Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Firm Adds Corporate Attorneys to Dallas Office
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP announced today that Bruce A. Cheatham and Brice E. Tarzwell have joined the firm as partners in the corporate and securities practice of the firm’s Dallas office. Connie S. Stamets has also joined the firm as counsel. Before joining Bracewell, all three were with the Dallas office of Winstead P.C., where Mr. Cheatham was the head of the corporate and securities section.

Sanford M. Brown and Elizabeth D. Whitaker, Co-Managing Partners of Bracewell's Dallas office, are enthusiastic about the hiring. "We are very pleased to welcome Brice, Bruce and Connie to the firm and look forward to further growth in our corporate and securities practice in Dallas," said Brown. "These lawyers have demonstrated a commitment to professional excellence that makes them a good fit with Bracewell's values as a firm," continued Whitaker, "and this, most importantly, will serve our clients well."

Bruce A. Cheatham primarily represents publicly held companies and has extensive experience in securities regulation, compliance issues, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. He graduated with a Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, and has been practicing corporate and securities law for more than 30 years.

Brice E. Tarzwell has broad experience in corporate and securities matters in the financial institutions, retail, manufacturing and energy industries. He also focuses on public and private offerings, federal and state compliance issues and corporate governance matters. Tarzwell graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Connie S. Stamets advises clients on federal securities and corporate matters, including public company, reporting, corporate governance, and capital raising, with a particular focus on the energy (e&p) industry. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

02-27-2007

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Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Thomas F.A. Hetherington to Address Life Insurance Administration at the Eastern Claims Conference
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP partner Thomas F.A. Hetherington will speak at the annual Eastern Claims Conference, which will be held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City on March 4 – 6.

Mr. Hetherington will contribute to a group presentation of “Hot Topics in Life Claims Administration,” where he will discuss stranger and investor owned life insurance, insurable interest issues, and other topics and trends currently facing the insurance industry.

02-27-2007

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Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Firm Advises Econergy International on Investments in Four Latin American Renewable Energy Projects
Attorneys from Bracewell & Giuliani LLP’s renewable energy and Latin American practice groups recently advised Econergy International PLC, a clean energy and carbon developer, on investments in four Latin American renewable energy projects: the Beberibe wind energy project and the Areia Branca and Pipoca hydroelectric projects in Brazil, as well as the Laja hydroelectric project in Chile.

Bracewell assisted Econergy International in signing a $25.8 million investment agreement with Cataventos and Enventure Partners to develop Beberibe, a 25.5 megawatt wind energy project in the state of Ceará, Brazil. Under the terms of the agreement, Econergy International will own 80 percent of the project, which is expected to begin operating in January 2008 and generate more than 92,000 megawatt-hours of wind energy power per year.

Additionally, Bracewell also assisted Econergy with investments in two 20 megawatt hydroelectric projects in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil: the Areia Branca project and the Pipoca project, which are both slated to begin operating in September 2008. All three of the Brazilian projects are part of federal or state renewable energy programs under which government-owned banks will provide construction financing and government-owned electric utilities will purchase the electric output from these projects for a period of at least 20 years. Econergy is already funding the continued development of Areia Branca.

“These Brazilian investments are the first of their kind for Econergy in Brazil and add to an expanding portfolio for the company as it explores opportunities for future investments,” said Benjamin L. Israel, partner with Bracewell & Giuliani.

In addition to the Brazilian projects, Bracewell’s team led negotiations with Alberto Matthei & Hijos as part of Econergy’s first transaction in the Chilean market. Econergy has committed to invest $9 million for 50 percent ownership in the 25 megawatt Laja hydroelectric project, which is expected to generate an average of 140,000 megawatt hours of energy and 69,000 Certified Emissions Reductions per year. Laja is one of the first new construction projects in Chile that does not rely on fossil fuel and has been hailed as the first of a new series of investments that will reduce Chile’s dependence upon foreign-owned natural gas, oil and coal. The project is expected to enter into commercial operations in the third quarter of 2008.

Econergy International, which has offices in the United States, Brazil and Mexico, currently has 40 clean energy projects underway throughout Latin America that are able to sell carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism. In addition, Econergy also takes equity stakes in projects which yield carbon credits, like wind power, small-scale hydro, bagasse cogeneration and other forms of clean energy.

Bracewell & Giuliani attorneys that advised on these matters include:

Partners: Amauri G. Costa, Benjamin L. Israel, Walter S. Keneally, and Jose Luis Vittor
Associates: Benjamin F. Heard, Jay T. Sonnenberg, Patricia Toledo, and Manuel Vera

02-27-2007

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Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, L.L.P.

Seth Waxman and Danielle Spinelli Commended for Exemplary Legal Writing
Partner Seth Waxman and Counsel Danielle Spinelli have been announced as 2006 honorees for Exemplary Legal Writing by the Green Bag, a quarterly journal devoted to exceptional writing in the legal profession. The awards, now in their second year, will recognize Waxman and Spinelli with one of two awards for the “Briefs and Motions” category. The WilmerHale team was selected for an amicus brief filed in Smith v. Texas.

The Green Bag 2006 honorees for Exemplary Writing are selected by the journal’s board of advisors, which is drawn from the news media, the state and federal judiciary, private law firms and academics from prestigious universities across the nation. The Green Bag’s editor-in-chief describes the journal as an outlet to “promote entertaining, useful and high quality legal writing.” Click here to learn more about the Green Bag.

02-27-2007

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Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, LLP

Willkie Client Ordered Released From Jail in High-Profile Pro Bono Habeas Case
After serving 15 years for murder despite having a credible alibi, Willkie client Jose Garcia has been ordered released from prison. In December 2006, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted Willkie’s request for a writ of habeas corpus in the case of Garcia v. Portuondo. Bronx prosecutors have now decided not to retry the case.

Calling this an “exceptionally troubling case,” Judge Kaplan said that Mr. Garcia was convicted because his original representation “was well below minimal standards of competence.” Willkie lawyers took on Mr. Garcia’s case as a pro bono matter. The judge agreed with Willkie that the 1993 trial, which rested on the testimony of one witness who claimed to have seen the shooting, was completely botched. The judge credited Mr. Garcia with a strong alibi, including documentation that would prove he was out of the country at the time of the murder in question. He said that the jury “heard almost nothing of this alibi.” Judge Kaplan also said that Willkie’s pro bono effort, which was handled by partner Martin Klotz and associates Matthew Bosher and Stephen Vogel, “was in the highest tradition of the Bar.”

Mr. Klotz told the Associated Press that he was “absolutely delighted” that prosecutors did not attempt a retrial, which they would have had to initiate within 60 days of Judge Kaplan’s initial ruling. Willkie will now assist Mr. Garcia in legalizing his status so that he could resume living with his ex-wife and their four children, all of whom are citizens of the United States.

02-27-2007

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Snell & Wilmer, L.L.P.

Snell & Wilmer L.L.P Profile
Snell & Wilmer LLP's employment group prides itself on its honed specialties and inside knowledge of a wide variety of issues in the practice. The firm has always encouraged its attorneys to become solid general lawyers, but also to develop their own specialties, such as employee discrimination, benefits, or occupational safety and health, said Rebecca Winterscheidt, a co-chair of the practice group.

“Our firm not only has expertise like boutique firms have, but we also have specialized sections,” said Winterscheidt, who focuses on sexual harassment and discrimination cases. “The fact that we’re a full-service firm, I think, is very important and adds a lot to our practice. For example, if we represent up-and-coming new companies, that’s where it sits in nicely with Articles Nexis full-service firm, because they might also use our orporate attorneys.

There’s a lot of cross-working with partners in different areas.” Snell & Wilmer started in Phoenix, Ariz., and continues to have a strong base there, particularly in the employment area. The practice group, which has about 25 attorneys, has since spread to offices in Orange County, Tucson, Las Vegas, Denver and Salt Lake City, remaining deeply rooted in the Southwest. As part of its effort to fine-tune its services for clients' needs, the employment group also provides some lectures in Spanish, keeping in step with the area’s booming Spanish-speaking population, said Charles Keller, a practice co-chair who focuses on cases relating to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“For example in Las Vegas recently we to talked to a client that does underground utility work,” he said. “The management people who spoke English heard my lecture, while the first-level supervisors who felt more comfortable speaking Spanish were in the other room hearing the Spanish version. I think Spanish-speaking clients really appreciate that.” The firm only represents defendants in employment cases, but works with Articles Nexis wide range of companies on a variety of cases, said Wintersheidt. Some of her recent cases include defending a large, nationwide retail company in a multi-plaintiff sexual harassment case in a federal court.

Keller primarily represents employers when one of their workers is hurt or dies—a hot area in Arizona at the moment, he said. Nowadays, employers and managers are more and more frequently being investigated and even prosecuted for employee injuries and deaths, Keller said. In the last four years, in states such as Arizona, California and Wisconsin, the state’s attorney has started looking into such cases to decide if the management has committed negligence or gross negligence. “With new statutes, it’s become more prevalent, where a jury will find employers negligent for an employee’s death,” he said. The argument in these cases is often that the employer has provided the safety equipment, but the employee failed to use it. This is known as the unpreventable employee misconduct defense.

In addition to representing clients in lawsuits that arise, Wintersheidt and Keller and their colleagues spend a great deal of time training clients on how to avoid cases and keep them from going to trial. The practice intends to keep growing, but plans to continue basing itself in the Southwest, both attorneys said. “We really have a significant footprint in the Southwest,” Keller said. “If an employer has offices in any of the cities where we have offices, we can really service their needs in all sections.

02-27-2007

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Schiff Hardin LLP

SCHIFF HARDIN LLP NAMED A "TOP 100 LAW FIRM FOR DIVERSITY" BY MULTICULTURAL LAW MAGAZINE
Once again in 2007, Schiff Hardin LLP was named to Multicultural Law Magazine's list of "Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity." This listing started in 2005, and our firm has received this honor every year that it has been awarded.

MultiCultural Law Magazine addresses diversity in the legal profession and focuses on information that is valuable to improving the careers of minority and women lawyers. To see Multicultural Law Magazine's 2007 list of "Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity," visit http://www.multiculturallaw.com/TopLaw.htm.

The 2007 edition of Multicultural Law Magazine goes on sale in April 2007.

02-27-2007

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