The May 2012 Legal Eagles (Alberta Venture), When it comes to doing business abroad, it pays to plan ahead, looks at how to rules of the game change when you leap into your first international deal–and underscores that in today’s economy, that global deal might come a lot more quickly (and a lot more stealthily) than you might think.

Featuring Joseph Yurkovich, from the Edmonton office of Miller Thomson LLP, and Peter Goode, from the Calgary office of McCarthy Tetrault LLP.

Favourite quote:

In the global sandbox, the rules―and the cultural expectations around the rules―are different. Plenty of lawyers have had the experience with some―well, we don’t want to name the nation, but yes, they’re frequent investors in Alberta business―international parties whose approach to contracts is thus: “If you don’t write into the contract what they’re not allowed to do―especially when the contract has other specific terms relating to rights and obligations―the assumption is, well, I guess we can do that, even though it may seem contrary to the spirit of the agreement,” says Yurkovich.