Dan Harris is a founding member of Harris Sliwoski, an international law firm where he mostly represents companies doing business in emerging market countries. Most of his time is spent helping American and European companies navigate foreign countries by working with the international lawyers at his firm in setting up companies overseas (WFOEs, Subsidiaries, Rep Offices and Joint Ventures), drafting international contracts, protecting IP, and overseeing M&A transactions.
In addition, Dan writes and speaks extensively on international law, with a focus on protecting foreign businesses in their overseas operations. He is also a prolific and widely-followed blogger, writing as the co-author of the award-winning China Law Blog.
Many of our lawyers and staff attended international schools or are sons or daughters of teachers or professors. I spent my junior year of high school at Robert College in Istanbul, a year studying Spanish at LAE Madrid and Taronja Spanish School in Valencia, Spain (both are excellent, BTW) and 8 months studying French at the
The Limited Value of Chinese Factory Indemnification Navigating the differences between Western and Chinese legal systems is seldom an easy endeavor, but this is especially true for indemnification clauses. Though these clauses are robust and effective tools in Western countries with mature legal frameworks, their efficacy in China-based manufacturing agreements is considerably murkier. This post
I wrote the below article many years ago with Gregory Buyoff, a good friend, a brilliant international IP lawyer, and the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever known on Vietnam history. Intellectual Property Magazine published this article, but it no longer shows up on its website so I am running it here (with a few updates),
This post highlights four common and somewhat egregious mistakes my law firm’s China lawyers often see lawyers make when representing their clients in doing business with or in China, along with a very brief analysis of what causes each sort of mistake. 1. Not Realizing that China’s Bureaucracy Puts Form Over Substance Many years ago, a U.S.
A few weeks ago, a client asked our law firm to handle a relatively routine domestic matter for them. We told them we do not handle such matters and we gave them a short list of excellent attorneys that do. The client expressed surprise at our unwillingness to take on their matter and remarked on
If it seems we have been writing often about China NNN Agreements, you would be right. We are doing so because we have had a troubling increase in companies coming to us after having lost their IP to their Chinese counter-party (usually their Chinese manufacturer) because the NNN Agreements they used were worthless or even
The international dispute resolution lawyers at my law firm are frequently contacted by American/European companies seeking our help in pursuing Chinese companies for providing “bad product.” We turn down a whole slew of them because of our potential client’s low likelihood of success. We typically do not want to pursue these claims because the American/European
Fake, Woeful, and “Captured” China Lawyers From non-existent “lawyers” to legitimate ones with limitations on confidentiality, navigating China’s legal landscape has become increasingly risky. Rising tensions between China and the West have fueled a surge in fake lawyer scams, with unsuspecting SMEs often drawn in by unrealistically low fees. But this bargain-basement approach often backfires
If you had told me ten years ago that I would one day be writing on transfer pricing, I would never have believed it. Heck, if you had told me ten years ago that I would one day be writing on transfer pricing, I might have considered going into a different field. Even three years
1. How to Avoid Getting Arrested Overseas When my two kids did their foreign study, I told them that they would be bound by the laws in the countries in which they would live/visit and that United States embassies and consulates can do little to help them if arrested. I also talked with them about
