WIN-WIN DEAL MAKING

In his nonfiction debut, La Flèche looks back at his decades of legal and entrepreneurial experiences.  

La Flèche notes how radically the advent of the internet has transformed the way he works. He recalls being out on the road, driving between clients, relying on sometimes on-the-fly local research while working as a lawyer for the international firm of Anderson, Mōri & Rabinowitz. Now, of course, the bulk of the information he needs is available on his phone. Along with the changes brought about by the digital revolution, the author also succinctly traces other large societal and governmental trends that have swept through the world in the many years he’s practiced law, from the wave of privatizations in the 1980s and early ’90s (a trend he at first rode “like a cork on water”) to the increased globalization that was so drastically questioned as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, after which “governments of all stripes now want to move productive capacity back to their shores, or at least closer to their borders, so that they are not at the mercy of uncertain supply chains for their basic needs.” La Flèche looks at these larger trends and also at dozens of more minute nuts-and-bolts aspects of doing legal business on the international stage: subjects like currency exchange, insurance, seamless documentation, due diligence, contracts, and project structure (“In my experience, the more streamlined a structure, the more effective it is”). He’s never simply recounting his experiences as a lawyer (in Japan’s alien culture, for instance, and elsewhere); here, he also works in observations on broader principles of law and business. This combination enables him to shift naturally between geopolitical generalities about things like the flawed democracy of India (“changes in government are made swiftly and generally peacefully, notwithstanding the rough and tumble nature of Indian politics”) and wry comments on the international perception of his fellow Canadians as being affable and easy to work with (“We are also viewed as somewhat boring,” he adds, “but that is a different story for some other time”). The complicated world of international law conducted across cultural boundaries is very clearly examined in these pages.

An experienced lawyer’s insightful, conversational account of his time with a powerful firm.