Law Firm News

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Burr & Forman LLP

$18 Million Settlement Approved for Class Action Filed Against TVA
A Federal District Court in Alabama yesterday approved an $18 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that was filed against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Aug. 31, 1999, on behalf of approximately 350 industrial electricity customers. The power customers were represented by two Birmingham, Alabama, law firms: Hare, Wynn, Newell and Newton, LLP, and Burr & Forman, LLP.

The class action alleged that, during the summer of 1998, TVA breached its contracts with certain industrial customers by charging them a “forward purchase adder” that was not allowed by their “Economy Surplus Power” (ESP) contracts. As a result, these customers saw a dramatic spike in their power costs.

For many of these industrial customers, the cost of electricity is a significant portion of their manufacturing or operating expense, so a dramatic increase in their power bill can negatively affect their business operations.

The class action complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Alabama, with Birmingham Steel Corp. serving as the original class representative. After Birmingham Steel filed for bankruptcy, Johns Manville, a Colorado-based company with world-wide business interests, was substituted as the named class representative.

The $18 million settlement represents a near 100 percent recovery of the overpayments made by the class of industrial customers to the TVA.

Burr & Forman LLP partner, Eric D. Franz, stated, “After more than seven years of litigation, we are pleased to have a settlement that provides substantial monetary compensation to all class members.”

According to Mike Ermert, a partner in the Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton, LLP, law firm, “We all want our judicial system to work in a way that results in justice and fairness, both for individuals and large corporations, even when they are opposing the might of the federal government. I am pleased that we’ve reached this settlement and I am confident the TVA customers that we represented feel the same way.”

09-06-2007

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Burr & Forman LLP

Robert Maddox Joins Faculty at MBA’s School of Executive Education
Birmingham Associate Robert Maddox has joined the faculty in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s School of Executive Education. The School was created for senior executive management and is made up of a various programs that relate to success in the real estate finance industry. The first program, “The Future of Structured Transactions”, will be in Phoenix, Arizona, September 19 and 20.

09-06-2007

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Bryan Cave LLP

Burson Joins Bryan Cave LLP in St. Louis
Charles W. Burson has joined the international law firm Bryan Cave LLP as of counsel in the firm’s St. Louis office. He will practice with Bryan Cave’s Corporate Compliance and Defense and Regulatory Affairs, Public Policy and Legislation Groups. Burson most recently served as general counsel, executive vice president and secretary for Monsanto Company, and he is a Visiting Professor at Washington University Law School in Fall 2007.

He has extensive experience with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and with supervising internal and government investigations into foreign and domestic business practices.

Burson was the attorney general for the state of Tennessee from 1988-1997. During that time, he served as president of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and was a member of NAAG’s General Green Marketing Task Force. He also has argued a number of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Burson spent four years in the White House in the Office of the Vice President from 1997-2001 in such roles as legal counsel to the vice president, assistant to the president and chief of staff and counsel to the vice president in the White House. As counsel to vice president Al Gore, Burson advised Gore on governmental investigations relating to the president, members of Congress or cabinet members. He also managed the vice president’s office, advised the vice president on all official matters and served as liaison to the president’s chief of staff and other White House senior staff.

Burson received his J.D. in 1970 from Harvard University Law School, his M.A. in 1968 from Cambridge University and his B.A. in 1966 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

09-06-2007

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Bryan Cave LLP

Firm Earns State Bar 'Pro Bono' Award for Housing Project
A long-term pro bono project out of the Bryan Cave LLP Kansas City office is helping to revitalize neighborhoods, and has earned the firm the Missouri Bar Pro Bono Award. The award will be presented Sept. 28 at the Missouri Bar Annual Meeting.

Since early 2006, Bryan Cave has worked with the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council to pursue abandoned houses in the urban core. The goal is to allow residents in the neighborhood to rehabilitate the properties for new ownership. To date, more than 20 lawyers have worked on the project, contributing more than 900 pro bono hours.

Bryan Cave has considered 65 properties for inclusion in the project. Currently, a team of lawyers in the Kansas City office is actively pursing 17 properties. This includes properties in litigation, properties in which we are working with the property owners to make necessary repairs and properties with respect to which the firm is about to initiate lawsuits. Bryan Cave also is helping the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council in connection with an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court in which a Missouri statute has been challenged.

The lawyers involved are, alphabetically: Perry Brandt, Mark Brennan, Seema Chawla, Jenny Deters, Jennifer Donnelli, Linda Forsythe, Rick Frawley, Jo Friesen, John Fudge, Wendy Garcia, Paul Himmelstein, Chris Javillonar, Becky Jelinek, Rico Kolster, Tammee McVey, Tarun Mehta, Jeremiah Morgan, Megan Redmond, Josh Rowland, Meredith Rund, Staci Schorgl, Purvi Shah, Kristi Wilhelmy, Kent Wittrock and Cassandra Writz.

09-06-2007

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The Law Firm Of Baker & Daniels LLP

Tina Richards Joins Environmental Law Group
Tina Richards has joined Baker & Daniels LLP as an associate in the law firm's construction, environmental law and real property litigation practice group. She has extensive experience in the areas of environmental cost recovery and insurance litigation.

Before joining Baker & Daniels, Richards practiced environmental law at Plews Shadley Racher & Braun LLP and Barnes & Thornburg LLP. In addition to her law firm experience, she served as a Deputy Attorney General for the Indiana Attorney General and as a staff attorney and lobbyist in the Washington, D.C. office of Indianapolis Power & Light Company.

Richards is an active contributor to the Indianapolis community, serving on the board and as a pro bono attorney for Child Advocates, Inc. She is a pro bono attorney for the Protective Order Pro Bono Project and also volunteers with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and Rebuilding Together's Christmas in April program.

Richards graduated from Purdue University in 1995 with a bachelor of science in natural resources and environmental sciences before earning her law degree from the University of North Dakota School of Law in 1998. She received an environmental law certificate from the Lewis & Clark College School of Law in Portland, Oregon, in 1998 and an LL.M. in environmental law from George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 2000.

09-06-2007

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Shearman & Sterling LLP

Shearman & Sterling Advises on Largest Project Financing To Date for Sino-Foreign Joint Venture in China
Shearman & Sterling has advised the lenders, composed of 11 major PRC banks plus Sinopec Finance Company, on the financing of the Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Company Limited (FREP). This joint venture is the first integrated refining and petrochemicals project with foreign participation in China.

The debt facilities for FREP are arranged on a limited recourse basis, including both long-term and working capital facilities in Renminbi and US dollars. The facilities amount to approximately RMB30 billion (US$4 billion). Tenor for the long term facilities will be 20 years for Renminbi and 15 years for US dollars. The activities for the expansion of the existing refinery in Fujian Province and the addition of new petrochemical facilities are expected to be completed in early 2009.

The Shearman & Sterling team was led by partner Andrew Ruff (SH-PDF), working with associates Nick Wang (HK-PDF), Miao Miao (SH-PDF) and Crystal Chen (SH-PDF). Commenting on the transaction, Andrew Ruff said: “We are delighted to act for the lenders on this landmark transaction, which reflects an ongoing appetite on the part of the Chinese banks to apply sophisticated financing structures to large and complex transactions. Having advised on four billion dollar-plus petrochemical financings in China in the last three years, we believe we are extremely well placed for involvement in future large oil & gas and infrastructure projects in the PRC.”

Shareholders in FREP are the Fujian Petrochemical Company Limited (50%), ExxonMobil China Petroleum and Petrochemical Company Limited (25%) and Saudi Aramco Sino Company Limited (25%).

Fujian Petrochemical Company Limited (FPCL) is owned 50% by China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and 50% by the Fujian Government. ExxonMobil China Petroleum and Petrochemical Company Limited (ExxonMobil) is a wholly owned affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation and Saudi Aramco Sino Company Limited is a wholly owned affiliate of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco).

09-06-2007

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Jenner & Block LLP

Jenner & Block Sponsors Lavender Law Conference
Jenner & Block is once again a sponsor of Lavender Law, the annual conference of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA), the national professional bar association of LGBT lawyers, judges, legal professionals and law students. The conference will be held at the Chicago Hilton on September 6-8.

The NLGLA, an affiliate of the American Bar Association, kicked off the return of the Lavender Law conference to Chicago with a reception held on July 31 at the Center on Halsted. Jenner & Block Partner Howard S. Suskin attended the kickoff celebration for the conference, which was last held in Chicago in 1992.

“It is exciting for us to be back in Chicago,” said D’Arcy Kemnitz, NLGLA’s Executive Director, following the kickoff event. “This is going to be the best event ever,” she said and added that they are expecting about 1,000 attendees at the conference, including many “out and proud” members of the judiciary.

Richard Wilson, Chair of the NLGLA, agreed that Chicago will be a great place for the upcoming conference due to its central location and accessibility for travelers. He added that there are many law schools in and around Chicago for students who are interested in attending the conference. “We also have an exceptional proportion of major national law firms headquartered in Chicago,” he said. “It’s a lawyer’s city.”

Jenner & Block has been a supporter of the NLGLA and the Lavender Law conference for many years and through this partnership has enabled law schools to send students to attend the conference. In addition, the Firm’s D.C. office provides office space to the NLGLA at no cost to the organization.

According to Ms. Kemnitz, there has been a huge increase in the number of large law firms participating in Lavender Law. The Lavender Law career fair “gives big law firms the chance to increase diversity in their firms,” she said.

One of the reasons the participation in Lavender Law has increased, Ms. Kemnitz said, may be due to the 2003 decision in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned Texas’ law against “homosexual conduct.” She said this decision made LGBT inclusion in the workplace a “big deal.” “It was hard to be ‘out’ before Lawrence v. Texas,” she said. The Firm, led by Partners Paul M. Smith and William M. Hohengarten, and Lambda Legal worked together, arguing on behalf of the petitioners in the case.

The 2007 Lavender Law conference will feature two dozen workshops on cutting-edge legal issues affecting LGBT individuals and the community. Jenner & Block Partner Paul M. Smith will speak at a panel session about conflicts between the First Amendment rights of Christian student groups and the policies of schools and universities barring discrimination against LGBT students.

In addition to the workshops, Lavender Law will hold a career fair designed to achieve a sense of community and inclusion for LGBT candidates within the legal profession’s recruiting efforts. Jenner & Block Partner Jorge M. Leon and Associate Scott B. Wilkens will serve as the Firm’s representatives at the career fair which is expected to draw about 130 recruiters and 450 LGBT students. “The Lavender Law career fair is a great way to support diversity in the legal profession and continue the Firm’s efforts to recruit diverse talent,” Mr. Leon said.

The career fair will commence with an introductory panel geared at answering candidates’ questions about being “out” in the legal profession. Legal career service and recruitment professionals will discuss critical aspects of the job search from an LGBT perspective, from resumes and interviews to finding and reaching LGBT-friendly legal employers.

09-06-2007

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