BRUSSELS, Belgium, Feb. 14 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Networ…

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Feb. 14 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Dr. Gunter Burghardt, having just completed a successful five-year term in Washington, D.C. as head of the European Commission delegation to the US, announced today he is joining the Brussels office of international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP.

“Ambassador Burghardt has played a pivotal role in strengthening the
transatlantic partnership between the EU and the United States. His
sophisticated understanding of the business needs of transatlantic companies
will be invaluable to our clients,” said Friedrich Merz, former parliamentary
leader of the German Christian Democratic Party and the party’s top tax and
finance expert. Friedrich Merz joined the German practice of Mayer, Brown,
Rowe & Maw on January 1, 2005.

Dr. Burghardt helped expand trade relationships and encourage bilateral
cooperation between the EU and the US, the world’s two largest economies. He
represented European interests in WTO compliance issues and in trade disputes,
such as those involving US steel import restrictions and aircraft
subsidization. Dr. Burghardt also actively promoted the post 1989 German
unification and the accession of Europe’s new democracies.

“Though his tenure encompassed the most trying times of EU/US
transatlantic relations, Dr. Burghardt helped consolidate and expand trade
between the world’s two leading global economies,” commented Mickey Kantor,
the former Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative, and a Partner
in the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. “He played a key
role in the launch of the Doha Development Round and in making the yearly
EU/US summit meetings a success.”

Prior to his ambassadorship to the US, Dr. Burghardt spent many years in
Brussels shaping today’s European Union and its transatlantic relationships.
As the Deputy Chief of Staff for the former European Commission President
Jacques Delors, as the Commission’s Political Director, and as the Director
General for External Relations, he participated in EU constitutional and
institutional developments, including its successive expansion from the
original six members to today’s 25 member states.

“This new chapter of my career offers me the opportunity to help realize
the goal of a barrier-free transatlantic market, working on behalf of the
private sector and its major stakeholders,” Dr. Burghardt explained. “Mayer,
Brown, Rowe & Maw has an excellent reputation on both sides of the Atlantic
for providing advice to major companies on cutting edge legal, regulatory and
governmental issues. I am looking forward to working with a dynamic team
recently enhanced by the arrival of several well-known former colleagues.”

In addition to Friedrich Merz, Gunter Burghardt joins one of Germany’s
leading corporate lawyers, Peter Nagele, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary
of Commerce, James J. Jochum, who came to Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw’s Frankfurt
and Washington DC offices, respectively, in January of this year.

About Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP’s Government Affairs, Regulatory and
Global Trade Practice Group:
Our partners have led, or participated in, the negotiations of many of the
world’s major trade agreements, and have negotiated agreements in almost every
major market around the world, including the European Union, India, China,
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the ASEAN countries, Canada, and Latin America, as well
as Russia and Eastern Europe. We have in-depth knowledge of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation Forum (APEC), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the
Single European Market and other trade pacts that govern global markets.

Our attorneys have held such positions as U.S. Trade Representative, U.S.
Secretary of Commerce, Deputy Solicitor General, Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee, Member of U.S. Congress, Deputy Counsel to the U.S.
President, Illinois Attorney General, US Representative to the UN Commission
on Human Rights, Speaker of the California Assembly, Director of Congressional
Relations INS.

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP is among the 10 largest law practices in the
world with more than 1,300 lawyers practicing in seven U.S. cities and six
European cities.

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