21st Century Globalization will continue to grow in 2021
What is 21st Century Globalization
21st century globalization is a growing movement consolidating a number of trends which have become prominent over the first two decades of the 21st century.
This new movement appreciates the technological & social advances of 20th century globalization which have allowed for a connected, entrepreneurial economy. It believes in utilizing those forces to support economic development across the globe.
But it also focuses on addressing a key failure of the 20th century globalization model through its incorporation of social enterprises or benefit companies. These are companies that seek to promote social goods in parallel with growing profits. In this way, 21st century globalization can be a positive force on issues such as sustainability and equitable distribution of the fruits of economic growth.
Our firm's focus on 21st Century Globalization
We believe in the principles of 21st century globalization and have developed our practice to focus on companies and business leaders who are also a part of this movement.
Social Enterprise Law
Our key industry focus is social enterprises. These companies face unique challenges as they navigate a new terrain of law & commerce. This requires advisors who are also committed to their principles and to moving the field of mission-driven businesses forward.
We believe is important during the early stages of this movement to establish a legal framework which allows social enterprises to thrive.
These efforts include building connections between social enterprises, setting up the entities and their commercial arrangements, and ensuring that commercial disputes are resolved with as little disruption as possible.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
A key area of interest for us in 2021 will involve establishing standards for the social enterprise industry to utilize alternative dispute resolution procedures such as mediation and arbitration.
We believe that alternative dispute resolution can provide an attractive option for benefit companies to resolve disputes before resorting to contentious litigation, particularly when dealing with claims between companies who share the hope that mission-driven companies can (and must) be successful in the 21st century economy.
This is one unique characteristic that benefit companies share – they have an interest in seeing their social enterprise counterparts also succeed rather than merely competing with each other in a zero-sum game to increase profits. This is because the field as a whole will only be successful if it becomes apparent that companies can thrive while maintaining a dual focus on mission and profits.
Given this interesting feature, they are well-placed to utilize procedures like mediation and arbitration.
International Law
Our firm values acting as an international bridge, helping companies grow internationally and build connections overseas with like-minded counterparts.
This involves establishing strong relationships of trust supported by realistic promises & obligations. It also requires vigorously enforcing those obligations when commercial disputes do arise.
Alternative dispute resolution, specifically, international arbitration, is an extremely useful tool to resolve international commercial disputes - and our firm has a deep background representing companies in international arbitrations.
We believe that when people and cultures interact through trading relations it can contribute to greater peace and development. This is why we take great pride in helping companies navigate a complicated international legal world with widely differing cultures and legal issues.
Startup Law
We also believe in the power of new ideas. We enjoy helping entrepreneurs build startups that can challenge large competitors and foster innovation & progress.
We enjoy working with startups as they establish their core mission and a framework for how they will grow. But our main focus has been providing counsel for startups who need to enforce their rights against larger counterparts.
We want to level the playing field so that startups are able to enforce their rights even against larger, well-funded counterparts. A key way that we try to level the playing field is by organizing unique funding options for our startup clients so that they don’t have to drain their limited resources in order to enforce their legal rights.
In this way, we hope to make a small contribution to the movement of intrepid founders challenging their larger competitors and building the new products that will make our world better.
Conclusion
2020 has been a tumultuous year, but we all hope that 2021 will be a year for change and growth. We hope that 2021 will see the movement for 21st Century Globalization continue to increase – and that this movement will contribute to equitable development around the world.