Two lawyers from Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. were among 17 people recognized as outstanding volunteers by The Milwaukee 7 at its recent advisory council meeting: Christine Liu McLaughlin, shareholder and member of the Labor & Employment Practice Group in the firm’s Milwaukee and Waukesha offices, and Mark C. Witt, shareholder and member of the Corporate Practice Group in the firm’s Milwaukee office. The awards were presented in appreciation of McLaughlin’s and Witt’s professional connections that helped open the door to many CEOs during the Milwaukee 7 CEO Call Program.

The Milwaukee 7, launched in September 2005, was formed to create a regional, cooperative economic development platform for the seven counties of southeastern Wisconsin: Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Waukesha and Washington. The CEO Call Program includes a team of 135 volunteers who have visited with the CEOs of 450 companies to aggregate information for a more systematic understanding of the business climate and address concerns to help attract, retain and grow diverse businesses and talent.

Christine Liu McLaughlin
McLaughlin provides counsel on an array of issues including hiring, discipline and termination; family and medical leave; federal and state disability discrimination; federal and state civil rights and fair employment; sexual and other unlawful harassment; workplace violence; contingent workforce; and affirmative action and compliance. She has conducted workshops and seminars on these and other employment law topics in Wisconsin as well as nationally. Additionally, McLaughlin was instrumental in the creation and implementation of Legal Resource Training, Godfrey & Kahn’s interactive training service initiated as a proactive tool to help clients avoid employment litigation.

McLaughlin is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and the Human Resource Management Association of Southeastern Wisconsin.

Mark C. Witt
Witt’s practice is focused on business law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, private equity and venture capital. Mark has been involved in numerous public and private business transactions as counsel to buyers, sellers, lenders and investors. He also is experienced in international business transactions and restructurings, including private equity and hedge fund investments in Asia. He assisted with the creation of Godfrey & Kahn's Shanghai office.

Witt serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the YMCA Holton Youth Center, and is a member of the Advisory Board of WIN-Milwaukee, and the Board of Directors of the Milwaukee Curling Club.

Founded in 1957, Godfrey & Kahn maintains offices in Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton, Green Bay, and Waukesha, WI; Washington, DC; and Shanghai, PRC. With more than 190 attorneys, Godfrey & Kahn provides legal and business advice to clients ranging from small businesses and governmental entities to large privately and publicly held national and international companies.

http://www.gklaw.com

South Korea plans to start free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the European Union (EU) as early as next month with the goal of striking an accord by 2008.

"Should the EU members reach an internal consensus by the end of this month, Korea and the EU could hold the first round of FTA talks in Seoul in early May,'' said Kim Han-soo, a director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT).

The EU is the second largest market for Korean exports following China. Last year Korea's exports to the European economic bloc reached $49.2 billion, exceeding $43.2 billion to the United States.

Days after Korea concluded its free trade talks with the U.S. on April. 2, Seoul officials began to stress the necessity of signing pacts with other economic superpowers such as China and the EU.

The EU also has been showing eagerness to establish an FTA with Korea since the latter started bilateral negotiations with the U.S. last June.

Korea and the U.S. held negotiations in 19 sectors but the number of negotiation sectors with the EU is expected to remain at about 10, government officials said.

About 50 Korean negotiators are expected to engage in the talks with the EU, compared with 150-180 in talks with the U.S.

Despite the smaller scale, the negotiation period could be longer than the KORUS FTA talks which were wrapped up in 10 months after the first round of talks in June 2006.

The two sides have the goal of concluding the talks by the end of 2008. But unlike the Korea-U.S. agreement in which the U.S. struggled to end the talks three months before George W. Bush's trade promotion authority (TPA) _ granted by the U.S. Congress _ expires on July 1, 2007, there is no time limit in the coming Korea-EU FTA talks.

They are likely to engage in heated debates in opening such sectors as the automobiles, agriculture and pharmaceuticals markets.

European countries including Germany, France and the United Kingdom will focus on the Korean automobile and agricultural markets while Korea will set its sights on electronic products and motor vehicles.

Effects from the removal of tariff barriers will be relatively high given the average tariff imposed on Korean products by EU members reaches 4.2 percent compared with about 3 percent by the U.S.

In 2005, the EU's gross domestic product reached $13.5 trillion, compared with $12.5 trillion of the U.S. and $4.6 trillion of Japan.

"Following the FTA with the U.S., now we expect to strike a deal with the EU quickly,'' Minister of Finance and Economy Kwon O-kyu told reporters last Wednesday. He also said it is very important to sign a deal with China.

Last August, Lee Hee-beom, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), said he wants Korea to push for an FTA with the EU if the European economic bloc wishes to negotiate one.

The EU is also moving to hold free trade talks with other countries including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But its FTA targets do not involve the U.S. or Japan.

Only two developed nations _ Canada and Australia _ have signed FTAs with the U.S.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang blasted a new human rights report released by the US Department of State as being inconsistent with "basic facts" Saturday, characterizing it as unsubstantiated and slanderous to the human rights conditions in China. The annual report on US efforts to support human rights and democracy abroad was delivered to Congress Thursday in compliance with the FY 03 Foreign Relations Authorization Act.

The report criticized the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) for suppressing the human rights of those "perceived to threaten the legitimacy or authority" of the party; Qin responded that China has received international acclaim for its protection of human rights, freedom of expression and fundamental liberties of all of its various ethnic groups. Qin noted that there is a consensus amongst the international community that the "United States is not in the position to depict itself as a human rights watchdog," and that the United States should examine its own human rights practices, and refrain from applying double or multiple standards as a pretext to intervene in the domestic affairs of states. Qin stated that doing so would remove the barriers between serious interstate dialogue concerning human rights.

The report, the fifth annual submission, is intended to complement the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which highlight and publicize foreign rights abuses. Since 1998, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has published a responsive annual report titled the Human Rights Record of the United States.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments on Friday to take immediate action following the release of a UN report on impacts of climate change.

The secretary-general welcomed the release of the findings of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a statement issued by his spokesperson said.

"He notes with concern that the impacts of climate change are increasingly noticeable, and likely to become more so in the future as extreme weather events intensify," it said.

"Adequate, large-scale adaptation measures have the potential to alleviate some of the worst consequences outlined in the report, if governments take action without delay," the statement said.

"The secretary-general hopes that the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change will work decisively towards a comprehensive framework to replace the existing regime once it expires in 2012,"it said.

"He hopes the parties will avail themselves of the opportunity to make progress towards such a framework at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali in December this year," it added.

Climate experts on the IPCC warned in the report that impacts of global warming, ranging from water and food shortages to rising seas, are set to adversely affect human's living environment. ?

Orwig says he began looking for a job with a private firm prior to the controversy involving the Department of Justice and eight U.S. Attorneys who claim they were removed for political reasons.

He says the move to a private firm is the best decision for his family.

"I have two children in college with a third soon to join them," Orwig told KFDM News in a telephone conversation Friday afternoon. "A move to private practice was inevitable."

Orwig officially took office as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas on January 13, 2002.

Monica M. Goodling, one of the key aides who took part in planning the firings of eight US Attorneys who was formerly on voluntary leave from her post as special counsel to the US Attorney General, submitted her resignation without cause Friday. Goodling's resignation, effective Saturday, is the third by a Department of Justice official involved in the controversy. On Tuesday, Goodling told the House Judiciary Committee that she would not speak to the committee about her role in the firings, and stated through her lawyer, John Dowd, that she would seek protection under the Fifth Amendment if the committee issued her a subpoena.

Documents and records released by the DOJ in late March show that Goodling participated in multiple meetings planning the firings over a period of 12 months. Goodling was also involved in a April 6, 2006 telephone conversation with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM). Domenici had complained to the Bush administration concerning the speed of former Albuquerque US Attorney David Iglesias' investigation of local Democrats before the November 2006 elections. Dowd characterized any questioning of his client a "perjury trap" while citing the recent conviction of Lewis Libby in the CIA leak case.

On Monday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, rejected attempts by the Bush administration to move up the date that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is scheduled to testify. In March, Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Gonzales, who had resigned, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the prosecutors were fired for political reasons rather than for poor performance as the Justice Department has claimed.

Thailand blocked YouTube on Wednesday after its owner, Google Inc., refused to remove the slideshow of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The initial video, which was withdrawn Thursday, showed pictures of feet over the king's head -- a major cultural taboo in Thailand, where feet are considered dirty and offensive -- and graffiti scrawled over the 79-year-old monarch's face. At least one still frame from the video remained on the site.

A variation of the withdrawn video reappeared Friday, along with another one that showed a picture of the king superimposed with a monkey's face. It also carried messages with profanities and said Thailand's "leaders are evil and hate free speech."

YouTube said Thailand's information ministry was having difficulty blocking individual videos.

"While we will not take down videos that do not violate our policies, and will not assist in implementing censorship, we have offered to educate the Thai ministry about YouTube and how it works," said Julie Supan, head of global communications for YouTube.

"It's up to the Thailand government to decide whether to block specific videos, but we would rather that than have them block the entire site," she said.

Insulting the monarchy in Thailand is a crime. Last week, a Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for vandalizing portraits of the king.