French Client, German Court & You Speak Only English?, AIPPI

First presented by Richard P. Beem to the Association of Intellectual Property Protection International (AIPPI) U.S. Meeting, Washington, D.C., October 1998. Clients often call on American lawyers to conduct international patent litigation. The client typically is American, but with increasing frequency, both the client and the forum are outside the United States. The principles of effective advocacy transcend language, national borders, and legal systems. As a member of an international litigation team, the American lawyer can and should make a substantive contribution through knowledge of the facts, the client, the technology, and the industry. But even more than this, the American lawyer can supply needed skills in the preparation of the case, using the principles of effective advocacy to present a compelling story to the court.