Practice Areas & Industries: Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

ManattJones Global Strategies

ManattJones provides strategic advice and advocacy to help clients identify new opportunities and resolve problems in the international marketplace. ManattJones professionals offer a unique blend of extensive political, diplomatic, and international business experience. We work closely with our clients to develop and implement strategies for government relations, market assessment,
public affairs, due diligence, and strategic intelligence.

Founded by two of the most respected names in the business and political arenas, former ambassadors Charles T. Manatt and James R. Jones, ManattJones focuses on Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, where the Firm’s strength meets growing opportunity. ManattJones also has the capability to assist clients in several European markets. ManattJones’ understanding of international business communities, cultures, and practices also allows us to effectively advise and counsel foreign companies on the U.S. market. ManattJones professionals work as partners with our clients to design and implement comprehensive strategies to create success in international business endeavors.

Whether on a specific project or an ongoing basis, ManattJones’ services are tailored for each undertaking. ManattJones has provided a range of support to companies engaged in the global marketplace that includes:

• Developing and implementing strategies to penetrate domestic and international markets;
• Providing strategic business advice, political and economic risk analysis, and cultural know-how;
• Government relations and international advocacy
• Working with foreign governments and embassies, private sector businesses and associations, international financial institutions, domestic and international media, NGOs, and other international organizations to advance client interests;
• Identifying and facilitating access to capital and providing advice on investment options and financial structuring;
• Forming and managing project teams of investors, public relations professionals, government relations specialists, and lawyers;
• Identifying, screening and monitoring business partners; and
• Interpreting U.S. and international political developments to provide early warning of political and economic initiatives that could have an impact on business operations.

ManattJones has overseas offices in Mexico City and São Paulo, Brazil. The U.S. headquarters is in Washington, DC, with offices in New York and Los Angeles. An established network of strategic business relationships further assist clients on-the-ground in other parts of the world.

Global Network
The ManattJones Global Network also brings together an outstanding team of individuals with important leadership relationships throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, and the Middle East. The Global Network expands ManattJones' international reach and strengthens its ability to serve clients in key markets throughout the world.

The Global Network is comprised of individuals who possess unique combinations of knowledge, experiences and relationships in business, government and other sectors that bring value to ManattJones' clients. They understand h ow international companies do business. This global network offers enhanced country-specific expertise and supplements the ManattJones' capabilities.

Diversity
At ManattJones Global Strategies, LLC, diversity is more than an initiative or slogan. It is the very nature of the work we do and at the core of who we are. Our success on the international stage is driven by an appreciation of diversity in all its forms – diversity of ideas, diversity of spirit, and an explicit commitment to recruiting the best people, reflecting the widest possible perspectives, experiences and backgrounds.

The qualities we seek in our professionals and in our strategic partners – commitment, judgment, creativity, entrepreneurial drive, business skill, civic responsibility and a desire to be the best – are deeply enriched by diverse experiences. These qualities define the way we conduct business and offer services to clients.

We are committed to attracting and retaining talented, diverse professionals by creating a distinctive environment that supports and rewards their development. ManattJones professionals thrive in an atmosphere that encourages responsibility and aspirations.

ManattJones’ goals with regard to diversity, simply stated, begin with the realization of a progressive, dynamic company whose members mirror the makeup of our communities. At all levels, from leadership to staff, we recognize and value our similarities and our differences.

At ManattJones, diversity is integral to our success. It is what we do and who we are.
 

Services Available

Areas of Focus

At ManattJones, we create and implement strategies that expand and facilitate our clients' international business. ManattJones offers expert advice, attentive service and valuable relationships that provide the advantages needed for success in international business today. Our strategic advice and advocacy helps clients identify new opportunities in international markets, overcome challenges that inevitably arise, and optimize business outcomes. We do more than open doors. We stay involved in the issues that are important to our clients, helping to shape critical events and decisions to achieve positive results for them.

Combining market knowledge with a thorough understanding of business needs means that ManattJones can develop custom solutions and strategies to facilitate our clients' business. That expertise allows us to support companies as they enter and expand into international markets. For U.S. companies, that international expansion may mean taking their business overseas for the first time or expanding existing international business. International expansion for non-U.S. companies can include entry to the U.S. market. Once we have helped establish clients in a country, we continue to work with them to achieve success.

ManattJones professionals become part of our client's team. On a specific project or on an ongoing basis, our services are tailored to fit each undertaking and may include the following:

• Developing and implementing strategies to penetrate domestic and international markets.
• Providing strategic business advice, political and economic risk analysis, and cultural know-how.
• Working with foreign governments and embassies, private sector businesses and associations, international financial institutions, domestic and international media, NGOs, and other international organizations to advance the client's interests.
• Identifying and facilitating access to capital and providing advice on investment options and financial structuring.
• Forming and managing project teams of investors, public relations professionals, government relations specialists, and lawyers.
• Identifying, screening and monitoring business partners.
• Interpreting U.S. and international political developments to provide early warning of political and economic initiatives that could have an impact on business operations.

Regional Expertise
We assist clients around the world, including Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, the Middle East, Asia/Pacific and the Western Hemisphere. However, we have unsurpassed capabilities to assist clients in Mexico and Brazil, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. With two former U.S. ambassadors to countries in the region and a presence in Mexico City and São Paulo, our substantive knowledge and public policy access offers our global corporate clients in the region extensive business development assistance.
 

A Focus on Mexico
ManattJones' Mexico City office is involved in sectors of the Mexican economy that support or affect international business and trade. ManattJones works with clients to create and implement business plans well as conduct cross-border transactions. Its networks of business and federal, state and local government contacts reach the highest levels of those communities.

As ManattJones is active in leading business organizations, its professionals not only know about current international trade activities, issues, trends, and priorities in Mexico, but also are involved in fomenting and implementing efforts that reflect these priorities and interests. Through Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, ManattJones also has legal experience in Mexico cross-border transactions, advertising, energy projects, product distribution and marketing, retail activities, and commercial lending and finance.

Growing Focus on Asia
As relationships between Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean grow, so does ManattJones’ abilities to support clients in these markets. To cement productive relationships often requires not only the substantive knowledge of the markets, but the recognition of cultural differences. ManattJones has increasingly helped clients navigate those challenges to diversify and expand their business opportunities.

Representative Matters

ManattJones helps client create or expand global investment and trade, identify and exploit new market opportunities, or pursue advocacy strategies to facilitate country-by-country growth. Our record of successes demonstrates our capabilities to serve clients throughout the world.

Global Investment 
With the support of the professionals at ManattJones:

• A U.S. insurance company made a nearly $1 billion acquisition of a privatized Mexican insurance company.
• A major energy company restructured its investment in Guatemala.
• A major energy company proposed a liquified natural gas (LNG) power facility in Latin America.
• A major Asia-based global automotive company established marketing, distribution and manufacturing facilities in Mexico.
• A U.S. transportation company established a joint venture in Mexico.
• A multinational energy company resolved an investment dispute in Lithuania.
• A biopharmaceutical company launched commercial presences in Latin America, Africa, And Central Europe.
• A U.S. investment fund identified ethanol investments in the Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Identified investors in and buyers of mobile power generating units in Latin America, Japan and the Philippines.

Global Market Assessment 
ManattJones professionals provided the guidance and insight to help:

• An international gaming and hospitality client develop and implement a strategic plan to build resort facilities in Latin America and Asia.
• A Brazilian import/export business conduct market analysis and identify potential business partners and suppliers in Brazil and the U.S.
• A new-to-foreign-markets gaming company assess country-specific opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Several priority industries in an African country develop an investment strategy and implementation plan.
• Produce a trilateral study of the Brazilian private sector’s interests for trade with India and South Africa.
• A Silicon Valley software company design a business development strategy to expand its sales in Asia.
• A company complete due diligence on potential business partners in Mexico.
• An non-U.S. electronic payments company target business niches in U.S. and Mexico.
• A Middle Eastern company identify and evaluate aquaculture opportunities in the Dominican Republic.

Global Trade 
Knowledge of global trade patterns, policies, priorities, and regulations allows ManattJones professionals to support clients:

• Establishing a new foreign deepwater container port in the Caribbean with preferential recognition from the U.S. Government.
• Advising a Swedish multinational in Brazil on trade agreements negotiated by Brazil, in particular the Mercosul-India Preferential Trade Agreement.
• Identifying potential manufacturers and global distributors for a new food product.
• By creating a strategic plan for a major U.S.-based international development firm on the policy aspects of its small and medium-enterprise export program in the North and Northeast of Brazil.
• In advising a Brazilian regional aircraft manufacturer in a major dispute with a Canadian competitor at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
• Developing a textile manufacturer’s strategies to increase its U.S. market access and receive U.S. tariff benefits.
• Extending a manufacturing management company’s training and partnership program to Mexico.
• By counseling, representing and assisting a major State Federation of Industries in Brazil on matters relating to global trade and investment.
• From China that solar panel manufacturers to enter the U.S. market.

Global Advocacy 
Skilled in public policy and government, ManattJones professionals helped:

• A multinational company reduce risks from lack of transparency in judicial proceedings.
• A compay in a highly-regulated industry ensure fairness and openness in public procurement processes.
• A company design a CSR/philanthropy program as a component of a market entry strategy.
• An acquirer navigate Mexico’s regulatory processes to reduce liability exposure from the acquired company.
• Clients remove investment barriers targeting U.S. multinationals in Central American countries.
• A group of Caribbean-based companies organize to identify business opportunities, partners and access to capital markets and to support business-enhancing trade and policy initiatives.
• Governments in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia by assessing and proposing policies for capacity-building, regulatory overhaul, and trade promotion for the services sector.
• Hollywood entertainment conglomerate develop an advocacy strategy to strengthen local government enforcement to counter optical disc piracy in a Southeast Asian country.