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Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A.

Mike Kennedy Receives Two Honors
Phoenix-based Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A., a full service business law firm, announced today that co-founder and shareholder Michael Kennedy has been named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America and has been included in The Phoenix Business Journal's supplement "The Power Book 2006".

Only one of seven attorneys named in Arizona, Mr. Kennedy is included in Lawdragon’s fall 2006 issue featuring the nation’s top lawyers who have had the greatest impact on the legal world. The 500 attorneys named to the list represent less than one-half of one percent of the legal profession, placing Mr. Kennedy among the most elite group of legal professionals.

First published in 2005, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America is the leading guide to the nation’s best lawyers and judges. The list is comprised of private lawyers from a wide range of practices as well as in-house counsel, law professors, judges and neutrals, government attorneys and public interest lawyers.

More than 15,000 attorneys were nominated by their peers and the Lawdragon editorial staff, who then selected and featured 3,000 finalists on Lawdragon.com. The Lawdragon 500 were selected from that group based on a proprietary system that takes into account a myriad of qualifications including journalistic reporting, interviews with clients and colleagues, and a review of practice accomplishments. A survey of lawyers and general counsel also nominated and voted for their peers online.

Also this week, Mr. Kennedy was featured in The Phoenix Business Journal’s supplement “The Power Book 2006”. Fifty leaders in the business community were recognized as “Power Players” – those who made news in the last year or deserve recognition for their recent accomplishments.

11-24-2006

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Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin, Attorneys At Law

Roeger and Barrett to Speak at PaTLA Auto Law Strategies Seminar
Roeger and Barrett to Speak at PaTLA Auto Law Strategies SeminarAttorneys William C. Roeger and Steven B. Barrett will take part in a Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association sponsored seminar series on Auto Law Strategies. The seminars will take place in Philadelphia (Dec. 4), Pittsburgh (Nov. 30), Harrisburg (Dec. 13) and Bethlehem (Dec. 7). Topics to be covered include issues concerning soft-tissue cases, handling UIM cases after Koken, perspectives of the insurance adjuster, understanding what sells to a hostile jury, as well as subrogation.

Roeger and Barrett are both partners in the litigation department at Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell & Lupin, a full service law firm with offices in Lansdale, Perkasie, Limerick and Allentown, PA.

11-24-2006

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Fasken, Martineau & Du Moulin, L.L.P.

Fasken Martineau welcomes new partner: Mtre Stéphane Lalande joins Real Estate practice group
Claude Auger, managing partner of the Québec City and Montréal offices of the law firm Fasken Martineau, is pleased to welcome Stéphane Lalande, who joins the Real Estate practice group as partner.

Mtre Lalande specializes in real estate transactions and real estate financing. He also advises clients on structured financing, notably for commercial mortgage portfolio securitization programs.

Mr. Lalande first worked as a notary at Paquet & Lalande from 1992 to 1999, then went on to work for a law firm. Called to the Bar in 2002, he has since worked for two other prominent Montreal law firms.

"Stéphane Lalande is an asset to our team, which is already well-established and known throughout the real estate sector. As he has practiced both as a notary and a lawyer, he will make a significant contribution to the important mandates entrusted to us in terms of transactions and financing," noted Claude Auger.

Stéphane Lalande will practice out of the Montréal office.

11-24-2006

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Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Texas Jury Awards Conex $98.8M in Commercial Disparagement Suit
A Jefferson County jury this week awarded nearly $100 million to Beaumont-based Conex International Corporation, a joint client of law firms Chambers Templeton Cashiola & Thomas and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, in a closely watched commercial disparagement case.

The jury found in favor of plaintiff Conex on all counts, stating that the Fortune 500 company Fluor Enterprises intentionally interfered with a longstanding business relationship between construction and maintenance service company Conex and Atofina (now part of Total Petrochemicals Inc.) and that interference damaged Conex’s business relationship with Atofina. The jury further found that the defendant published false and disparaging statements about Conex and that publication played a substantial role in persuading others not to deal with the plaintiff. Finally, the jury found clear and convincing evidence that the injury to Conex resulted from a specific intent to cause substantial injury to Conex on the part of Fluor.

The jury awarded Conex $68.8 million in actual damages for contract sums and lost profits, and $30 million in punitive damages, which the jury found for unanimously. The amount awarded to Conex is one of the largest ever for a commercial case in Jefferson County.

“This clearly was a David and Goliath case,” said Conex lead trial counsel Randy Cashiola of Chambers Templeton Cashiola & Thomas. “Essentially, Fluor defamed our client as a way to hurt the sixteen-year-old relationship Conex had with Atofina in the hopes that the refinery would then throw future business to Fluor. This is a classic case of a large company using untruthful information as a tactic to intimidate or stifle local competition like Conex. Most local companies do not have the resources or ability to fight back--Conex did, and according to the jury, was rightfully victorious.”

Conex is among the largest privately-held companies in the Golden Triangle area of Southeast Texas, and it provides construction and maintenance service to refinery companies in several states. Its customers include most oil refineries and chemical plants in that region.

Cashiola added that Atofina was Conex’s first client and Conex had received several commendations from that company for its work over the years, performing numerous projects for them on a regular basis.

Then in 2001, Atofina hired Conex to be the mechanical contractor on a project at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Fluor was also hired to provide certain engineering advice to Atofina on the project. It was in this capacity that Conex alleged that Fluor began making false claims as to Conex’s capabilities to handle the project adequately--claiming that Conex’s specifications for the project didn’t meet industry standards and posed a safety “risk” to the refinery. Among the statements made by Fluor, it charged that Conex work had left “very high residual stresses” in a reactor, which it said would “likely lead to loss of creep life,” implying that the refinery could explode. In fact, Fluor admitted later that its analysis was flawed, and that it had made a mathematical error in calculating the stresses.

“Fluor’s actions not only resulted in Conex losing a substantial amount of money on the individual project, but additional work with Atofina, as the jury recognized, which estimated future lost profits at $50 million,” said Pillsbury Houston partner Richard Hogan, who served as appellate counsel to Conex. “Indeed the jury found that Fluor not only disparaged the plaintiff’s business but committed fraud by making a material misrepresentation knowing that such a claim was false.”

Despite the fact that the jury found for Conex on all counts, Fluor recently announced it plans to appeal, calling the verdict “baseless.”

“Even though we fully expected that the jury would and did find for our client, we anticipated that Fluor would appeal, which is exactly why I advised the client to make the strategic decision to bring on appellate counsel before trial,” said Cashiola. “Clearly this strategy worked, for the moment Hogan came on board, Fluor promptly hired three appellate lawyers, recognizing that Conex wasn’t going to back down. When and if the appeal comes, we’ll be ready for Fluor again.”

The Conex legal team consisted of in-house counsel Hamil Cupero; partners Randy Cashiola and Kent Chambers (Chambers Templeton Cashiola & Thomas); and partners Richard Hogan and Jennifer Hogan and senior associate Matthew Coveler (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).

11-24-2006

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Mayer Brown LLP

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw advises Mandated Lead Arrangers on innovative refinancing of copper and gold mines in Central Africa
International law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw's London mining finance group has advised the Mandated Lead Arrangers, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, BNP Paribas, Fortis Bank and Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG in connection with a five year facility to First Quantum Minerals Ltd., relating to the refinancing and development of copper and gold mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia and Mauritania. The transaction reached financial close on 31 October, 2006.

The refinancing presented a number of challenges, including the co-ordination of the overseas counsel in Canada, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Mauritania, Zambia, Ireland and the DRC. Further, all negotiations in Mauritania and the DRC had to be conducted in French.

The arrangement and taking of security in all relevant jurisdictions presented challenges, but particularly in the DRC. Similarly, managing the concerns of the Political Risk Insurers to cover exposure in the DRC and Zambia provided a unique environment for many of those involved.

The Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw team advising the Mandated Lead Arrangers was led by head of the firm's European Finance Group Ian Coles with finance solicitor Rachel Speight assisted by Sabine Bertin.

McCarthy Tétrault (Mark Frewin in London) advised First Quantum Minerals Ltd. The lenders were advised by Harney Westwood & Riegels LLP in the BVI, Etude Mine Ould Abdoullah in Mauritania, McCann FitzGerald in the Republic of Ireland, Mulenga Mundashi & Co in Zambia and Emery, Mukendi Wafwana & Associés in the DRC.

11-24-2006

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields advises Telereal on £650m securitisation refinancing
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Telereal, which provides property outsourcing services to British Telecommunications plc (BT), on the second refinancing of its existing securitisation. The securitisation originally financed the 2001 acquisition of an initial portfolio of more than 5,500 properties used by BT to provide the UK fixed-line telecommunications network.

The transaction was structured as a 'tap' issue of the existing securitisation and involved issuing five classes of new fixed, floating and zero coupon notes, together with three classes of 'forward purchase' notes to be sold to a committed investor in October 2008, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions. Ambac provided a guarantee of the new Class A and B Notes and also guaranteed Telereal's obligations under certain of the interest rate swaps which, unusually, ranked between the Class A and B Notes.

Chris Barratt, structured finance partner, Freshfields, who led the team commented: 'We are delighted to have advised on this complex and highly successful refinancing and continue to strengthen our relationship with Telereal.'

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's team was led by partners Jeffrey Rubinoff and Chris Barratt (finance), assisted by finance associates Alice King and Louise Allworthy. Tax advice was provided by partner Sue Porter and senior associate Peter Cosmetatos. Real Estate advice was provided by partner Ursula Harriss and associate Andrew Fleetwood.

11-24-2006

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Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, L.L.P.

Dune Capital in Purchase of $1.5 Billion Xanadu Meadowlands Mall
Cleary Gottlieb represented Dune Capital in the purchase, in joint venture with Colony Real Estate Fund, of the Xanadu Meadowlands mall and entertainment destination being developed on sites adjacent to the Meadowlands Continental Arena, home of the New Jersey Devils and Nets, and Giants Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets football teams. The transaction closed on November 23.

Dune and Colony purchased the partially built Xanadu from The Mills Corporation, which has experienced financial distress over the last year, in part related to cost overruns on the massive Xanadu project. When completed in 2008, the Xanadu Meadowlands project is expected to be a 4.8 million-square-foot entertainment destination that will offer visitors a broad array of experiences, including interactive entertainment venues, fine dining, outdoor amusements, runway fashion shows and America's first snow dome for indoor skiing. Meadowlands Xanadu will also offer a luxury hotel and class A office buildings. The project was designed by David Rockwell. Phase 1 of the project, which is currently under construction, will include a 2.7 million square foot mall and family entertainment complex. Dune and Colony will have the option to develop the subsequent phases which will include the hotels, office and expanded entertainment sites.

Xanadu was begun as a partnership between The Mills Corporation (a Public REIT) and Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, in cooperation with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Financing for the original project came from KanAm, which is one of Germany's leading private syndicators and asset managers of international real estate investments. Dune and Colony, as the new lead developers of Meadowlands Xanadu, will be responsible for completing the family entertainment and shopping complex. KanAm and Mills will retain a subordinated interest in Xanadu in recognition of prior investments.

The Dune Real Estate Funds make opportunistic investments in a broad range of real estate-related assets, portfolios, joint ventures and operating companies worldwide. The funds are managed by Dune Capital Management LP, an investment management firm formed by ex-Goldman Sachs bankers Daniel Neidich, Steven Mnuchin and Chip Seelig. Dune Capital Management LP has approximately $2.5 billion of capital under management and is based in New York.

11-23-2006

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