Finance Monthly Global Awards 2018 Edition

AGENCY & DISTRIBUTION LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR Contact Dr. Lauri Railas Railas Attorneys Ltd. Salomonkatu 5 C 00100 Helsinki Finland Tel +358 (0)207 348 654 Gsm +358 (0)50 560 6604 Fax +358 (0)207 348 651 Email lauri@railas.fi Areas of Expertise • International trade, including agency and distribution • Transport, logistics and digitization • Insurance • EU law • Dispute resolution including arbitration About Dr. Lauri Railas Dr. Lauri Railas is an attorney specializing mostly in international trade, transport and insurance. His work consists to a large extent of advising clients in concluding contracts such as contracts of sale, agency and distribution. Lauri also helps his clients in their relations with authorities and litigates or arbitrates disputes on their behalf. Lauri has gained experience in drafting contracts by participating in the preparation of many international model contracts including already the first version of the ICC Model International Sale Contract which was published in 1997. Lauri was also part of the group having drafted the ICC Model Anti-Corruption Clause 2012. Lauri has a versatile background for an agency & distributorship lawyer. In 1999, Lauri was the secretary of the Council of the European Union competition law working party having set the stage for vertical restrictions by the co called enabling legislation for the European Commission to issue block exemptions. Lauri has been the national expert for Finland of the International Distribution Institute (IDI) which is an international association for distribution lawyers. Lauri has prepared and regularly updated national reports for Finland of agency and distributorship law. Very recently, IDI established, together with the Swiss Arbitration Institute, an international list of recommended distribution law arbitrators. Lauri is one among the recommended lawyers. Lauri has also experience in arbitrating antitrust issues. Lauri started his career as a marine insurance lawyer in the 1980s. Transport and logistics have been another facet of Lauri´s career ever since. Lauri was one of the eight members of the Incoterms ® 2010 international drafting group. Lauri has also negotiated the Nordic NSAB 2015 freight forwarding conditions on behalf of the national clients of logistics services. In 2015, Lauri was appointed as the Average Adjuster in Finland. This is a statutory semi-judiciary position to settle marine insurance disputes and rendering binding calculations in general averages. Parallel to his practical work in international organizations for over a decade between 1991 and 2002, Lauri did post graduate studies which led to a doctorate at the University of Helsinki in 2004. The topic deals with the digitization of international trade including trade finance. Lauri has continued to publish books and articles reaching many countries and organizations. In the latter part of his career, Lauri has been increasingly engaged with teaching activities at universities, in Finland and abroad. Lauri is a Docent in Civil Law at the University of Helsinki, which is close to the competence of a law professor. Lauri became a member of the Finnish Bar Association in 2005. Over the last years, Lauri has chaired the insurance and torts law committee of the association. Also in 2005, Lauri initiated the establishment of the ICC Task Force on Public Procurement and has served as its co-chair since then with one year off. The Task Force lobbies internationally on public procurement issues and provides practical tools for businesses. Currently, the Task Force is in process of publishing a guide on offset contracts together with a specialized organization in the field (ECCO). Firm Profile Railas Attorneys Ltd. was established only three years ago. It is active mainly in international trade law, maritime and transport law as well as insurance. EU law, including public procurement and competition law are also our strengths as is IT law. The firm is of course very much like its owner, who is assisted by a couple of legal trainees, the other currently finalizing his legal studies in Spain. Much of the work consists of advising clients by writing contracts, giving legal risk assessments or producing memos on issues of concern to the clients. The other part consists of dispute settlement. Dr. Lauri Railas settles business disputes himself as an arbitrator in commercial cases and as the Average Adjuster in Finland (being an independent statutory function in Finland not run under the umbrella of the firm), by issuing expert statements and interpretations of contract or insurance terms. We also represent clients as a counsel in litigations and arbitrations. Although Lauri is the only attorney in the firm, we can handle a broad specter of issues thanks Lauri´s long and multidimensional professional experience. In international trade law, we take care of both contractual and regulatory cases, the latter including export controls and competition. During its three years of existence, Railas Attorneys has served clients in both private and public sectors and clients have come from a dozen of different countries. We are fluent in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish and Finnish. Finance Monthly Global Awards 2017 www.finance-monthly.com 18 FINLAND