Attorney David J. Correira has returned from Croatia after spending three weeks at Rijeka University School of Law as a guest law professor. The visit was one of several he has undertaken in the last several years under the auspices of the Center for International Legal Studies in Salzburg, Austria.

While at Rijeka, he conducted seminars for advanced graduate students on the topics of conflicts of law and private international law. The focus of the discussions included American civil litigation, business law, and taxation – with comparisons to the European Union and the Croatian system.

His second lecture series for new law students included a discussion of comparative federalism and constitutional law along with tariff and tax treaties; again with the comparison to the European Union and Croatia.

According to Attorney Correira, “Next year in 2013, Croatia, a former Yugoslav Republic will become a member of the European Union; and trade and tourism with Western Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States is expected to grow exponentially over the next twenty years. New lawyers will need to understand these other countries and their legal systems in order to properly represent their clients.”

He also notes that “the program which coordinates the exchange of America lawyers and judges from Salzburg, is designed to foster dialogue with Eastern European nations and former Republics of the Soviet Union.  Also, it provides lawyers and judges who participate with expanded views of international law as more and more persons move back and forth from America to Europe.”

“Even for me in my practice, it is helpful,” he explains. “Each year we see clients who are married where one spouse is not a citizen of the United States which complicates personal financial and estate planning.”

Last year, Attorney Correira was a guest lecturer in Lithuania at Romeris University School of Law and in Latvia at Rezekne University School of Law. He has also been a guest lecturer and visiting lawyer at Salzburg University School of Law and at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. The Salzburg program has been affiliated with Suffolk University Law School where Attorney Correira has been a member of the advanced legal studies faculty. He has also been a member of the adjunct faculty at his alma mater the New England School of Law in Boston where he has taught courses in advanced estate planning; and the taxation of estates, gifts, and trusts.