International Business Law

Introduction

Are you in the top management of a multinational company and want to develop an understanding of how international transactions are regulated?

Are you a business leader looking to lead your company into a newer market?

Are you interested in building a career in international business laws?

Do you want to be in high demand as a lawyer in industries and companies that are looking to expand their global presence? 

Are you preparing for an LLM in International Business Law from a foreign university?

Do you want to network with top US faculties, lawyers, and global experts that can open new opportunities for you?

Do you want a job in India or abroad as an in-house counsel with companies that have a multinational presence? 

Do you want to learn everything from drafting key transactional documents to international taxation and international commercial arbitration, necessary for a transaction lawyer advising clients across jurisdictions?

Are you a law student looking to eventually work abroad?

Are you interested in standing out due to your solid knowledge and skills around International Business Laws in every internship and interview?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, read on.

When a lawyer and an entrepreneur negotiate, it is often said that one speaks Greek and the other Latin. What seems to make business sense is often not aligned to what makes legal sense. A good business leader will often need to be able to make sense of both of these to ensure that the success script of their business is well written. 

The need for this ability to understand the legal side aggravates when you are looking to operate in multiple countries. You cannot be taking any chances when it comes to understanding the regulatory requirements of an economy you wish to expand to.

A founder looking to expand into another country cannot afford to blindly rely on external consultants to advise on the entry and continuing business operations in that country. Founders need awareness and an ability to choose the best from among the various options that may be presented by such consultants.

In fact, post-covid, most emerging economies are competing to attract foreign investment, luring businesses in global expansion. In line with this, many businesses are also looking to break barriers and expand beyond their country borders, to benefit from the opportunities, which makes this awareness essential for the founders.

Founders who are ably supported by in-house lawyers and consultants adept at market entry requirements and strategies have a clear advantage - they are unlikely to miss out on business opportunities which are of course, time sensitive.

With this impetus on entering new markets, it is natural that demand for business leaders and lawyers who have a keen understanding of international business law, regulatory environment and intricacies has seen a huge surge. 

As a business leader or a lawyer supporting such businesses, such an understanding not only gives a competitive edge, but also helps in mitigating key risks. The regulatory environment including taxation, ownership of property, ease of incorporation and liquidation play a key role in shaping these policies.

In fact, companies have increasingly started giving strong leadership positions to their general counsels who can play a key role in negotiating cross border deals and finalising global strategies.

Some very essential questions that a business looking to enter into a new market and operate internationally would need to consider are:

• What are the different modes of entry into the market and how to set up entities in that market?
• What are the legislations governing foreign investment, taxation, labour and intellectual property in that market?
• How would the cross border business transactions and contracts pan out?
• What are the dispute resolution mechanisms available, including litigation?

It is very difficult to find knowledge bases or training to skill business leaders, lawyers and other professionals in answering even all of such elementary questions at one place. Most resources tend to focus on one or two aspects such as the legal systems of different countries and international taxation. 

We saw a necessity to build a programme which can provide such training in a very comprehensive manner, eliminating the need to search for different resources to meet such skill requirements. 

This course aims in combining all the key learnings that a business leader, an in-house counsels, a transactional lawyer or a management consultant would require to service their clients who are bound for crossing national borders.

Why did we launch this course?

We receive a lot of requests from business professionals, entrepreneurs,  lawyers, law students and management consultants looking for a clear understanding of how international business transactions work and factors significantly impacting such transactions such as taxation and dispute resolution mechanisms.

They want to be able to sit on the board and help their companies in identifying the right global strategy, taking into account various practical considerations.

For many of them, the only recourse is an expensive LLM or Master in Business Laws abroad or alternatively, a Masters in Business Administration program, post which there is no assurance that they will be able to secure any employment or clients enabling them to work on international projects or assignments.

We also wanted to do something that increases access of Indian business leaders and  lawyers to superb teaching and insights from experts across the world at a far lower cost compared to similar programs across the world.

Is this the right course for me? / Who should take this course

• Lawyers, management consultants and other professionals who want to help their client companies with increasing their presence across the globe;
• Entrepreneurs, business leaders and management consultants who want to understand the regulatory challenges in entering new markets.
• In-house counsels, lawyers and other professionals working in companies with multinational presence;
• Lawyers looking to transition to a general counsel role with MNCs;
• Litigators who want to expand their practice across jurisdictions;
• Lawyers looking to specialize in international commercial law; 
• Law students looking to work in international trade and commerce teams in big law firms;
• Lawyers and law students who are looking to secure paralegal work from foreign law firms and startups on a remote basis

What are the key skills that you will develop in this course?

• The ability to understand the legal systems & basic principles of international law and dispute resolution mechanisms. 
• The ability to understand the governing considerations while navigating into foreign markets with an insight into major economies of the world.
• The ability to create tax strategies for global clients. This will be done through thinking from a ‘structuring’ perspective by understanding the functioning of tax havens and tax structures used by major corporations.
• The ability to identify and strategize the best method of entry into newer markets and make comparative assessment of various regulatory considerations.
• The ability to negotiate, understand, review and draft contracts effectively by understanding the major operative clauses that ensure maximum enforceability as well as risk mitigation clauses. 
• The ability to engage in negotiations and dealing with mediation and arbitration involving international commercial disputes, right from understanding the applicable law to knowing how these processes work.
• The ability to manage and negotiate international conflicts between commercial organisations and the role that lawyers play in the conflict management process.

What are the specific learning objectives of this course?

• To understand legal systems around the world;
• To understand basic principles of international law and how international contracts work;
• To understand what kind of commercial dispute resolution mechanisms are available around the world;
• To understand what kind of disputes can arise in cross border contracts and how alternative dispute resolution mechanisms can be used to deal with them;
• To understand what can be a right time for a business to expand into a foreign market;
• To understand factors determining the decisions on whether or not to enter into a foreign market;
• To decide the right mode of entering a foreign market;
• To understand different roadblocks that you are likely to face while entering a foreign market;
• To gain an understanding of economic factors such sectors receiving maximum foreign investment and legal considerations such as laws relating to foreign investment, taxation, labour, intellectual property, real estate etc. in six major economies i.e. China, United States of America, Middle East, United Kingdom, Japan and Brazil;
• To learn what is conflict management and the difference between conflict resolution and conflict management;
• To understand the connection between diversity and conflict management;
• To learn the role that lawyers can play in the conflict management process and in mediation for conflicts;
• To understand the relevance of developing conflict management strategies at an individual level;
• To gain an understanding of the technical and commercial aspects involved in advanced contract-specific negotiations;
• To learn the art of drafting contractual clauses to achieve the intended objectives and avoid ambiguous clauses and uncertain interpretations;
• To learn reviewing contracts with an objective of minimizing future disputes;
• To develop the required negotiation skills before walking into a high-value contract negotiation;
• To learn how to quickly grasp the most important business aspects that dictate terms of any given contract;
• To learn to perform a risk analysis of any contract;
• To get trained in understanding your client’s expectations, commercial objectives and ensuring that your draft reflects the concerns of your clients;
• To learn avoiding mistakes that even seasoned lawyers end up making in the process of contract drafting and negotiation;
• To learn skills for representing big corporations in contract negotiation and how it is different from working with smaller businesses and individuals;
• To learn to identify when your business operations are subject to international tax laws;
• To understand the basic models on which Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) are executed;
• To learn how to find and read a DTAA and key tax categories in a DTAA;
• To learn how to identify the kinds of information that can and cannot be shared as per tax information exchange provisions under DTAAs;
• To gain an understanding of the popular international tax structures used by global businesses;
• To learn how to take benefit of Safe Harbour Rules prevalent in India;
• Learn about Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) and Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) prevalent between different countries;
• To learn how to initiate international commercial arbitration proceedings globally;
• To learn how to browse through and interpret the arbitration law of foregin jurisdictions (relevant for offshore international arbitration;
• To learn how to advise clients on selecting an appropriate seat and to initiate proceedings before courts of a foreign supervisory jurisdiction;
• To identify when and how to use an expedited or fast track procedure of an international arbitration institution.

What is unique about this course

• As the LawSikho methodology goes, the course will train you on different types of actual work that is required to be performed in the international business law domain. 
• By the end of this course, you can expect to have secured enough skills to be able to deal with work in companies which have global presence or need to navigate new jurisdictions for expansion of their businesses.
• The course is tough and intensive, you will not be awarded the certificate unless you complete the required number of assignments. You will have to invest 3-4 hours per week in developing your skills, in addition to the classes on this course.
• You will have interactive classes with high-quality discussions which will be taken by the experts of this course. You can get all the doubts resolved in the classes or even outside the classes through course groups and email.
• You will get personal attention and coaching from our trainers who will be assigned to you, and have access to a dedicated course anchor who will help you with submissions or any guidance or issues you may have as you progress through the course.
• You will receive in-line feedback for the assignments you submit, which will improve your performance to a significant extent. 
• You will have access to other doubt clearing mechanisms also, in addition to the online classes such as a discussion forum where queries are responded to within a period of 48 hours, a WhatsApp group which will include your peers and batchmates as well as the course anchor, evaluator and support team from LawSikho. 
• You will be trained in writing for three writing assignments during the term of the course and if these are of a publishable quality, these shall be published on the iPleaders blog which sees a footfall of more than a million visitors a month.

Money-back guarantee

If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, attend all classes and do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or are not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back.

View Refund Policy

Training Methodology

24/7 online access to all materials - study at your convenience

Access to basic study material through an online learning management system, Android and iOS app. Recordings of all classroom sessions will be available.

Multiple Choice Questions in all modules for you to test your understanding

2 practical exercises every week, followed by written feedback

Live Online Classes to Teach Practice-Area Specific Work

There will be a live video-based online class to teach you practice area-specific work performed by lawyers. You can ask questions, share your screen, get personal feedback in this class. Every week there will be approx. 1.5 - 2 hours of class to teach you the work plus 1 hour of class to give you feedback.

Convenient Class timings

Classes are held after regular work hours. Typically classes are kept on Sundays or 8-9 pm on other days. Kindly note that the timing of classes will have to be changed in accordance with the time zone of the instructors in the case of faculties who are resident abroad.

Live Doubt Clearing

You can ask questions in class or on the learning management system when you read a chapter. You can also schedule a one-on-one session with evaluators to perform exercises or write articles.

Total hours of live sessions

2 hours every week (recordings will be available for those who miss attending a session live)

Client Opportunities & Recruitment Support where required

• Many employers, law firms and companies are happy to recruit our high performing students. If you do well in your exercises and classes, we can help you to get jobs, internships and assessment internships in good law firms, with renowned lawyers as well as in various companies.
• Our team helps our students in building their profile on LinkedIn to increase their reach to the potential recruiters.
• Our experts guide the students on how to crack any interview.
• On-demand, we provide mock interviews for our students looking for jobs.
• We share multiple internship/recruitment opportunities every week on our Whatsapp group.
• We help our students to get internships not only at law firms and chambers, but also with rising startups in diverse sectors.
• Our mentorship helps students to avoid running in the rat race behind the regular job openings; rather we help them design their own path based on their personal interests.
• We share multiple and diverse client opportunities with our pool of practicing advocates on a daily basis. Our references have helped several advocates really scale up their practice. The opportunities range from contract drafting to complex international taxation matters.

List of Weekly Exercises

• An Indian or Malaysian company plans to sell digital products to clients in the US, EU and South America. They have already started earning some revenue from clients there and this revenue is planning to increase 10 times this year. There are some local competitors that they need to deal with. What would the tax implications of this be? Should they consider establishing a presence there? Would that facilitate the process? What would the implications of a sales or marketing office and subsidiary be?  
• Prepare a draft of the articles of a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of an Indian company to be established in Singapore. The company has a venture capital investor in its Indian entity with standard investor protections. 
• An Indian startup client or your own company plans to go global and establish offshore presence. Advise on the pros and cons between having operations in the US, Singapore and Dubai. 
• Review a sales agreement between a US distributor of a Singapore parent company (which has its subsidiary in India. Does this distributor qualify as a Permanent Establishment of the Singapore company in the US?   
• Advise your client in selecting the optimal business structure and the best state for operating in the US. Choose amongst New York, Texas, Delaware and other states.  
• Prepare a step-by-step plan, highlight key issues and execute a Delaware flip in simulation mode. 
• Draft the constitutional documents of the Delaware parent and the Indian subsidiary. The Delaware company has Paul Graham, through Y-Combinator, as one of its investors. You need to ensure alignment between the offshore parent and the Indian entity’s articles. 
• Prepare a step-by-step plan, highlight key issues and execute a Singapore flip in simulation mode. 
• Advise an international client on establishing presence in China. Should they opt for a joint venture or WFOE? Which FTZ should they choose? How would Chinese law treat the FDI?  
• A US angel investor who has invested in an Indian startup through a Singapore entity wants to exit and sell the stake to a Belgian buyer. The US investor found you on Upwork and wants advice on Singapore tax implications - US tax implications are a bonus, if you can do it, you will be able to charge 3x fee and also get more high-value future work.   
• A German startup has incorporated a subsidiary in Dubai respectively. They want to sell their stake in the Dubai entity. They have also received a share purchase agreement. Please review and help them identify 3 points to improve their deal. Also, what are the exchange control and tax implications? Can they retain ownership of the entity and instead sell the business? 
• A Brazilian entrepreneur has realised that Dubai and China are not profitable markets and would like to continue business in the US and Canada. How can he/ she shut down the Dubai and China corporate entities? What would the implications of laying off staff be? He has requested advice on Freelancer.com. 
• A client from the Netherlands has requested a software development agreement to be drafted for a prospective iOS and Android app developer for an e-commerce app. Draft the contract. Also advise the client on which other contracts will be necessary to run the e-commerce business. 
• A client from the Philippines is selling digital products in the B2B space. They have a sales office in the Netherlands. They need you to draft their terms of service and privacy policy from the perspective of EU law. They are evaluating proposals from a couple of service providers - there are 10 others. Prepare a proposal. 
• Assume that you received a go ahead from the client because your proposal was fantastic. Now, prepare the first draft of the terms of service and privacy policy.   
• A local competitor in the Japanese market has sprung up and is denting the sales of your client’s product. He was earlier your client for the product for 6 months. This competitor has chosen a similar sounding name and color scheme, but in Japanese it’s written differently. He also hired one of your consultants, in breach of a non-compete clause, to make his website. There was an arbitration clause in the contract. What actions can you take to stop this? 
• A Malaysian competitor for your client’s services has emerged in the US market, which is denting the sales of your client’s product. He has chosen very similar marketing strategies, and keywords which you created in the marketing proposals. Their brand name is also similar to your client’s. Your client wants to restrain the competitor from using the same keywords and brand name in at least Texas and New York. Advise what legal actions need to be taken. There are 2 conflicting brand names but you have a registration through Madrid Protocol only for one of them. 
• Your client, who is selling electric automobiles (like Tata or Mahindra) will open offices in Singapore, Dubai, US and UK in the next 18 months. Before they incur any expense and brief a local lawyer or consultant, they want your preliminary advice on a few key issues: 
  • Entity selection for all these countries
  • A map of the global corporate structure of the business, assuming that it is currently in India
  • Import requirements in each of the countries and the duty - they want to decide whether they should ship products in fully assembled state or a semi-knocked down state assembled from India and assembled there 
  • Mention any Indian export control laws 
• For the same situation as above, also mention: 
  • Steps to set up the entities and whether they need professional agencies/ corporate secretaries - also give a list of the names and quotes of 5 service providers
  • One-time setup costs and ongoing compliance costs for the corporate entity
  • Trademark registration requirements
  • A common neutral seat for international arbitration for local partners and distributors in all those states
  • Enforceability of arbitral awards in those states against local partners
  • Repatriation of payments from international sales to parent, and how operating costs are to be transferred to the global subsidiaries
  • Which contracts they must enter into   
• Your client, originally an Indian company, is planning to flip its structure to Singapore to access global capital. They have figured out how to flip, but they need your advice on a few ancillary issues. The companies will provide a lot of services to one another. The Singapore company will also frequently give loans and capital. Some Indian employees may be deputed to Singapore. You are required to share your opinion on a few issues.
  • Which contracts will the group companies require to operate effectively? On which aspects would transfer pricing be applicable? 
  • Which international payments (employees/ directors’ salaries, royalties, loans, infusion of capital from Singapore, etc.) will attract tax requirements? How will these tax requirements apply?

Tentative programme schedule

Week 1 - 2: Introduction to Legal System of the World
Week 3 - 7: Entry strategy and doing business in major international economies
Week 8 - 12: Advanced Contract Drafting
Week 13 - 16: Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
Week 17 - 18: International Conflict Negotiation & Resolution
Week 19 - 21: Doing Business with China
Week 21 - 23: International Taxation.

Certification

Certificate cobranded by Skill India + NSDC

This course is recognized by the National Skill Development Corporation, a PPP under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the Government of India.

You will receive a certificate cobranded by NSDC and Skill India on successful completion. This is how the certificate from NSDC and Skill India will look as per the current applicable format (may change as per the approval authorities):

Sample Certificate