Field Solutions

Launch up Event

May 7, 2015

Geneva

Welcome speech

My dear friends,

Picasso used to say that everything you can imagine is real.

All solutions are inspired in a way or another by our imagination.

Such solutions take their validation from the field.

Combining imagination and field leads to field solutions.

This is how it all started in my head a couple of years ago.

The spinning started smoothly and then it went airborne.

The take off is today and I am very pleased that you joined the flight this evening.

This is how it all started in my head a couple of years ago.

The spinning started smoothly and then it went airborne.

The take off is today and I am very pleased that you joined the flight this evening

Why field solutions ?

Cause it is simple.

Cause it is genuine.

Cause it dares looking beyond.

My college years taught me knowledge.

My field years showed me the real value of knowledge.

And then luck came in to combine preparation and opportunity.

After 15 years in being part of the team which built a major trading company in Geneva,

After establishing a great legal team within this trading company,

Time came to move on and dare to fly higher and look deeper within.

I always had a very pragmatic perception of law specially when combined with business

I had and still do have a very chronic allergy to academic thinking in business law

This allergy turned into chronic disorder towards theoretical and dry legal opinions or legal analysis

Legal opinions which lack the essence of simplicity and courage to hide behind complex terminology and endless sentences.

This is even more devastating in field areas such as Commodities trading.

I remember and I am sure my team remembers the clashes we had with external service providers and top notch law firms

We felt that we were living in different galaxies when we were reading dry opinions without any concrete set aside strategic solutions

We started short listing and rating so that we better serve our corporate clients with some creative solutions

Business lawyering is all about understanding business as much as understanding law of not more

How one can pretend to serve his clients if he does not catch the essence of their business ?

How can you be there with your clients if you do not speak the same language ?

The only place to grab all this knowledge is the field and the field only.

Legal knowledge is assumed but the combination between business and law is what makes you a business lawyer.

My vision started just there.

At Field Solutions we listen first, we learn first and then we tailor solutions

We do not have any ready made recipes

We work with passion but with patience

We counter the attractiveness of complexity with the beauty of simplicity

Our only benchmark is to provide viable solutions

Our only limits are integrity and loyalty

We are permanent apprentices and our added value is sourced from the field to serve the field

Counselling is a very contradictory experience

The only way to live with it is our passion in what we do mingled with our imagination, values and sense of humour

Negotiating the most difficult deal with a sense of humour becomes attractive to everybody even in the most severe ˇadversity

Above all we believe in specialization cause specialization is the only way to look beyond

Specialization does not mean compact and rigid isolation but implies permanent search and research

Take the example of trading and ADR

Integrity means transparency in our remuneration scheme

Transparency implies adapting the remuneration scheme with the clients’ needs to manage expectations

International means networking with reliable partners worldwide

Partners who share the same vision and the same values

Partners you can rely on to provide local legal knowledge but also and more importantly local business intelligence and strategic thinking

Partners to build bridges which can stand for a long time at any circumstance

Partners you can call your friends in the human meaning of the word and not just the artificial one

We also believe in our team and team stands for horizontal management logic where sharing the good and bad times is part of the deal

A team which is an existential component of field solutions values and is a permanent part of its vision

This is what field solutions is all about, going beyond opinions to solutions

I am very happy to have you all with us today

I am also happy that I am standing in front of a cedar tree from Lebanon, my birth land

The cedar represents the calm power of serenity and perseverance

How can I forget my lovely better half Caroline this evening who was always here in my most crazy moments

She is definitely my cedar tree and her serenity and love is what makes the sun shine always within my inner boundaries

How can I forget my friends who are here today that I know for years and who are the real asset of this trip called life

Friends who dare to love you always for what you are

I invite all of you to share great moments this evening over some exquisite Lebanese food prepared by my great friend Fouad

I am thrilled by this new adventure and even more thrilled that this new chapter is a chapter of freedom and passion which are commodities I never traded and I will never trade

Thank you for taking part in this adventure

Thank you for the moments to come and may this event anchor more love and freedom in your hearts

So that together we share the field of life and trigger solutions.

Vicken