During its efforts to secure economic incentives for its $1 billion manufacturing plant near Chattanooga, Volkswagen AG steered legal questions to Balch & Bingham partner Alex Leath.

Now the question becomes, what law firm will the German auto giant pick as its regular outside counsel for future matters in the U.S.? Balch is a contender for the prize assignment, Leath said. Chattanooga-based Miller & Martin is also bidding on the VW job, according to attorneys familiar with the law firm's plans.

Additionally, lawyers are also scrambling to represent other local governments in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama that wish to lure suppliers that want to locate near VW’s first U.S.-based manufacturing plant, Leath said.

Leath, who is based in Birmingham, Ala., is not a newcomer to this type of legal work. Leath’s resume includes a stint advising the state of Alabama on negotiating incentives with Mercedes-Benz for a plant in Vance, Ala.; and another project advising Toyota on its plans for an assembly facility in Mississippi. His clients have also included Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Motors.

“Probably no lawyer in the Southeast has benefited from the re-industrialization of the South more than the one you’re talking to,” said Leath [photo, right].

In addition to the winning site in southeastern Tennessee, VW also looked at sites in Alabama and Michigan. Leath advised VW on the site-selection process and has continued advising VW on implementing its economic-incentive package and on negotiating details on construction agreements.

Among the incentives is a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, in which Volkswagen has agreed to pay 29.23 percent of its Hamilton County, Tenn. property taxes between 2010 and 2039, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. After that, VW will pay 100 percent of its property tax bill.

VW’s plant will be located at the 1,300-acre Enterprise South industrial park east of Chattanooga. The 1.9 million-square-foot plant will build mid-sized sedans for the North American market, is expected to employ about 2,000 people, and is projected to begin operations in 2011, according to the Times Free Press.

Leath led a team of about 45 lawyers from Balch in a slew of practice areas, including environmental, real estate, labor and employment, corporate, tax, utilities, and railroad and trucking regulations. The Balch lawyers were spread out among the firm’s offices in Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala., and in Jackson, Miss.

Other attorneys who were involved in the economic-benefits package offered to VW, according to Leath, include: Miller & Martin partner Evan Allison in Chattanooga, who advised Hamilton County on real estate issues; Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor; Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development General Counsel Stephanie Tisdale; and Chattanooga City Attorney Randy Nelson.

Hunton & Williams partner Robert Lockwood says his law firm has developed a symbiotic relationship with Denmark’s trade commission.

Danish companies looking to break into the U.S. market rely on Lockwood and his Hunton colleagues for legal advice on setting up shop in America. Hunton relies on its partnership with the Trade Commission of Denmark for a stream of new clients.

Consider the case of Mosbaek A/S, a Danish manufacturer of regulators used to control the flow of water in wastewater treatment plants. After handling some of Mosbaek’s legal work with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Hunton is now taking on new work for Mosbaek, which wants to expand its sales in the U.S. Lockwood and partner Eric Hanson are exploring whether it makes more sense for Mosbaek to go it alone in its American strategy, or whether the company should form a strategic partnership or a formal joint venture with a U.S. company.

Mosbaek first set up shop in America through the Danish trade council’s Accelerator program, which provides Danish companies with pre-established office space and a contact sheet for U.S.-based business advisers. Hunton is one of those advisers and the firm is frequently called upon by the trade office to provide a bevy of legal services to these Danish entrepreneurs, ranging from intellectual property to software licensing agreements to employment to privacy law.

“These are established Danish companies that already had a product or service in place,” Lockwood said. “They’re not looking for funding. They’re looking to penetrate the U.S. market.”

Other companies with whom Hunton developed a relationship through the Danish trade office include Celenia Software A/S, which develops applications for Microsoft software; shoemaker Euro-Dan Sko A/S; and Get Inside A/S, which makes software that creates three-dimensional visuals of real estate properties.

The Trade Commission of Denmark is an agency attached to Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The commission is based in Atlanta.

Arnall Golden Gregory partner John L. Gornall Jr. has been a facilitator of the Korean invasion of Middle Georgia.

Gornall and other AGG lawyers have advised four separate Korean companies on negotiating economic incentives for their new manufacturing plants in Middle Georgia. The AGG attorneys have also advised the companies on sundry other matters, including real estate, supplier contracts and environmental permits. The plants will supply the Kia Motors Corp. manufacturing facility under construction near West Point.

Hyundai Mobis will build a 310,000-square-foot plant to supply assorted auto parts to Kia. Glovis will build a 558,131-square-foot plant to provide auto parts and provide logistics services. Both the Hyundai Mobis and Glovis facilities will be located on the site of the Kia plant.

Dongwon Autopart Technology is building a 120,000 to 150,000-square-foot plant in Meriwether County where it will build door frames, side impact beams, roof molding, side absorbers and cross bars. And Kumho Tire Co. is building its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Bibb County. Kumho will supply not only Kia, but other automotive manufacturers located in the Southeast, Gornall said.

With all four clients, AGG teamed up with the law firm Kim & Chang of Seoul, South Korea.

AGG was able to nab the clients because of the firm’s previous work on behalf of the state of Georgia in its talks with Kia, Gornall said. The Kia plant, to be located off Interstate 85 about three miles east of the Alabama state line , will assemble small sedans and is expected to be fully operational in late 2009. It will be Kia’s first manufacturing plant in the U.S.

Although there was no formal, written agreement between Kia Motors and the state of Georgia that Kia’s suppliers would locate in the state, it has ended up that most suppliers have picked Georgia, Gornall said.

“One thing that I’ve been impressed with, Kia just had a gentlemen’s agreement with the state in that they would urge their suppliers to locate in Georgia,” he said. “They have certainly done that.”

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