Archived news

It is perhaps the world's best known international aerospace exhibition held every other year where all of the aviation industry meets. ELC as a prominent law firm on aviation issues, will be there to meet and discuss with industry leaders and analysts all new issues and aviation related matters and products.

Our firm, one of the founding members of this Forum gathering some of world's most prestigious plaintiff law firms and academics is proud to be participating at this fall's Forum with three of its attorneys in attendance.

Pre-eminent Magistrates, University professors and attorneys from all over the world (From Indonesia to Panama, from North to South America and from China to Europe) will exchange opinions and share experiences on the evolution of a globalized legal system and on most recent trends of our legal profession.

We were most pleased to welcome in our offices here in Athens two international trainees: Mrs. Edith Galissaire from the University of Toulouse was with us for two and a half months from the end of February to the beginning of May 2008 working on international cases mainly dealing on competition law issues. She was followed by Mrs. Miléna Boileau from Grenoble University who stayed with us until the end of June researching on topics of applicability of European law on commercial representation issues. Both trainees proved to be excellent collaborators on scientific as well as on personal level and have significantly contributed on their topics. We were very glad to have Mrs. Galissaire and Mrs. Boileau here and wish them all the best on their future endeavors.

March 1st, 2007 saw the introduction of increases in the assessed values for real estate properties. These increases average about 15% but in some rural or provincial areas they exceed 40%. Transfer taxes based on assessed values are consequently being increased, but additional tax allowances call for careful planning. Our well briefed real estate specialist lawyers would be happy to provide you with complimentary important information on those developments.

Switzerland has been under pressure lately to alter its favourable taxation status on Swiss holding companies which often hold participation in EU companies while they fully benefit from all double taxation agreements between EU members and Bern. An agreement has been reached recently and this favourable Swiss legal structure will continue. These are not offshore companies, they dispose of share capital and their Swiss taxation is fully acknowledged by Greek and other EU authorities.

On the first week of March 2007 a trade fair of a particular interest to Greece has opened its doors in Berlin, Germany. India is the honoured country of this year's world's largest tourist event but Greece displayed very interesting proposals through an aggressive yet well organized approach. As tourism continues on an upward trend, there are still interesting infrastructure opportunities with EU and national subsidies reaching 60% of the value of the project. Our considerable experience on European subsidies in tourism infrastructure can be a valuable tool for anyone interested to enter this well established yet still (cautiously) promising sector of activities.

The EU directive on commercial representation provides important indemnities for unlawful termination of local representatives. In a major case where a prejudicial ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities was requested, our offices proposed the establishment of a clear distinction between a dependent representative and a distributor, a line that can not always be easily traced, often bearing uncertainty. In the absence of similar trends in European case law, the outcome of this case is been expected with considerable interest from legal circles across Europe.

A very fruitful cooperation has been established some time ago between our offices and one of Austria's top legal addresses the office of Lansky, Ganzger and Partner boosting over 70 lawyers and specialists in Vienna. Now both sides have decided to intensify this cooperation and to jointly organize events in Athens and Vienna. Emphasis will be given on the promotion of comprehensive legal services covering the needs of both countries from minor civil law cases to major corporate movements; be it commercial transactions or financing, mergers and acquisitions. The first of these events is expected to be carried out sometime soon, so please stay tuned.

Arts altogether continue to expand on popularity but these tend to concentrate in the case of paintings on some classics or more simplistic popular themes. We highly value this form of expression and we are pleased to announce for 2007 a permanent arts exhibition in our offices. Therefore from March to December 2007 there will be no less than three such exhibitions in painting and sculpture of well established international artists starting this time with original paintings in various themes of J. Suter, C. Pajon and D.K. These paintings have added a pleasant well being factor to our redesigned offices by American interior designer L. Jackson.

The Global Justice Forum this year took place in the Eternal city in mid-May which saw the gathering of some of the world's most prominent plaintiff attorneys. Amongst this year's interesting topics was the focus on plaintiff practices on international transportation related accidents and on liabilities around the globe from Brazil to the Middle East, Australia the UK and China. The event was hosted by San Francisco's Lieff Global, one of world's top plaintiff attorneys. There were only two Greek law firms participating at this year's important event. We were represented by Evi Routoula and Costas Kokkinos. Mr. Kokkinos was among the speakers on the second day of the Forum and his stand of networking of international law firms received many positive comments from the participants. On the aftermath of the Forum our office had the honor to be proposed as one of the founding charter members of a prominent network of plaintiff attorneys worldwide.