Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP

Bear Stearns in Connection with Bear Stearns' Financing Arrangements with Blackstone in Acquisition of Equity Office
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is advising Bear Stearns in connection with Bear Stearns' financing arrangements with The Blackstone Group with regard to the announced agreement by Equity Office Properties Trust to be acquired by Blackstone Real Estate Partners, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group, in a transaction valued at approximately $36 billion.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a leading international law firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The Debevoise team was led by partner Matthew T. Golden and counsel Andrew E. Schultz.

11-22-2006

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Chadbourne & Parke LLP

Chadbourne Advised in US$269 Million IPO of Multimedia Polska
Chadbourne & Parke LLP advised Multimedia Polska S.A. in the company's global offering of shares encompassing both a public offering to Polish individual and institutional investors and a private international offering to selected institutional investors outside of Poland.

The IPO, which closed on November 10, was valued at US$269 million. The capitalization value on the Warsaw Stock Exchange as of November 15 was US$715 million.

The offering of shares of Multimedia Polska is the biggest Polish offer in terms of total value in 2006. The first listing of the company's shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange took place on November 13, 2006.

Working on the deal for Chadbourne were Warsaw office managing partner Gabriel Wujek, partner Anna Milosz, and associates Martyna Kaminska-Tabaka, Filip Urbaniak and Tomasz Grygorczuk. Also working on the deal were Claude S. Serfilippi, managing partner of the London office, and associates Shane de Burca and Joanna Wylomanska from the New York office.

Over the last two years, Chadbourne has been involved in 14 IPO deals globally with a total value approaching US$2 billion.

11-22-2006

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Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Bracewell & Giuliani Partner to Join Texas Lawyer Corporate Governance Roundtable Discussion
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP partner Michael W. Tankersley will speak at the Texas Lawyer Roundtable on Corporate Governance on Thursday, Nov. 30 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas. This CLE accredited event will be held from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Topics discussed will include the role of general counsel in advising a company’s board of directors on corporate governance matters and the difficult issues that can arise when general counsel is asked to maintain confidences exchanged in executive sessions of the board and not disclose them to other members of management.

“With the recent HP corporate spying scandal and option backdating making headlines, the relationship between corporate counsel and the board is receiving increased scrutiny,” said Mr. Tankersley. “Lawyers employed by corporations need to think carefully about how their actions affect the corporation, the board and their personal exposure.”

Also on slate for discussion will be the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and related SEC rules that have subjected the actions of corporate counsel to increased regulatory oversight by the SEC. Mr. Tankersley’s panel will discuss the extent to which these developments have given general counsel more power to say “no” to officers and directors when they are concerned about the legal risk of proposed actions.

Mr. Tankersley leads the corporate practice in Bracewell’s Dallas office. He has more than 25 years of experience advising senior executives, boards and shareholders of public and private companies on a variety of issues spanning corporate governance and compliance, internal investigations, capital markets transactions and restructuring troubled companies and investments.

Additionally, Mr. Tankersley is co-author of Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis, a 120-page handbook for public company directors published by the National Association of Corporate Directors. The book, which received a 2006 Burton Award for Legal Achievement, guides corporate directors through the business, financial, legal and communications issues surrounding crisis situationsand also highlights the importance of planning for crises before they occur.

11-22-2006

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

Worth Magazine Names Partner Michael Fay among "Top 100 Attorneys" in America for the Second Consecutive Year
WilmerHale Partner Michael Fay, the longest serving member of the firm's Private Client Department, has been named to Worth magazine's "Top 100 Attorneys List." This is the second consecutive year Michael Fay has been included in this prestigious list of the leading lawyers in the nation serving affluent individuals' personal and family needs.

In the selection process for its "100 Top Attorneys" list, Worth’s editors evaluated attorneys specializing in trusts and estates, philanthropy, elder care, matrimonial and other private practice areas. Specifically, they looked for professionals who combined exceptional legal expertise with outstanding interpersonal skills and great tact. The list, which will be published in the December 2006 issue of Worth magazine, is the result of hundreds of nominations by readers, as well as those provided by financial advisors, family office executives, accountants, consultants, academics and others who work with or closely monitor attorneys.

Michael Fay has 30 years of experience in representing high net worth clients and their families. He is the former chair of the department and has served as a member of the firm's Pro Bono Committee for over 25 years.

11-22-2006

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White & Case, LLP

First DPR Securitisation with Multilateral Involvement
White & Case advised JSC Alliance Bank ("Alliance Bank"), the fourth largest commercial bank in Kazakhstan in terms of assets, on the first future flow securitisation of Diversified Payment Rights ("DPRs") to be guaranteed by a multilateral development bank. It is also Alliance Bank's debut securitisation of DPRs. The deal follows on from Kazakhstan's first ever public future flow securitisation of DPRs in late 2005, a $300 million Floating Rate Note issue for JSC Kazkommertsbank in which White & Case acted for West LB AG and JPMorgan.

In the current transaction, Alliance Bank issued a two-tranche $200 million bond via a Special Purpose Vehicle, Alliance DPR Company, incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. The bond comprised $100 million Series 2006A 5.1% Fixed Rate Notes due 2013 ("Series 2006A Notes") and $100 million Series 2006B 7.37% Floating Rate Notes due 2013 ("Series 2006B Notes"). Merrill Lynch and HSBC acted as Joint Lead Managers.

DPRs included in the sale originate from transactions generated offshore, such as export-related payments, foreign direct investment payments and personal remittance payments. Such DPRs are processed through Alliance Bank's network of correspondent banks and credited by Alliance Bank to beneficiaries' accounts in Kazakhstan.

The Series 2006A Notes were guaranteed by the Asian Development Bank, thereby covering the financial risks of investors in the Notes. Due to this unprecedented event in the international debt market, the Series 2006A Notes obtained the lowest ever margin (LIBOR+15 basis points) in the history of similar transactions. The Series 2006A and the Series 2006B Notes were assigned issue ratings of "AAA" and the investment rating of "???-" by Fitch respectively. The issue was four times oversubscribed.

"Kazakhstan's banking sector has grown rapidly in the last five years, with lending volumes increasing by an average of more than 40 per cent per year and institutions benefiting from enhanced creditworthiness and commercial profiles. The Asian Development Bank's participation in this issue reflects not only its confidence in the financial strength of Alliance Bank, but also in the Kazakh banking sector as a whole," commented David Barwise, the lead White & Case partner on the deal.

The Kazakh economy continues to grow at a robust rate (7.4% for the first half of 2006), but it remains heavily biased towards oil exports, with both small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and manufacturing underrepresented in the economy. A key factor in stimulating growth of the SME sector is free and sustained access to capital. This was the principal driver of the Asian Development Bank's involvement, since the proceeds of the transaction will be used to fund Alliance Bank's SME and retail lending.

"Securitisation has emerged as one of the primary means of capital formation in the US and Europe, but is still in its nascent stages in Asia," added David Barwise. "However, the market is gaining momentum and we believe the pace of growth will accelerate as both originators and investors continue to gain confidence."

White & Case has worked with clients in Kazakhstan since 1992. Recently the Firm represented Morgan Stanley as Sole Lead Manager in the first Kazakhstan Tenge denominated Eurobond to be issued on the international capital markets, as well advising JSC KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, a subsidiary of NC KazMunaiGas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company, on its IPO, which raised $2.03 billion. In addition, the Firm acted for JSC Kazkommertsbank in its global $845 million offering of Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) to institutional investors on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

The White & Case team advising Alliance Bank was led by London-based partner David Barwise, working closely with associates Simon Morgan, Harsha Barot and Sam Yau in London; partner Yuriy Maltsev and associate Maxim Grekov in Almaty; and partner Ulf Kreppel and associates Nicolas Wittek and Ivonne Herzog in Frankfurt.

11-22-2006

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Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP

Sheppard Mullin Named "Best at Understanding the Client's Business" by BTI Consulting Group
Sheppard Mullin has been recognized as "Best at Understanding the Client's Business" by BTI Consulting Group in its Survey of Client Service Performance for Law Firms: The BTI Client Service A-Team 2007. More than 250 corporate counsel at large and Fortune 1000 companies were surveyed about how they define outstanding client service.

11-22-2006

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Thelen, Reid, Brown, Raysman & Steiner, LLP

Bankruptcy Lawyers Adjust to Drought
San Francisco-based partner Richard A. Lapping is quoted in this article on the decrease in major companies filing for bankruptcy in 2006.

. . ."It was a terrific time for the bankruptcy bar: You had K-mart and United Airlines-we did work with Aloha Airlines," said Richard Lapping, co-chair of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner's bankruptcy and creditors' rights group. "These were huge bankruptcy cases that meant a lot of work for a lot of lawyers."

Lapping, like other bankruptcy lawyers, said that trend might return.

"There's a little bit of tension in the economy, and we're getting calls that there may be work in the offing looking forward.

11-22-2006

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