-6649.
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