Our Practice Area Groups continued to put practical collaboration at the center of their work during Q3. Members worked through realistic client scenarios, compared developments across jurisdictions, shared experiences from their own practices, and identified opportunities to bring fellow members into matters that extend beyond their home markets.
From crossborder deals and international property ownership to mobile workforces, family business succession, litigation trends, and private client planning across multiple jurisdictions, these conversations are helping members better understand one another’s expertise and build the relationships that lead to stronger collaboration.
Jump to a Practice Area Group
- Accounting Practice Group
- Corporate Practice Group
- Labour & Employment Practice Group
- Litigation Practice Group
- Private Clients Practice Group
- Real Estate Practice Group
Accounting Practice Group
Helping Family Businesses Navigate the Next Generation
The Accounting Practice Group focused on succession planning and family business advisory, an increasingly important issue for clients preparing for generational transfers. Members examined the accounting complexities that often sit alongside the legal structure of a succession, including business valuation, tax on transfers, balance sheet restructuring, and preparing the next generation for what they are inheriting.
The discussion also explored where accounting advice ends and legal advice begins, with members sharing examples of family business transitions they have advised on and how they coordinated with legal counsel. The session highlighted the opportunity for accounting and legal members to work together earlier in the succession-planning process and provide clients with a more complete crossborder solution.
Interested in joining a Practice Area Group or have questions about participation? Please reach out directly to the PAG Chair.
Contact:
Stephen Balzan
sbalzan@act.com.mt
Corporate Practice Group
Building Better Crossborder Deal Teams
The Corporate Practice Group centered its Q3 discussion on The Cross-Border Deal, using a scenario involving the sale of a founder-owned manufacturing business operating across three countries to a private equity buyer in a fourth. With employees, real estate, intellectual property, and regulatory approvals spread across jurisdictions, the scenario gave members a practical framework for discussing how international deals are actually managed under tight timelines.
Members compared the first steps they take when a crossborder M&A mandate arrives, the mistakes foreign deal teams commonly make in their jurisdictions, and recent transactions where outside counsel was required in another country. The conversation reinforced a central advantage of the network: being able to identify trusted local counsel quickly and coordinate across jurisdictions before local issues become deal obstacles.
Interested in joining a Practice Area Group or have questions about participation? Please reach out directly to the PAG Chair.
Contact:
Gernot Stenger
gstenger@stenger.legal
Labour & Employment Practice Group
When Remote Work Becomes a Crossborder Problem
The Labour & Employment Practice Group tackled a challenge employers continue to underestimate: employees working from countries where their employer has no entity, registration, or established compliance structure.
Using the scenario of a technology company that discovered employees had quietly relocated across borders, members explored the employment consequences of international remote and hybrid work, including deemed employment relationships, permanent establishment risk, social security exposure, and the requirements of a compliant crossborder remote-work policy.
Members compared what triggers an employment relationship in their jurisdictions, current regulatory priorities affecting foreign employers, and real matters where employee mobility became more complicated than clients initially expected. The discussion highlighted an area where coordinated advice across employment, tax, payroll, and corporate disciplines can be particularly valuable to multinational clients.
Interested in joining a Practice Area Group or have questions about participation? Please reach out directly to the PAG Chair.
Contact:
Elisa Noto
enoto@aliantlaw.com
Litigation Practice Group
Sharing Litigation Trends, Technology and Crossborder Opportunities
The Litigation Practice Group used its Q3 meeting to reconnect members and create a clearer picture of the litigation expertise and current caseload focus represented across the network. Members introduced their practices and compared what they are seeing on the ground, including emerging case types, changing client demand, and litigation trends across jurisdictions.
The group also explored the growing role of artificial intelligence in litigation, with members sharing how they are currently using or evaluating AI for document review, legal research, drafting, and case strategy. The discussion provided an opportunity to compare early experiences and consider where new tools may offer practical value to litigators.
The session concluded by identifying potential crossborder referral opportunities and areas where members can draw on one another’s local litigation experience as client matters extend into additional jurisdictions.
Private Clients Practice Group
Planning for the Client Who Could Live Anywhere
The Private Clients Practice Group focused on The Traveling Client, using the scenario of a high-net-worth individual with assets, family, and planning structures spread across multiple jurisdictions and a possible international relocation ahead.
Members considered what needs to happen before a client becomes resident in their jurisdiction, including the planning steps that can materially affect tax exposure, asset structures, succession planning, and the treatment of existing trusts or holding companies.
The discussion also highlighted where foreign advisers commonly misunderstand local rules and gave members an opportunity to share recent matters where a client needed support outside their home country. By comparing those experiences, the group reinforced the importance of bringing trusted local advisers into private client matters early, before a relocation or restructuring creates unintended consequences.
Real Estate Practice Group
Advising the Crossborder Buyer
The Real Estate Practice Group focused on the increasingly complex needs of international property buyers. Members worked through the scenario of a high-net-worth client already holding real estate in three countries and considering a fourth acquisition as part of a broader wealth restructuring.
The discussion examined the issues that quickly extend beyond the property transaction itself, including ownership structures, financing, tax exposure on a future sale, and how assets should be held efficiently across multiple jurisdictions.
Members compared the issues foreign buyers are most often surprised by in their markets, the assumptions foreign advisers frequently get wrong, and recent real estate matters that required a handoff to counsel in another country. The session helped members better understand when and how to bring one another into an international property matter before local complications arise.
Interested in joining a Practice Area Group or have questions about participation? Please reach out directly to the PAG Chair.
Contact:
Claudia Bortolani
cbortolani@aliantlaw.com
We would like to thank our PAG Chairs and participating members for continuing to make these groups practical, collaborative, and useful. The strongest conversations this quarter shared a common theme: the earlier members understand one another’s expertise and local challenges, the easier it becomes to work together when a client need crosses borders.
Want to join the next conversation? Reach out to your PAG Chair and get involved. These groups are where expertise becomes relationships, and relationships become opportunities.