INSIGHT

EXPERIENCE

COMMON SENSE

Law Offices

Law Offices of Joseph Smallhoover EL is a boutique firm specializing in common sense solutions for businesses, business people and family offices whose activities raise cross-border legal issues.

Advice

We advise on cross border commercial transactions, corporate law and acquisitions, trust and estate administration, compliance issues (such as data protection, anti-corruption, whistleblowing) art law, entertainment law (particularly in music and the performing arts), copyright and intellectual property and IT law, international estate issues, estate administration and international dispute resolution and arbitration.

Clients

Our clients include listed companies, privately held businesses and family offices; individuals; Family and business trusts; private clients; and governmental entities outside the United States.

JOSEPH SMALLHOOVER

My career as a legal adviser has been extremely exciting and varied, spanning numerous countries on six continents (excluding only Antarctica where I had no internet connectivity). It has taken me from Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, where I qualified as an attorney, to Paris, where I established and managed the French offices of two international law firms, as well as Frankfurt and Brussels.

 

I help multinational businesses and financial institutions in the commercial, corporate and financial sectors deal with issues such as compliance, financial regulation, data protection and privacy, anti-corruption, multi-level marketing and customs and trade law.

 

I also advise sovereign governments, handle crisis management situations, assist on mergers and acquisitions and manage a wide variety of litigation matters, ranging from major infrastructure projects to complex international financial disputes, as well as contract and labor law disputes.

 

My practice also includes advising family and business trusts and family offices with respect to their administration, as well as private Clients, Performers and artists and other internationally active business people.

 

I have taught courses on international business transactions, international dispute resolution, US constitutional law, and the common law system.

 

I have written numerous articles, both scholarly and more practice oriented. And I have spoken on a wide spectrum of related topics, from bankers’ liability, to the Millennium bug, the law of beer, and issues facing LGBTQ+ families.

 

I have been active in a broad variety of charitable, civic, political, and religious activities, including  notably The American Chamber of Commerce in France and Duke University Alumni Club of France.

CROSS-BORDER LEGAL ISSUES

INTERNATIONAL LAW

Services

Law Offices of Joseph Smallhoover EL is a boutique firm specializing in common sense solutions for businesses and business people whose activities raise cross-border legal issues.

Working Together

Having lived and worked in a dozen cities in five countries across two continents, and advised on matters on every continent except Antarctica, Joseph Smallhoover has developed a keen sense of cultural awareness and a sensitivity to what is possible, where and how.  He understands that clients seek advice on how to resolve problems, not doubts about why something may not be done or a resolution cannot be found. His language skills and broad experience working across cultures and across borders and time zones work to the advantage of clients, even when the advice is local and monolingual. Over the years he has perfected a pro-active approach, often advising clients of solutions before they’ve even recognized that they have a problem that needs solving.  It goes without saying that he is readily contactable even at odd hours and in distant places.

Joseph Smallhoover is well versed in his chosen areas of expertise. But he also knows what he doesn’t know and when it is time to seek advice and counsel from his large network of lawyers in other fields or other jurisdictions.

Here is what one client said:

“I have retained and worked closely with Joe for over 20 years in the course of my work as executive vice president and general counsel of a NYSE corporation engaged in global manufacturing of products involving advanced technologies. Throughout the years Joe has provided astute legal counsel from initiation to final implementation of each project for which he was a principal advisor.”

Joe’s combined US and European experience is especially useful where multi-jurisdictional and cultural considerations are important. Joe also brings a practical business lawyer’s viewpoint to the search for solutions where more than just legal analysis is needed to achieve the desired goal.

GET IN TOUCH

On the Phone

USA
M: +1.626.379.1995


France
M: +33.6.08.37.14.12

Face to Face

500 Grant Street, Suite 2900 – 199
Pittsburgh PA 15219


32 Avenue Kléber
75116 Paris

Law Offices of Joseph Smallhoover EL