2nd IBA Virtual Entrepreneurship Conference

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Slawomir Uss
SK&S (Soltysinski, Kawecki & Szlezak), Warsaw; Vice Chair, Central Regional Group European Regional Forum
slawomir.uss@skslegal.pl

Tuesday 23 March – 1700–1815 GMT

Lead committee – IBA Closely Held and Growing Business Enterprises Committee

Supporting committees – IBA European Regional Forum, IBA Latin American Regional Forum, IBA Women Lawyers’ Interest Group, IBA Corporate and M&A Committee, IBA Law Firm Management Committee, IBA Technology Committee and IBA Young Lawyers’ Committee.

Session two: The next normal in deal doing and lawyering – virtual table workshops 

Co-chairs:

• Andreas Kloyer  Luther, Frankfurt; European Regional Forum Liaison Officer, IBA Closely Held and Growing Business Enterprises Committee
• Sajai J Singh  Sagar Associates, Bangalore; Chair, IBA Technology Law Committee

Session moderators:

• Hin Han Shum  Squire Patton Boggs Central, Hong Kong; Asia Pacific Regional Forum Liaison officer young Lawyers’ Committee

Participants:

• David Thomas Azrin  Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, New York
• Ignacio Lacasa Valls  Across Legal SLP, Barcelona
• Luciana Tornovsky  Damarest Advogados, São Paulo; Secretary, IBA Closely Held and Growin Business Enterprises Committee
• Sandeep Mehta  J Sagar Associates, Mumbai
• Sergio Eguiguren  Barros & Errazuriz, Santiago
• Stefan Artner  DORDA Rechtsanwaelte GmbH, Vienna
• Stefan Bais  AKD Benelux Lawyers, Rotterdam

World going online: digitalisation in litigation

In Hong Kong digitalisation became an everyday thing for the litigator – court hearings conducted online and over the phone.

In the Netherlands there are still in-person court hearings and the full digitalisation of litigation is not round the corner yet.

In Poland some of the court hearings are conducted online, but it is not an everyday occurrence. The courts have such an opportunity, but the use of it depends on a particular judge.

In India there has been a significant slowdown in courts: before the pandemic there were like 20 matters a day, now only three to four cases per day.

Digitalisation in M&A

In Brazil, transactions went into full digital mode. This resulted in much faster negotiations – regular in-person negotiations would add at least two additional weeks until signing.

In India, more and more transactions have been accepted electronically – no more pre-signing / pre-closing meetings.

Digital signatures are also recognised in Austria, but closings right now are less personal, no glass of champagne, no face-to-face congratulations to the client. This remark was agreed to by all the speakers: all of us miss the real closing, the closing dinner, allowing for a real interaction with the client.

There have been good experiences of online transactions in Spain. The way closings look right now is that everybody sits at home, with just two persons at the notary office acting based on powers of attorney.

In the United States, electronic signatures were in place already before the pandemic and there is no need for notarisation of agreements – email closings occurred also before.

We agreed people are much more accessible right now and it is easier to reach them – all it takes is the ‘teams invitation’, which is not necessarily a win-win situation. Everything now functions thanks to technology and all is happening even faster than before.

Pandemic winners

• Austria: data protection practice
• Hong Kong: increase of cybercrime related work
• India: e-commerce – valuations goes up concerning anything connected to technology, and data centers are a gamechanger
• Poland: e-commerce and online services
• The Netherlands: e-commerce – privacy compliance (which triggers questions related to on-line platforms privacy issues).

To sum up, it has been a challenging year: we all miss in person meetings with clients, other parties and the IBA.

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