Ms. Cook chairs the firm’s International Business Group.  She is a business attorney focusing her practice on counseling companies on international and domestic business transactions, joint ventures, customs, export and licensing matters.  She is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America for international trade and finance and in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.”

Susanne’s areas of concentration include:

Mergers & Acquisitions

Domestic and International Joint Ventures and Direct Foreign  Investments

Sales Representation, Distribution and Technology Licensing Agreements

Domestic and International Terms and Conditions of Sale

Country focus:  Germany, Europe, Brazil and Mexico

Education

• J.D. (Order of the Coif, member, Law Review), University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 1988
• B.S., University of Pittsburgh, 1977

Noteworthy

• Selected to be included in The Best Lawyers of America, 2003-2004 edition
• Selected to be included in Philadelphia Magazine’s Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, 2004

Representative Matters

• Routinely represents German and other foreign companies on how to structure their U.S. operations.
• Structured international and domestic product distribution and licensing systems that take into account the limitations imposed by local culture and law while attending to the business needs of the client.
• Negotiated and structured international and domestic acquisitions and joint ventures in the United States and abroad, including China, Korea, Brazil and Mexico, focusing on minimizing and safeguarding intellectual capital.
• Routinely represents clients on how to structure their export and import operations.
• Frequently participates in public speaking opportunities and export seminars. For example, Susanne participated as a speaker in an internationally attended seminar sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Center for International Legal Education concerning the UN Convention for the International Sale of Goods.

Memberships

• Board Member of Western Pennsylvania District Export Council. Assists the U.S. Commercial Service in promoting export throughout the Western Pennsylvania Region.
• Board Member of the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors
• Board member of University of Pittsburgh School of Law Center for International Legal Education. Assists the School of Law in the development and implementation of course offerings and related programs that focus on international, public and private law.
• Technical advisor to the Regional Export Assistance Network of the Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission. Chosen by the Commission in 1996 as the only attorney to advise on export strategies for the seven-county region of Pennsylvania served by the Commission.
• Board member of Duquesne University International Business Advisory Board. Assists Duquesne University in developing course offerings that focus on international business and programs that assist local companies conducting international business.

Professional Activities

• Adjunct Professor of University of Pittsburgh Translation Department
• Adjunct Professor of Duquesne University MBA Program
• Global Trade Institute of Pennsylvania, Legal and Tax – Understanding the Basics

Seminars & Speeches

• Co-presenter, Legal Issues Involved in Doing Business in China, China Outlook Seminar, Pittsburgh, PA (April 14, 1998)

Publications

• Quoted, Lawyers in Space, Cyberspace That Is, As Law Firms Rush to Implement Web Page Marketing, Executive Report (January 1998)
• Author, Cross-Border Shipments of Software:  Pricing Issues to be Considered, Cohen & Grigsby Review (Summer 1997)
• Author, The U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods:  A Mandate to Abandon Legal Ethnocentricity, The Journal of Law and Commerce (16 J.L. & Com. 257 (1997))
• Author, Recent Developments Relating to CISG, The Journal of Law and Commerce (Spring 1997)
• Co-author, Navigating the Rules on Imports, Cohen & Grigsby Review (Spring 1997)
• Co-author, Opportunity Abounds for Exporters Who Understand NAFTA Secrets, Pittsburgh Business Times (November 28, 1994)