Crowell & Moring Continues Its European Expansion in London and Brussels

London, Brussels and Washington, D.C. – March, 1 2004: Crowell & Moring announced today that its European expansion plans remain on track with recent hires from Jones Day, Weil Gotshal & Manges, and CMS Cameron McKenna, and the signing of a lease for new offices in London.

The new hires are in the international trade law and policy, competition and employment law fields. Each of these is a core practice area for Crowell & Moring and was identified for growth in the European Practice Plan developed by the firm's management law year.

Robert McLean joins as a partner from CMS Cameron McKenna, where he was head of that firm's Brussels office and international trade practice. Robert's expertise in anti-dumping, customs laws and unilateral and bilateral trade remedies will complement the existing capabilities of Crowell & Moring's international trade practice and C&M International, the firm's Washington-based international trade policy practice. Robert is listed as a recognised expert in EU and competition law in European Legal Experts (2003) and is recommended in the European Legal 500 for international trade law (2002 and 2003).

Jatinder Sandhu has joined as Counsel in the London office from Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He is a competition lawyer with extensive experience defending companies in inquiries by competition authorities. The addition of a further senior competition lawyer in Europe reflects Crowell & Moring's position of one of the premier antitrust practices in the United States. Crowell & Moring's antitrust clients include Alcoa, DuPont, Northwest Airlines, Nortel Networks, Sun Microsystems and United Technologies.

Michelle Haste joins as Counsel in London from Jones Day where, until that firm's merger with Gouldens, she was head of the employment law group. Michelle adds to Crowell & Moring existing employment law capabilities in London and Brussels, and provide a further pillar for the planned expansion of Crowell & Moring's transactional practice in London.

Michelle Haste is the third senior lawyer to join Crowell & Moring from Jones Day in London. Alison Crofts, who until the merger of Jones Day with Gouldens, was responsible for Jones Day's IP capability moved to Crowell & Moring in September 2003. Jane Wessel, a specialist in international arbitration, joined Crowell & Moring from Jones Day in December.

These hires follows Crowell & Moring's announcement last year that it plans to expand its practice in Europe by growing its offices in London and Brussels to 30 lawyers each.

On Friday, the firm signed a new lease for over 9,000 square feet of office space in Pilgrim Street EC4, where it will share the building with Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw.

"We are delighted to have attracted lawyers of the calibre of Robert, Jatinder and Michelle," said John Macleod, the firm's chairman. "This is a very exciting time for Crowell & Moring. We have been in Europe since 1991, and we are now achieving the momentum that we have been seeking. The international profile of our existing client base makes Europe a natural focus of our expansion efforts, and we are now making rapid progress to achieving our growth objectives in both London and Brussels. We took space to accommodate 30 lawyers in Brussels last year, and our new offices in the City will give us space for the same number of lawyers in London."

"These additions represent further important steps in getting us to where we want to be in Europe, and represent a natural extension of some of the firm's core areas of expertise in a European dimension," said Peter Teare, who heads Crowell & Moring's office in London. "Our business plan for Europe isn't particularly novel or complex. We are carefully building out the European platform in London and Brussels to provide our international clients with integrated, firm-wide practice groups of talented lawyers in each our core practice areas. We believe that we can continue to build on our record of successfully in cross-selling skills between our offices and clients," said Teare. He says that the firm is in continuing discussions with partners and teams.

Notes for editors

Crowell & Moring is an international law firm with offices in London, Brussels, Washington DC and Irvine, California. The Firm has over 300 lawyers worldwide. Crowell & Moring's London office was established in 1991 in response to the internationalization of the clients' activities and their growing focus on European markets. The continued expansion of the Firm's international practice and increased importance of the European Community institutions led to the opening of a Brussels office in 1999. The Firm's principal office is in Washington DC.

•  C&M International Ltd is Crowell & Moring's international trade and economic policy consulting affiliate based in Washington, DC. Crowell & Moring is unusual in the international trade field in that it combines a legal practice with a strong policy practice composed of a staff with extensive government experience in trade policy worldwide. C&M International is headed by Doral S. Cooper who held several key positions in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Executive Office of the President. C&M International provides international trade & economic policy counselling, international business strategy development, risk analysis services, policy and regulatory research services, negotiations management, policy advocacy and lobbying support services as well as general public outreach support.

• Robert Maclean is an expert in international trade law and policy, and EU competition law. He is heavily involved in litigation before the European Court of First Instance on trade-related matters with a high degree of success. His main areas of expertise are anti-dumping law, anti-subsidy law, customs law, unilateral and bilateral trade remedies as well as market access strategies. Robert gained his LL.B (1985) degree from the University of Glasgow in his native Scotland and his LLM (1988) from the University of Alberta in Canada. He also holds a PhD (1996) from the University of Glasgow. Robert is a solicitor with the Law Society of Scotland and has been admitted as an EU lawyer with the French order of the Brussels Bar. Robert is listed as a recognised expert in EU and competition law in European Legal Experts (2003) and is recommended in the European Legal 500 for international trade law (2002 and 2003).

• Jatinder Sandhu is a competition lawyer with a wide range of experience before regulatory agencies and courts in the EU and UK. He specialises in counselling companies on distribution, technology licensing, research and development, and related matters under EU and UK competition laws, and defending companies involved in regulatory inquiries. In addition, he also advises companies on regulatory reviews of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, and has assisted countless companies in complying with the requirements of merger notification laws around the world.

• Michelle Haste specialises in labour and employment law. She has experience in a broad range of both contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. She has particular expertise in the termination of senior executives. Michelle has significant experience in the conduct of Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunals proceedings ranging from unfair dismissal claims to complex discrimination cases. Michelle was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales in 1991 and has a Masters Degree in Law and Industrial Relations. Michelle is a regular speaker at seminars and conferences and is a frequent contributor to various publications on topical employment law issues.

• Crowell & Moring is in the process of executing an ambitious expansion plan in Europe. That plan, developed by the firm management in August 2003, calls for the firm to grow its European practice to 60 lawyers in London and Brussels. The firm will be moving to new offices in the City of London that are approximately three times the size of its current space. The firm took on offices of a similar size in Brussels in February 2002.

• According to its own associates, Crowell & Moring is an unusually nice place to work. The firm likes ducks, and does not tolerate big egos. In a survey last year by the American Lawyer among associates at large US law firms, Crowell & Moring was ranked No.1 for Firm Atmosphere. In this survey, comments included "Lifestyle firm. Concerned for its people and the community. Laid-back and family-friendly. Accommodates many types of work arrangements."

• Crowell & Moring counts 36 of the world's largest companies (as measured by the Wall Street Journal) among its current clients. Firm clients for which Crowell & Moring does work in both the United States and Europe include Lockheed Martin, Nortel Networks Corporation, Caterpillar, Inc., United Technologies Corporation, MoneyGram, SBC Communications, Alcoa Inc., Northwest Airlines, Inc., and Boeing.

Crowell & Moring LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 300 attorneys committed to solving legal problems and providing business solutions effectively and efficiently. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices in Brussels, California, and London. Many of the firm's attorneys have served in federal agencies or on Capitol Hill and customarily combine their litigation, legislative and regulatory policy skills to address issues of national and international importance.