NEWS

DANIEL C. CROSBY

Budin & Partners is pleased to announce that Daniel Crosby has joined its law firm as a partner in Geneva. Mr. Crosby is an established practitioner of international trade and investment law who has developed his expertise on the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in over 12 years of practice in Washington, D.C. and in Geneva. Budin is breaking new ground by becoming the first Swiss law firm to offer the full range of legal services related to the WTO, which has its headquarters in Geneva.

The addition of Mr. Crosby to Budin's team of lawyers will expand the Firm's ability to provide services to sovereign and private sector clients on international trade matters governed by the WTO, free trade agreements, and investment treaties affecting trade in goods, services and intellectual property. Budin will provide strategic and technical legal advice on applying WTO and international trade rules to improve access to global markets and to address regulatory barriers to trade and competition and investment. Mr. Crosby has particular expertise with trade and investment issues affecting the energy sector, and the transportation, financial services, distribution, and telecommunications sectors.

Budin has an active practice in litigation, cross-border transactions, banking, finance, investment funds, arbitration, corporate law, distribution and investment projects in Switzerland and abroad. Mr. Crosby will broaden legal services to the Firm's clients on U.S. law aspects of international trade and customs regulation, commercial and transactional practice, as well as mergers and acquisitions. He has particular interest and experience in international trade and transactions in the oil, gas, and downstream energy sectors.

Mr. Crosby joins Budin from White & Case International Trade (Geneva) where he practiced exclusively WTO and international trade law since 2002. Prior to joining White & Case, Mr. Crosby worked in the international Trade and WTO Practice Group of Baker & McKenzie in Washington and Geneva since 1994. Mr. Crosby also trained with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (1996) and with the WTO Accessions Division (1997 and 1998). He continues to advise clients on the implications of the WTO accession in countries including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Mr. Crosby obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the Washington College of Law American University, Washington, D.C., (1999) and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Union College, New York, USA and St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia. He is admitted to practice law at the Bars of New York, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. His mother tongue is English, and he speaks Russian, Hungarian and French. He lived and worked in Russia from 1989 to 1993.

Mr. Crosby will be assisted by Pietro Poretti, a Swiss jurist specializing on WTO law, who has also just joined Budin. Mr. Poretti received his Licence en Droit (lic.iur) from the University of Fribourg (2002) and his Master in European Law (LL.M.Eur.) from Europa-Institut, University of Saarland (2004). He served from 2004-2005 as a Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute in Bern and worked since 2004 as a consultant on WTO law.

Mr. Crosby can be contacted at :

Budin was established in 1965 and is one of the largest law firms in Geneva. Its legal team currently consists of 28 lawyers who handle all aspects of international business and finance.

Geneva, April 2007