4th of July Fireworks in Manhattan

On Friday evening June 29, 2005, the FALA gathered at the New York City apartment of Robert Alan Saasto overlooking the East River. President of the FALA in the U.S.A., to celebrate the appointment of Tomi Asanti Esq. as the Executive Director of the FALA in Europe and Henrikki Harsu, Esq. as the President of the FALA in Europe.

Mika Partanen, Esq., an attorney in New Jersey, was officially welcomed as a new member. It is hoped and anticipated that Tomi and Henrikki will seek out and encourage Finnish lawyers living abroad to join the association. FALA already has several members in Finland, London and Brussels.

Tomi Asanti of Helsinki, Finland joined the law firm of Holland & Knight for June and July of 2005 as a foreign lawyer working in the corporate area. Holland & Knight has many Finnish companies as clients including Kone Corporation where Tomi has been working extensively with the top management in Finland as Legal Counsel, particularly dealing with mergers and acquisitions. Kone Corporation had net sales amounting to approximately US$4 Billion in 2004, and is a major Finnish industrial corporation manufacturing elevators, escalators and automatic building doors.

Tomi received his Law Degree from the University of Turku in 1999 and his L.L.M. from Columbia in 2004. Tomi attended various studies at Stockholm University School of Law where he focused on intellectual property rights and international taxation; University of Louisville where he was a visiting scholar and wrote a thesis on “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Country Judgments in U.S. Courts”; and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland where he spent an exchange year focusing on European law and private international law. He was a trainee at the firm of Gilbert, Segall and Young LLP from October 1999 through March 2000. Thereafter, he was with the White & Case law office in Helsinki for four years.

Tomi is fluent in Finnish, English Swedish and speaks French and German. Tomi is an enthusiastic golfer and sailor. He spent time as a Navy Seal with the Finnish Navy during the compulsory Finnish army service. attorney with the law firm of White & Case in Helsinki. He started that position after having obtained his Masters of Law degree from Fordham Law School as the recipient of the Mettala Foundation scholarship. He is currently in the U.S.A. on vacation to spend time with his bride Lauren Hakala, Esq., who is an FALA member (as well as her father Tom Hakala who is the Treasurer of the FALA).

Lauren works for the prestigious Wall Street law firm of Cleary & Gottlieb. Henrikki and Lauren met while Henrikki was at Fordham Law School. They plan to “compromise” and live and work in London. The engagement party will be held in New Jersey on August 28, 2005 and the wedding is planned for August of 2006 in Helsinki.

FALA new member Mika Partanen, Esq. received his law degree from Helsinki Law School. His master’s thesis in law was about the extraterritorial reach of high-tech export regulations. In 1987 he participated in the Philip I. Jessup International Moot Court Competition in Boston, MA, as a member of the University of Helsinki team. During his law studies he completed several internships in law and banking in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Austria. In addition, he received an MBA at the University of Michigan. He is now contemplating re-entering the legal field through completion of a L.L.M. with an emphasis on intellectual property rights here in the U.S.A.

Robert Alan Saasto