“Passing on the Mantle” – Succession Planning for Closely Held and Family Businesses

Chairs: Stephanie Denkowicz and Thomas Kaiser-Stockmann.
Length: half day session.

This session will cover elements of successful succession planning for closely held and family owned businesses. Among the facets of the succession process to be covered will be: (i) legal/business structure issues, (ii) business valuation, (iii) managerial transition, (iv)  ownership transferal, (v) generational issues and (vi) post succession planning.  The panel will consist of representatives from South and Central America, North America, Europe, Africa and the Asia/ Pacific Region. The panelists will discuss succession planning from their own regional perspective using real life case studies. The session will be moderated by the co-chairs. 

“Show Me The Money” - Financing Private Companies with Venture Capital

Chairs: Luis Fernando Gonzalez Nieves and Robert Falvey.
Length: half day session.

The session will present the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and private equity finance, focusing on the challenges associated with the financing of private companies.  The session will cover the private equity and venture capital market structure, institutional arrangements and the application of financial theory and methods in a private equity and venture capital setting. 
The session will address four main aspects of private equity investment and venture capital transactions: (i) valuation, (ii) deal structuring, (iii) governance, and (iv) harvesting.  Relevant case studies will be analyzed and discussed to demonstrate the practical, hands-on application of techniques following their development in the session.  The relevant case studies will be provided beforehand, and will be based upon factual transactions.

“Leadership and the Law Firm Life Cycle: the Workshop”

Chairs: Chris Owen and Norman Clark
Length: half day session.

This session (to be held jointly by the Closely Held and Growing Business Enterprises Committee and the Law Management Committee) will take the form of an interactive workshop focusing on the changing role of leadership in the evolution of small and medium sized law firms. Participants will be encouraged through a series of case studies to draw on experiences in their own firms looking at potential solutions to the leadership issues which face these law firms. 

Issues to be discussed include the evolution of a law firm and how its leadership must adapt to change, both internal and external, how law firm leadership can best reconcile the requirements of retaining their practice with those of management and how to develop and implement effective succession planning.  The objective of the session is to give participants greater insights into their own leadership strengths and opportunities for improvement as well as an understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of law firms.