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Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA – September 2022 – The International Society of Primerus Law FirmsTM has appointed German lawyer Eckart Brödermann, a member of the PrimerusTM Board and founding partner of the German Primerus member law firm in Hamburg, Germany, to act as its first Senior Vice President, International. This step strengthens the international focus of Primerus and demonstrates the commitment of Primerus to enable its member firms to serve their clients’ worldwide needs and with the required international and cross-cultural fluency.

“I am honored about this appointment and will strive to further raise the level of mutual respect and knowledge about the available tools to overcome, in the interest of our clients, cross-cultural legal differences, especially between civil and common law but also within the multifaceted US legal or common law legal systems”, says Eckart Brödermann who has been trained in three jurisdictions and practiced with a focus on many more jurisdictions over his 39 years of practice and arbitration experience since acting as a young lawyer in Washington, D.C.

“I am happy that Eckart has accepted my appointment as he is an expert in the fields of international arbitration and of international contracting under the general principles and rules of contract law compiled by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit Principles”) on which he wrote an entire book. Primerus was the first private law firm organization to officially endorse and recommend in 2020, after due review, the Unidroit Principles, thereby contributing to an emerging international trend set by the United Nations and the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA),” says Primerus President and Founder Jack Buchanan.

Brödermann adds, “Our clients may reasonably expect from us, the outside counsel, to observe and shape such trends so that their world of busy desks becomes simpler and international contracting more efficient. It is in this vein that our (draft) White Paper on International Legal Practice requires all Primerus member firms with an international license to take note of the Unidroit Principles and other soft law tools and that we will cooperate with other organizations worldwide to create an understanding of ‘Simplified Global Contracting’, i.e. contracting under the practice proven Unidroit Principles preferably in combination with an arbitration clause. We will discuss this and many further aspects of client devoted efficient international cooperation further at our Global Conference in San Diego in October.”

About Professor Brödermann

Eckart Brödermann is a professor at the University of Hamburg, author, arbitrator and lawyer with a global practice at his law firm Brödermann Jahn (www.German-law.com) which also houses  the Primerus EMEA office. He holds titles from universities in Paris (D.E.U.G., License, Maîtrise), Harvard (LL.M., East Asian Legal Studies) and Hamburg (dr. iur.). He has initiated inter alia in 2008 the worldwide active Chinese European Arbitration Centre in Hamburg, Germany (www.ceac-arbitration.com). He has co-authored the IPBA Guidelines on Privileges and Attorney Secrecy in International Arbitration (released in Kyoto, 2019; https://ipba.org/publications/ipba-privilege-guidelines/211/). He has acted for 18 years on the board of the Hamburg Bar and is also admitted to the New York Bar (since 1984). Since March 2022, he is co-founder and president of the German NGO “Ukrainian Future” (www.ukraininafuture.org) which orchestrates, through an Ukrainian Vice President in Kyiv, humanitarian help, and, through a further Ukrainian Vice President in Hamburg, assistance to refugees in his local community and nationwide.

About Primerus

The International Society of Primerus Law FirmsTM is a non-exclusive network of approximately 170 law firms in close to 50 nations which bundles approximately 3,000 lawyers worldwide. It focusses on six pillars developed 30 years ago, in 1992, to refocus the legal profession on basic values: Integrity, Excellent Work Product, Reasonable Fees, Continuing Education, Civility, Community Service. PrimerusTM started to develop internationally in 2010. Its concepts are attractive to clients and new member firms. In 2019, PrimerusTM  was elected sponsor of the year of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC).

Contact

Jack Buchanan
President Primerus
Email: jbuchanan@primerus.com
Phone: +1 616-454-9939

Eckart Brödermann
Senior Vice President Primerus, International
Email: Eckart.broedermann@german-law.com
Phone: +49-40-3709052