International Law
CLG’s attorneys have over 25 years of combined experience in a wide range of China-related matters. CLG regularly advises international companies, financial institutions and investors conducting business throughout mainland China. We also represent Chinese companies with their global investment activities, cross-border mergers and acquisitions and overseas capital markets transactions, including corporate and project financing, alternative public offerings, energy & alternative energy projects, private placements, IPOs and other public offerings, and going private transactions.
CLG attorneys have extensive connections to the investment banks, hedge funds and private equity and venture capital firms that are actively engaged in transactions related to China. We have attorneys and support staff that are fluent in Mandarin and English.
Clients benefit from our intimate knowledge of the local marketplace as well as the broad resources of the law firm’s global network. Our firm offers a full range of integrated services to Chinese clients in the U.S., including corporate, securities, business and immigration matters. We are able to fully support Chinese companies in establishing U.S. operations, from inception to entry into the U.S. capital markets and beyond. We can connect our Chinese clients to legal services in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Africa and elsewhere through our relationships with local counsel and consultants abroad. Through our SEC reporting and disclosure practice, we provide ongoing guidance to Chinese public companies regarding their disclosure and public reporting obligations under U.S. federal and state securities laws and stock exchange regulations. We counsel Chinese clients on capital markets transactions, including follow-on offerings, registered direct offerings, PIPEs, and private equity investments.
Key Practice Areas
CLG’s practice areas in mainland China include:
- Banking, Leveraged and Structured Finance
- Capital Markets
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Private Equity
- Energy and Alternative Energy
- Regulatory and Compliance
- SEC reporting and disclosure obligations (including periodic reports, proxy filings and beneficial ownership filings)
- Primary and secondary stock exchanges listings and OTC quotation, Rule 144 dispositions and legend removal
- Privatization and de-registration or “going dark” transactions
- International Trade Issues, including FCPA and CFIUS reviews
- EB-5 Investments and business visas
Asia Practice
CLG lawyers’ professional and personal experiences, knowledge of local laws, language capabilities and familiarity with the dynamic Asian business environment provide our clients with keen insight, informative perspective, practical know-how and exceptional legal service.
CLG’s Asian Practice focuses on foreign investment transactions and international trade issues including: mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure development, project finance and joint ventures.
International Tax
CLG represents both domestic and foreign clients for tax-efficient structuring of their cross-border transactions and operations, as well as international tax advocacy before Congress, the Treasury Department, the IRS, the courts, as well as foreign tax authorities.
CLG lawyers have decades of practical experience and a strong commitment to solving our clients’ complex problems with practical judgment, technical capability, professionalism, and integrity.
Our representative practice areas, include:
- Audit, Appeals, and Tax Litigation
- Compliance and Withholding Tax
- High-Net-Worth Individuals
- Investment Fund, Private Equity and Joint Ventures
- Strategic Transactions
- Tax Planning and Structuring
Immigration
Providing immigration assistance from many of our offices, we offer the international resources of a top-tier law firm and the specific skills of a dedicated immigration team.
Our interdisciplinary and collaborative relationship with other CLG practices—including Employee Benefits, Tax, and Business and Finance—allows us to deliver to clients the benefits of integrated legal resources across a broad spectrum of legal matters. We recognize the close connections between a multinational corporation’s immigration program and its other essential operations, including internal employment policies, corporate compliance and governance, and plans for expansion and corporate development.
The areas in which we provide support and counsel include:
- Inbound Visas and Permanent Residence
- H-1B Visas for temporary specialty workers
- EB-5 Visas for immigrant investors
- L-1A and L-1B Visas and Blanket L Petitions for intracompany transferees
- E-1 and E-2 Treaty Investor and Trader Visas
- O-1 Extraordinary Ability Visas for scientists, researchers and others
- Training visas
- TN-NAFTA Visas for Canadians and Mexicans
- H-2B Visas for temporary workers
- Consular processing of nonimmigrant and immigrant visas
- Labor certification
- Multinational managers and executives, extraordinary ability, and outstanding researchers visas
- National interest waiver
- Immigration Compliance
- Due diligence for immigration aspects of corporate change
- Auditing and government (ICE) investigations
- I-9 compliance
- Corporate immigration policy development and implementation
- Social Security no-match counseling
- Training
- Global Immigration Services
- Experience with key countries around the globe
- International employment law
- Program and policy development
- Keeping clients up to date about developments in immigration law
International Mergers and Acquisitions
CLG lawyers regularly handle M&A transactions domestically and across the globe in a wide variety of industries.
CLG has a strong presence in the United States, Europe and Asia. Our global platform, allows us to structure, negotiate, and implement highly complex cross-border transactions on behalf of our clients. Our M&A lawyers are supported on transactions throughout the world by other CLG lawyers who focus on tax, finance, securities, intellectual property, regulatory matters and other support areas.
U.S. EB-5 Investor Visa Transactions
The EB-5 Investor Visa program involves a number of diverse areas of the law and oftentimes extends well beyond the applicability of U.S. immigration law. Like any other complex financing transaction, an EB-5 financing or securities offering should be viewed as a sophisticated business transaction requiring strong legal counsel in the areas of securities, corporate and business structuring, international tax, broker-dealer and investment advisor compliance, investment financing and funding, immigration, and real estate law. Our lawyers routinely advise entrepreneurs, investment bankers, brokers, investment advisors, real estate developers, lenders, investment funds, and regional centers with respect to various components of the EB-5 Program and the transactions structured to comply with the EB-5 program. Our representation also includes the representation of foreign investors on their investments in the U.S. EB-5 program and related immigration matters and serve private companies and multinational corporations, and foreign executives in securing their temporary and permanent visas via their investment activities. We also assist in the structuring and establishment of regional centers under the EB-5 program, and in structuring securities offerings designed to comply with the requirements of the EB-5 program.
Because we have several domestic and international offices positioned globally in strategic locations and countries, we understand the cultural differences and many of our lawyers speak Mandarin and other foreign languages. We leverage our sophisticated corporate and business structuring, real estate, and investment financing and funding, tax, investment, broker-dealer and investment advisor compliance, and immigration law experience to help ensure that an entrepreneur’s financial interests are protected and that the requirements under U.S. immigrations laws are satisfied.
Entertainment & Media
In an entertainment world that increasingly values cross-media knowledge, CLG provides our clients with specialized expertise in virtually all industry areas, ranging from motion pictures, music publishers and producers, publishing companies and media distribution concerns. CLG has acted as production counsel to film producers and their production companies in connection with many short and feature length films, handling all aspects of and legal matters related to the production of a film, represented clients in production finance transactions, private placements for film projects, formation and structuring of film funds and film slate funds, distribution agreements, joint ventures, co-production agreements and co-investment agreements in the entertainment and media industries. CLG’s lawyers also handle negotiation and documentation of music licensing, production, distribution and publishing arrangements.
Selected Entertainment & Media Services:
- Production Financing (private placements, pre-sale arrangements)
- Film and music production legal counsel
- Film and music distribution agreements
- Film and music licensing agreements
- Publishing Agreements
- Talent loan-out arrangements
- Talent Agent & Artist Management Agreements
- Screen Actors Guild contracts
- Negotiation of film and music production & distribution agreements