Our vision
To be successful in today’s fast-paced, highly competitive and constantly evolving environment, companies need to act fast, be innovative, and think globally. Likewise, they expect their lawyers to be current with today’s priorities: to be agile, creative, and to offer globalized solutions.
Our firm has taken the measure of this new paradigm
- We come from the technology sector: we are used to the pace and intensity of fast-moving industries
- Our technology legal services enable us to meet our clients’ business needs in a creative and solutions-based manner
- The combination of our dual U.S. and EU qualification as lawyers and our many years of professional experience in both the EU and the U.S. puts us in the best position to support and advise our clients in their international growth strategy.
When Stephan Grynwajc, Managing Partner of the firm, relocated to NY from London in the summer of 2011, he started engaging with the local start up and SME community in NY and very quickly realized that there was an unmet need for legal expertise in EU law to be provided from the U.S.. Many U.S.-based companies, particularly smaller companies without a presence in the EU from which to retain and instruct local counsel, couldn’t afford to retain the services of a local EU lawyer at a large international firm, nor did they feel comfortable engaging with foreign lawyers they couldn’t meet in person.
At the same time many of these companies, particularly technology companies, SaaS vendors, application developers and providers of e/m-commerce solutions, were interested in exploring the possibility of reaching out to customers, suppliers and partners in the EU. It became clear that there was a need for such foreign legal services to be provided from the U.S., and that a smaller law firm would be better able to offer more cost-effective and agile services than a large law firm with foreign offices.
Stephan also met with a large number of French and other European entrepreneurs, both in Europe and in the U.S., who either had not yet made the decision to open an office in the U.S. and needed some advice as to the best way to approach and establish a legal and business presence in the U.S. market, or who had already moved to the U.S. and needed help with localizing and negotiating their contracts with U.S.-based partners and customers under U.S. law. It became clear to Stephan that these entrepreneurs felt more comfortable engaging with a lawyer who spoke their language, understood where they were coming from, and was therefore in a better position to align their legal needs with their business goals.
Stephan is admitted as a lawyer in the EU (France and England & Wales), the U.S., and Canada. Following a 20 year career as a private and in-house practitioner in France, the UK and the U.S., he decided to open his own practice, first in London and, since 2011, in New York.