Bluestone Law International was asked by the Office of International Trade, of the U.S. Small Business Administration to participate on April 13, 2010 and on April 15, 2010, in its Export Training Assistance Program (ETAP) to present sessions on the legal aspects of international transactions to executives from local community banks in Maryland and Washington, D.C. The sessions, were presented by Stephen L. Bluestone, Managing Director, and Zachary Bluestone, Vice President. Areas covered included initial due diligence before entering into a transaction, risks of doing business internationally, favorable contracts and transactional documents, asset and payment protection devices and practices, and debt recovery capabilities and alternatives.

The SBA pilot project consisted of a seven session program which was held in both Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The program commenced with a session on International Trade History with further sessions dealing with such topics as finance, federal and state agencies, and the roles of freight forwarders and custom brokers. The Program was also attended by SBA District staff specializing in international trade from each of the two regions and state and county small business counselors. At the end of the last session, the "students" were presented by the respective SBA regional directors with diplomas, memorializing their completion of the Program.

To assist banks which were in attendance during these sessions, as well as other community banks throughout the country, many of which will be attending future SBA sessions, BLI is putting together a booklet containing the materials presented during its session on legal aspects on international transactions.

While the preparation of the booklet is on-going, we have attached the document we used to guide our discussion, entitled Overview of Legal Aspects of International Transactions for SBA International Trade Program.