Our public policy and law team includes bipartisan lawyers and policy professionals with 500 years of combined experience in federal and state government and are involved in all stages of the policy life cycle.

With the depth of experience and global reach of our public policy practice, we are well-positioned to help clients efficiently and effectively through a full range of legal and policy advocacy services. This includes representing client interests at the federal level as well as in the states of Pennsylvania, Texas, and North Carolina, and in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

We regularly help clients in:

• Engaging on development and implementation of regulations
• Getting an interpretation of a law from agencies
• Advocating for client interests on legislative matters
• Obtaining permits, licenses, or other regulatory approvals
• Handling congressional and agency investigations

Our securities and transactional litigation team includes nearly 100 lawyers in the United States, London, and Asia who litigate all phases of civil disputes arising out of business combinations, asset and share purchases, corporate finance transactions, public offerings, and disclosure requirements. We represent issuers, acquirers, targets, investment advisers, investment companies, senior management, directors, trustees, purchasers, and sellers. Our practice is a natural and seamless complement to our M&A, capital markets, and investment management/hedge fund practices.

We represent both buyers and sellers in pre- and post-closing disputes and have extensive experience litigating and advising on securities and transactional matters. We also regularly defend federal securities class actions and derivative actions brought under state law. In addition, we undertake internal investigations for clients confronted with allegations of wrongdoing, including serving as counsel to special litigation committees of boards of directors in connection with shareholder demands.

The firm’s preeminent consumer financial services team, located throughout the United States along with a growing presence in the United Kingdom, includes government analysts, lawyers, regulatory compliance analysts, and government affairs advisors. Our team’s unique blend of consumer financial experience and close collaboration across practices enhances our ability to assist clients in negotiating transactions, providing regulatory counseling, defending clients in litigation or government enforcement actions, and advocating on public policy matters.

Our team is committed to educating clients on intricate areas of the law and regulations. We provide timely industry analyses and updates by hosting webinars and in-house conferences and publishing client alerts, articles, and blog posts.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars U.S. persons from bribing overseas officials to obtain or retain business, has become a top priority among U.S. law enforcement authorities and a source of concern for clients around the world.

The firm’s FCPA/anti-corruption team includes more than 30 lawyers that provide a full range of advice on complicated matters surrounding the enforcement of anti-corruption measures and the potential for severe criminal penalties. We regularly help clients in:

• Developing anti-corruption compliance programs and conducting training for company personnel.
• Advising on the legality of proposed transactions.
• Conducting due diligence on agents and sales representatives who act on behalf of our clients.
• Conducting due diligence on FCPA and anti-corruption issues in connection with corporate mergers and acquisitions.
• Defending companies and individuals under investigation for potential violations of these laws. 

Governments at all levels and around the world are taking an increasingly proactive role with the private sector. Economic stimulus measures adopted during the recession are giving way to budget and program cutting to deal with burgeoning deficits. To help inform our clients of these major changes, K&L Gates' Global Government Solutions® 2012 Annual Outlook offers insight on some of the most consequential government actions around the world.

With more than 30 government-related practice disciplines, our Global Government Solutions® team brings together a uniquely powerful set of capabilities for dealing with governments around the world. We serve client needs in the increasing number of areas in which government impacts commerce and finance, including legislative/public policy; international trade; government contracts and procurement; taxation; IP procurement and portfolio management ; government enforcement; internal investigations; litigation; rule-making; and technology transactions and data protection.

Our international arbitration practice has more than 80 lawyers spread across our global footprint, including our offices in the world’s leading arbitration centers. The team includes members of the insurance coverage and construction and engineering practices, both of which have extensive experience in international arbitrations. We have had partners serving as party-appointed arbitrators in arbitrations seated in locations around the globe such as Singapore, Tokyo, Paris, Brussels, London, and the Ivory Coast.

K&L Gates’ arbitration lawyers are regularly retained by some of the world's leading companies on business-critical assignments, and assist clients in:

• Clause drafting and investment protection
• Dispute resolution policy reviews
• Tribunal selection
• Guidance on process and knowledge of arbitrators
• Representation in international commercial arbitrations under all the major institutional rules and ad hoc processes
• Representation in investor-state arbitrations under multilateral and bilateral investment treaties (MITs and BITs)
• Representation in a broad spectrum of non-administered arbitrations
• Enforcement of arbitral awards
• Court action associated with arbitration

Global energy demand is a key driver of economic growth in all economies – whether developing countries seeking to establish reliable power infrastructure, emerging economic superpower nations fueling resource-intensive explosion in population and commerce, or developed countries seeking energy independence and the expansion of low-emission power sources. Recognizing the significance to the 21st Century global economy of all forms of energy and the creation and revitalization of infrastructure, the firm recently created our seventh firmwide practice area – Energy, Infrastructure and Resources (EIR).

With the addition of the EIR area, the firm fully integrates our global capabilities geographically and across various practices related to infrastructure, including, among others:

• climate change and sustainability
• construction and engineering
• energy
• environmental, land and natural resources
• infrastructure
• mining and metals
• oil and gas 
• projects and transactions 
• telecom, media and technology

Mining and Metals
The firm’s cross-disciplinary mining and metals group serves clients globally in the mining, minerals, steel, and specialty metals industries. It includes lawyers across our global platform with experience in all aspects of practice from corporate and antitrust to environmental and litigation.

We provide comprehensive services in connection with the full range of issues facing the mining and metals industry, including:

• Capital markets
• Acquisition of mineral land and mineral interests
• Option and earn-in agreements
• Project finance and infrastructure development
• Mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures
• Environmental permitting and compliance
• Substance registration and regulation
• Litigation and arbitration
• Antitrust, competition, and trade regulation

Food Industry
Our expansive food industry group comprises more than 70 partners located throughout our global footprint. With decades of experience working with leading global food companies, our team is able to combine deep regulatory insight, practical business understanding, and global reach to a variety of corporate, regulatory, and litigation matters.

We assist clients in a variety of areas within the food industry including:

• Seed, venture, and growth capital
• Regulation and policy
• Technology
• Product distribution
• Labeling, advertising, and intellectual property
• Corporate
• Food safety, product recalls, and insurance coverage
• Criminal enforcement investigations
• International trade
• Dispute resolution

Resort, Hospitality, and Leisure
Our resort, hospitality, and leisure practice has a growing cross-office reach focused on global assistance to clients with complicated, large-scale mixed-use urban and resort projects. The firm’s resort, hospitality, and leisure capabilities extend throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and North and South America.

The opening of our Charleston office in December has greatly expanded our team’s transactional capabilities and allows our lawyers to represent clients throughout a broad range of legal issues, which include protecting them from risks and positioning them appropriately for future success.

Our resort, hospitality, and leisure team helps clients understand and deal with various business and legal issues, from permitting and development, acquisitions and dispositions, and finance, to bankruptcy and insolvency, labor and employment, and litigation, among other issues.

Clinical Research/Academic Medicine
Clinical research continues to flourish through the work of life sciences companies as well as in academia and the health care field. Through a cross-section of health care, life sciences, and FDA lawyers, our clinical research/academic medicine team advises clients on all aspects of federal and state regulation of preclinical and clinical research.

We assist our clients in moving their research forward, and our lawyers advise on:

• Preparation of RFPs
• Compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)
• Drafting of subcontracts for preclinical and clinical research
• Procurements under BioShield legislation
• Human subject protection regulation compliance
• Drafting and negotiating research agreements with U.S. and international sites
• Due diligence investigations for acquisitions or public financing
• Drafting and negotiating government grants and contracts
• Providing assistance for university and nonprofit entities pursuing research projects abroad
• Development and ownership of intellectual property and subsequent licensing thereof including compliance with applicable state laws

Data Protection, Privacy, and Cyber Security
Privacy, data protection, and security are taking over our digital society and are among the most voluminous, dynamic, and rapidly changing areas of the law. In our information-centric world, these topics influence every area of law and practice, and K&L Gates helps companies anticipate, shape, and adjust to the complex and sometimes contradictory requirements surrounding these issues.

Our lawyers assist clients in the broad spectrum of privacy and data protection matters, including:

• Privacy, data protection, and information management
• Technology transactions
• Commercial transactions and outsourcing
• Data Security Breach
• Saas/Cloud Computing
• Telecom, media, and technology
• IP litigation

Insurance Coverage
For more than 25 years, our insurance coverage practice of more than 100 lawyers has been developing and implementing innovative legal strategies to assist businesses and individuals in obtaining coverage for an ever-increasing range of liabilities and losses. With lawyers located in offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, our group is one of the largest policyholder-side insurance coverage practices in the world, according to the November 2010 issue of Business Insurance. We offer timely communications, including alerts, events, and webinars, in response to current events relating to our clients’ dealings with their insurance companies, from Hurricane Irene and the U.K. riots to upheaval in Arab countries and the disaster in Japan. In addition, our lawyers author the annually updated “Policyholder’s Guide to the Law of Insurance Coverage,” which is recognized as one of the leading treatises on insurance law in the United States.

Dodd-Frank Capabilities
Signed into law in July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act calls for the most dramatic revision of the U.S. financial regulatory framework since the Great Depression. The act has had and will continue to have a very broad impact on the financial services industry and any related entities. Lawyers across the firm's offices and in practices ranging from investment management and public policy to corporate and mortgage banking have kept pace with these reforms, offering clients a range of services and information to help stay abreast of important changes, including:

• comprehensive client alerts
• events and webinars
• other publications, including the Global Government Solutions® Mid-Year Outlook

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
In the United States, for now and the foreseeable future, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) will be the dominant players in the commercial real estate marketplace, and the use of REITs is growing in Europe and elsewhere internationally. Our lawyers work collaboratively across the firm’s platform to represent REITs, REIT investors, and persons and entities interested in organizing REITs or exchanging real estate portfolios for equity interests in REITs. K&L Gates has the extensive real estate transactional team and skill set that is so critical to the seamless and effective delivery of legal services to REITs. Working across practices, our capabilities with respect to REITs also include securities, tax, real estate, finance, Investment Company Act of 1940 (40 Act), ERISA, M&A, employment, and public policy.

Infrastructure
Our infrastructure practice touches nearly every one of the firm’s 38 global offices, providing support at every stage of project development: from inception and structuring to financial close, to construction and continuing through operation, which may involve refinancing, the secondary markets, or dispute resolution. Lawyers with experience in a broad range of disciplines, including public-private partnerships, environmental regulation, natural resources, real estate, energy, finance and construction are members of the team, and our work spans the gamut of matters involving facilities, power generation and transmission, water, wastewater, waste management, transportation, telecommunications, and oil and gas.