Investment: Welcome Invaders

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Too Many Lawyers. Foreign firms easily catch onto the American way of doing business, but many—particularly the British, who are investing heavily in U.S. real estate—complain of the tangle of U.S. laws and of the need to have a battery of high-priced lawyers always on hand to interpret them. Snorted an exasperated Englishman: "In England, lawyers tend to be kept in their proper place as advisers." It may surprise U.S. businessmen, but foreign companies make few complaints about U.S. labor. In fact, Takuji Ohshimo, executive director of the Japanese-owned Alaska Lumber & Pulp Co., finds negotiating with U.S. unions a relief. "Their demands are strictly economic," he says. "This makes it very different from Japan, where labor disputes often get helplessly involved because of class-war cries and political hues."