Registration for Corporate and M&A and Insolvency Winter Seminar will open very soon... stay tuned!
In the meantime, let's look back at the Joint M&A and Arbitration Winter Seminar held from 25 to 28 January 2023 in Davos, Switzerland.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The seminar at a glance
AIJA started 2023 with a spectacular joint winter seminar in the center of the marvelous Alps in Davos, Switzerland, offering an exceptional stay in the Swiss mountains, including skiing, Swiss cheese fondue, night sledging, après ski and party in well-known AIJA-style. As one of the first events every year, the winter seminar marks one of the highlights of AIJA's annual event calendar and was – almost immediately – sold-out with a capped total number of 140 participants.
The conference was organised by an enthusiastic and dedicated Organising Committee comprising of Cinzia Catelli, Michelle Lindholm, Philip Exenberger (members of the International Arbitration Commission), Martina Edlinger, Michael Eitle, Romain Franzetti and Philip Rosenauer (members of the Corporate / M&A Commission) supported by the M&A Commission officers Marie Brasseur and Rainer Kaspar as well as the International Arbitration Commission officers Giovanni Angles, Lukas Rusch and Dirk Wiegandt, and the tireless AIJA team member Mihrican Kaya Pelckmans.
Welcome Reception – Wednesday, 25 January 2023
The seminar got off to a great start in the bar of the Posthotel Davos, located in the center of the world-famous mountain town. Many participants arrived in time for the welcome drinks, which brought lots of laughter, happy faces, and lively conversation.
The welcome drinks were followed by dinners in smaller groups at various restaurants, with the opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones thanks to the random grouping of participants by the Organising Committee.
After dinner, many gathered at the famous Ex Bar to end the evening with great drinks and good music.
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Thursday, 26 January 2023 The academic session on Friday started with a warm welcome from Moritz Maurer, AIJA President, and continued with a lively workshop led by Jurgen Rismondo, Bosch. Mr. Rismondo guided the participants through a business game simulation where all attendants were divided into teams and had to run their own company getting a practical overview of how a business is managed. The game was a true lawyers’ contest where participants put their minds to the test in building-up strategies, taking risks, analysing and dealing with the results of their decisions. The simulation provided legal practitioners with the commercial aspect of a deal, and which are the business figures to be taken into account in M&A transactions. |
Friday, 27 January 2023
On Friday, the academic sessions took place at Chalet Güggel on Jakobshorn, where participants enjoyed a scenic view of the surrounding mountains.
Each commission, the Corporate and M&A and the International Arbitration Commissions, analysed critical issues on the governance of joint venture companies and how to avoid and get out of deadlock situations during the first and limitation and insurance of exposure during the second panel.
On the M&A track, Judith Hasler (Ospelt & Partner Attorneys at Law Ltd, Liechtenstein) moderated the first panel. Andreas Müller (Homburger AG, Switzerland), Jean-Bernard Spinoit (Elvinger Hoss Prussen, Luxemburg) and Matteo Vernizzi (SAT Studio Legale, Italy) sat as speakers. Roman Graf (Lenz & Staehelin, Switzerland) moderated the second panel with Roman Gültlinger (FTI Consulting, Germany) and Ragnar Gundersen Koffeld (Haavind, Norway) as speakers.
On the Arbitration track, Eline Verelst (Laurius, Belgium) moderated the first panel. Eleni Skoufari (Zepos & Yannopoulos, Greece) and Sophie Püschel-Arnold (Walder Wyss Attorneys at Law, Switzerland) sat as speakers. Jens Stadtmüller (Stadtmüller Dispute Consulting, Germany) moderated the second panel. Alice Fremuth-Wolf (Nivalion, Austria) and Natalia Kabacińska (WKB, Poland) participated as speakers.
The sessions ended with a lunch at the Chalet Güggel and thereafter participants could hit the slopes and enjoy a sunny afternoon in the snow.
In the evening, all participants had a fabulous dinner at the Pöstli Grill. Afterwards, there was a party at the famous Pöstli Club in Davos.
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Saturday, 28 January 2023
On Saturday morning a crowded room welcomed Dr. Hansjörg Schwartz (negotiation trainer) supported by Christopher Jünger (Wolf Theiss, Austria) and Christoffer Mangelus (Advokatfirman Delphi i Göteborg KB, Sweden). The panel started with highlighting critical issues in SPA negotiations, interactively figuring out the rationale behind a successful negotiation for both parties (without giving up the own party's interest), which strategies may be used in negotiations, and what skills are needed from the negotiator him-/herself in order to reach those goals for the client.
The panel also comprised of separate sessions, where small groups of people had to negotiate for their clients in a sample case. In a nutshell, each group's client had different interests in (i.e., differently rated the importance of) specific subject matters underlying the negotiation. The sum of successfully negotiated subject matters (in total 100 points could have been achieved, if the opponent would have given up all positions of the own client) in favour of the client was afterwards reviewed. After reaching a balanced and mutually beneficial agreement for their clients, the participants had another remarkable sunny day on the slopes for skiing, sledging and snowboarding during the afternoon until we jointly took the gondola up to Jschalp, a mountain chalet at Jakobshorn, for a topnotch closing party |
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