Finland - International Arbitration Firm of the Year Attorneys at law Ratiolex Ltd Timo Ylikantola Partner Tel: +358 9 6227 5650 Asianajotoimisto Oy - Attorneys at law Ltd. timo.ylikantola@ratiolex.fi www.ratiolex.fi
RATIOLEX
Ratiolex is one of the leading dispute resolution law firms in Finland. Ratiolex offers a full range of dispute resolution services for all businesses and industries covering inter alia all aspects of domestic and international arbitration, both ad hoc and institutional. Ratiolex focuses on high-end domestic and international dispute resolution services. “Our strategy has been to offer convenient, rapid, sound and secure as well as cost-effective dispute resolution services to our clients. The firm’s annual growth and our genuine interest towards our profession, a dose of healthy ambition and a constant urge to better ourselves can be observed in the success and satisfaction of our many Finnish and foreign clients in the complex dispute resolution cases both in Finland and abroad,” explained Timo Ylikantola, partner at Ratiolex. He continued: “Our experience from arbitrations under the Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Finland Chamber of Commerce is extensive, but we also have experience in arbitrating disputes under Arbitration Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and the ICC Arbitration Rules and ad hoc arbitration under the Finnish Arbitration Act as well as enforcement procedures of the arbitral awards. During the last few years we have had a large caseload of disputes and we have represented clients
in commercial disputes in several industries and fields of business, such as automotive, distribution and foreign trade, franchising, IT, infrastructure and construction, media and entertainment, M&A, real estate, sale of goods as well as transportation, logistics and freight forwarding.” Mr Ylikantola was awarded the price of Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 in Helsinki, Finland and has frequently published articles on international arbitration topics and acted as an arbitrator in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. Ratiolex successfully represented one of the world’s leading record and music industry companies as a respondent in a contract dispute, where all its client’s rebuttal claims were accepted; as well as a favorable outcome for a Finnish claimant in service agreement reimbursement dispute wherein its client’s opponent party was a listed German public company. Furthermore Ratiolex has also obtained a series of favorable arbitral awards. One of which pertains to international ad hoc arbitration under the Finnish Arbitration Act. The dispute concerned a director’s agreement termination which was conducted in English wherein its client’s opponent party was a Dutch corporation and in the arbitration proceedings regarding an infringement of the commercial and trade secrets which was conducted under the Rules of the Arbitration Institute of the Finland Chamber of Commerce. Ratiolex’s clientele has consisted mainly of domestic SMEs, growing and internationalising companies and international corporations. This year, in addition to the above mentioned cases, Ratiolex has served a number of high profile clients such as Finland’s leading building services consulting company, one of the leading international freight forwarding and logistics companies and one of the leading international chemical industry companies. In July 2012 Ratiolex was ranked the most successful law office in Finland based on analysis of financial statements.
Finland - Maritime Law Firm of the Year Bardy Rahikkala Law Office Johan Bardy Partner Tel: +358 9 278 4300 johan.bardy@bardy-rahikkala.fi www.bardy-rahikkala.fi
Bardy Rahikkala lawyers has broad experience in commercial legal practice and working in-house, which helps provide a practical and cost-effective legal service. The firm is committed to getting things done. The firm operates an M&A practice in cooperation with frontline financial experts. Bardy Rahikkala regularly assists companies and individuals in business related issues in courts and authorities. Bardy Rahikkala’s lawyers are members in the International Bar Association and are admitted to practise in all courts and authorities. Finland has a highly industrialised, largely free-market economy with per capita output similar to Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Trade is important with exports accounting for over one third of GDP in recent years. Finland is also strongly competitive in manufacturing, focusing mainly on the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications and electronics industries.
The country excels in high-tech exports such as mobile phones. Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of raw materials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods. Because of the climate, agricultural development is limited to maintaining self-sufficiency in basic products. A recovery of exports, domestic trade, and household consumption stimulated economic growth in Finland in 2010/11. The recession left a deep mark on general government finances and the debt ratio, turning previously strong budget surpluses into deficits. Despite good growth prospects, it is expected that the general government finances will remain in deficit during the next few years. Like other recovering economies around the world Finland must embrace the challenge of implementing a post-recession exit strategy in which measures supporting growth will be combined with general government adjustment measures. Finland must also address a rapidly ageing population and decreasing productivity that threatens competitiveness, fiscal sustainability and economic growth. The main features of the Finnish strategy to counter the effects of population ageing have been extensive and long-lasting prefunding of future pension expenditures, actions to postpone retirement and to increase the productivity and efficiency of ageing related services, which in the Finnish case are primarily provided by the local governments. According to the European Commission for Economic and Financial Affairs, additional measures are still needed to achieve further increases in the length of working lives and to enhance productivity of public services. Finland is a small yet highly productive, capitalist economy and member of the European Union currency block. Like the other member states of the Eurozone, the country is linked to the current debt crisis by way of association and will be monitoring the developing situation as a concerned stakeholder. 2012 GlobalAwards 153