Frost & Fire Consulting

Despite the notable increase in quality and professionalism among the ranks of the Albanian judiciary in recent years, judicial proceedings in the Albanian court system can be lengthy, tenuous, cumbersome, and unpredictable. While judicial reform remains a high priority in the domestic legislative agenda, it will take some time for the Albanian court system to become truly sophisticated, professional and independent from any outside influence. Considering the current pitfalls of the domestic judicial system, we advise our clients to consider litigation as a means of last resort and prioritize Alternative Dispute Resolution. However, if and when litigation becomes necessary, Frost & Fire aggressively and qualitatively protects and defends our clients' interest at all levels of the dispute resolution hierarchy. We assist in:

• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Administrative proceedings
• Civil litigation
• Land property rights and related disputes

Frost & Fire Consulting represents clients with their most challenging intellectual property issues, covering a broad range of activities. Since IP issues often arise in connection with other practice areas (such as M&A, Antitrust etc.), our team provides advice on the full range of intellectual property law, including:

• Trademarks
• Trade secrets
• Copyrights
• Patents
• Industrial design
• Licensing, merchandising and branding
• Domain names
• Data protection
• IP Audits and Due Diligence

We are particularly well versed in intellectual property transactions, including drafting and negotiating various intellectual property agreements, and protecting clients' interests in related dispute resolutions if necessary.

Frost & Fire Consulting members have considerable experience in trademark protection. They have assisted clients with trademark protection in over fifty countries via the World Intellectual Property Organization procedures, as well as directly at the national level of several countries. Our trademark related services include availability research (through national and international trademark databases), filing of national and international trademark applications and follow-up procedures, organizing and preparing oppositions against identical or similar trademarks, trademark preservation (preparing renewal requests and payment of obligatory fees), trademark owner name/address changes, and recording of trademark licenses.

We also assist and represent clients in all procedures related to patent law, including filing of national and international patent applications and follow-up procedures at the national and/or international levels, patent preservation (payment of renewal fees), owner name/address changes and recording of licenses. In addition, our partners are continuously involved in assisting clients in the negotiation of licensing agreements, software evaluation agreements, proof of concept agreements and many other instruments designed to protect copyrighted material and other intellectual property of our clients.

Given our firm’s intellectual property expertise, Frost & Fire Consulting is well equipped to handle any of your IP related needs, no matter how challenging or complex.

A company should comply with labor laws and regulations not only because people are an organization’s most important asset but also because non-compliance can result in liabilities and public relations issues. The members of our firm have extensive experience as both legal advisors and practitioners in the employment regulations space. Our employment law services include the following areas:

• Contracts, Policies and Procedures. Preparation and/or review of offer letters, employment agreements, independent contractor and/or consulting agreements, personnel policies and procedures, handbooks, protection of confidential information and trade secret agreements and compensation agreements and any other workplace related memorandums or documents. Provision of training on these policies in order to ensure managers and employees understand and implement policies and procedures correctly.

• Legal Compliance. External review of workplace policies, procedures and practices to determine compliance with Albanian Labor Code, Social Security, Health and Safety and other applicable laws. Internal workplace investigations relating to whistleblower and workplace misconduct allegations.

• Employment-related litigation. Assist with unionizing activities, dealings with works councils at all levels, collective bargaining, interpretation of work rules, industrial disputes, strikes and lockouts.

• Expatriate Services and Executive Transfers. Provision of end-to-end advice, from obtaining work and residency permits to sorting out employment agreements, social security requirements, tax equalization and other issues.

• Employee Benefits and Compensation.Design and implementation of all types of employee benefits and compensation programs, including pay-grades, incentives and variable remuneration plans, profit sharing plans and equity based compensation programs, such as stock options, stock purchasing and others.

• Workforce Restructuring.Advice at all stages of reductions in workforce from planning to the implementation of notices and separation agreements. (For non-legal restructuring services, please visit our Organization Development service line.)

• Transactions. Advice on employment-related aspects of mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and divestitures, post-acquisition integrations of newly acquired businesses, as well as outsourcing or other specific arrangements. Employment related due diligence for all types of corporate transactions.

We advise on a full range of merger and acquisition transactions in a wide variety of industries. Members of our team have assisted various clients with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and spin-offs such as the multibillion dollar spin-off of Time Warner Cable from Time Warner Inc. in the United States or the spin-off of three different companies from the Albanian Power Company.

The experience of our members in the real estate sector encompasses a broad range of real estate transactions, including real estate fund offerings, portfolio acquisitions, and joint ventures, as well as more traditional real estate development, purchase, sale, financing, and restructuring transactions. Our partners have worked with local and international clients, such as the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and O'Connor Capital Partners. Locally we have worked with Albania’s top developers as well as large land owners, representing them in negotiations for various important developments throughout Albania.