Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Duane Morris, LLP

Duane Morris Appoints Atkinson Chief Diversity Officer
International law firm Duane Morris LLP is pleased to announce that it has appointed partner Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr. as the firm's first Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). In this role, Nolan, a distinguished member of the Trial Practice Group and chair of the firm's Diversity Committee, will lead the development and implementation of programs that foster recruitment of and success for diverse attorneys throughout the firm.

Serving in his new capacity, Nolan will act as the principal manager for all of the firm's diversity-related efforts. His primary duty will be to ensure that all members of the firm are acting in accordance with the Diversity Mission Statement, which sets forth the firm's policy mandating an inclusive professional environment. The CDO will also serve the firm by both creating new diversity-related programs and expanding existing ones for the purpose of further establishing the firm as a leader in this crucial area. Mentoring and career advice to young lawyers is also likely to be a focus of Nolan's tenure.

"I am deeply honored to be taking on this challenging and exciting task, and am gratified to have the full support of the firm's management and partners," Nolan said. "Diversity within law firms, including Duane Morris, is an issue we must address on a daily basis, and I believe that our efforts will reap rewards not only for Duane Morris, but for the national legal community as a whole."

"Diversity is a major focus of the firm, and we are confident that this new position of Chief Diversity Officer will help us build on our achievements in this area," Duane Morris Chairman Sheldon Bonovitz said. "We have chosen Nolan, a nationally known force and advocate for diversity within law firms, as an indication of our commitment to one of our highest goals and our clients' principal expectations: a truly diverse attorney base."

Formerly the head of the Commercial Litigation Practice Group in Philadelphia, Nolan has represented banks, insurance companies and other businesses in major disputes. He advises clients on matters related to diversity issues and anti-discrimination policies. He has an extensive background in defending major corporations in product and toxic tort matters, and has also represented numerous hospitals and physicians in complex health-related matters. In addition to his legal practice, Nolan is an active member in the Philadelphia legal community as a committed advocate for diversity in law firms. He is a co-founder and the first chair of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group, Inc., a consortium of law firms and corporations committed to increasing ethnic and racial diversity in Philadelphia's larger law firms. In addition, he is a member of the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association, a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association and was formerly appointed co-chair of the Conference of Minority Partners in Majority Corporate Law Firms, a constituent entity of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession of the ABA. In 2004, Mr. Atkinson was a recipient of the Rainbowmaker Award created by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association of America "to recognize exceptional lawyers whose leadership, courage, and commitment stand tall as advocates for a more diverse legal profession and who, through their advocacy, have sought to create rainbows of opportunity for others."

Nolan earned an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1969 and graduated with an LL.B. from Howard University School of Law in 1967.

08-09-2007

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Clark Hill PLC

Clark Hill Attorney Andrea Kanski Elected to the Advisory Board of Trustees of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions
Clark Hill attorney Andrea Kanski has been elected to the Advisory Board of Trustees of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). PIME is an international, apostolic life society of priests, brothers and laypeople who dedicate their lives to the mission among non-Christians on the five continents, PIME is celebrating 60 years in North America in 2007. Kanski’s term begins August 9.

Kanski is a member in Clark Hill’s Detroit office, where she practices in the Personal Legal Services Group. Kanski’s estate planning background includes analysis and development of overall tax and estate planning strategies consistent with the objectives of the individual and his/her family. Her analysis includes estate tax, gift tax, income tax and generation-skipping transfer tax aspects and the preparation of documents, including wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, durable powers of attorney and designation of patient advocate forms.

Kanski has extensive probate experience with both supervised and informal proceedings involving deceased estates, guardianships and conservatorships and in all aspects of post-mortem administration of estates and trusts, including preparation of federal and state estate tax returns, gift tax returns, and fiduciary and individual income tax returns. She is involved in the settlement of estates and trusts, including resolution of matters involving assets such as closely held businesses which may involve valuation issues.

Kanski's practice also involves counseling owners of closely held, family-owned businesses concerning corporate, tax and estate planning issues, including the transfer of control and ownership to the next generation through the use of devices such as family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, buy/sell agreements and insurance arrangements.

Kanski also counsels closely held corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships; has been involved with mergers and acquisitions (asset and stock); entity formation and dissolution (profit and non-profit); and banking and hospital law, in the area of corporate/business practice. She has been involved in all types of transactional work from negotiation through closing involving manufacturing, health care, financial and real estate ventures.

Kanskis earned her B.A. from Wayne State University and her J.D., cum laude, from the Detroit College of Law.

08-09-2007

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The Law Firm Of Baker & Daniels LLP

Geoff Karny to Speak at Pharma/Biotech Conference
Geoff Karny, a partner at Baker & Daniels LLP with more than 25 years of legal experience in biotech and other life science matters, will speak at the Pharma/Biotech Patent Boot Camp on Sept. 18-19 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco.

Sponsored by the American Conference Institute, the seminar will focus on how to successfully navigate through the intellectual property and regulatory mazes that life sciences companies face in order to protect and maximize the value of intellectual property. Karny will participate in the session on "Freedom to Operate: Analysis and Opinions for Pharma and Biotech Patents." For more information on the seminar, click here.

Working out of Baker & Daniels' Washington, D.C. office, Karny focuses his practice on intellectual property, particularly patent law. He has been responsible for developing and implementing corporate IP strategies, starting company patent departments, building patent and trademark portfolios, negotiating and preparing technology transaction agreements and conducting IP due diligence in corporate transactions.

Karny has worked in virtually all technical areas of biotechnology. He managed the patent departments of two biotech companies, Gene Logic Inc. and Genetic Therapy Inc., and was a senior patent counsel at Novartis. Karny has testified at four Congressional hearings and has been the principal or contributing author of eight reports on biotechnology.

08-09-2007

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The Law Firm Of Baker & Daniels LLP

Jennifer Pearcy Joins Baker & Daniels
Jennifer A. Pearcy has joined Baker & Daniels LLP as an associate in the banking & commercial finance and bankruptcy & business restructuring practice groups. She works in the law firm's 96th Street office.

Before joining Baker & Daniels, Pearcy practiced two years in banking and finance at Jones Day in Chicago. While in law school, she served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and Guardian ad Litem (GAL) for Lucas County in Toledo, Ohio.

An Indianapolis native, Pearcy earned her bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 2002 and graduated from the Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington in 2005.

08-09-2007

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Baker & McKenzie, L.L.P.

Baker & McKenzie Advises Bemax Resources Limited on its US$175 Million High-Yield Bond Offer
Baker & McKenzie has advised Bemax Resources Limited on its sale of US$175 million aggregate principal amount of 9.375% Senior Notes due 2014 (the "Notes").

The Notes were sold to institutional investors in the United States, Asia and Europe. The transaction closed on 6 July 2007 and the Notes have been listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Net proceeds from the sale of the Notes will be used to repay existing debt and general corporate purposes, including funding the construction of Bemax's Snapper mine in the Murray Basin and two additional circuits at its mineral separation plant in Broken Hill. Bemax is a major producer of mineral sands products.

A global Baker & McKenzie team advised on all legal aspects, including US law, Australian law and Singapore law. US Capital Markets Partner Andrew Reilly led the team from the Firm's Sydney office. Assisting him on the US law aspects of the transaction were Corporate Associates Katie Chapman and Lee McIntyre in Sydney and Tax Partner Roy Sedore and Corporate Associate Kate Jefferson in New York. Australian law advice was provided by Finance Partners Howard Fraser and George Harris and Associate Sylvia Mak, Resources Partner John Connors and Associate Zoe Rafter and Tax Partner John Walker.Singapore law advice was provided by Partner Ai Ai Wong and Associates Tse-Ling Chua and Sabrina Chong.

Andrew Reilly said, "We were very pleased to represent Bemax. The transaction demonstrates Baker & McKenzie's unique 'one stop shop' capability. We are the only law firm that can provide the requisite US and Australian law advice under one roof in Australia. The transaction was executed more cost efficiently and conveniently than using separate US, Australian and Singapore law firms."

Mr Reilly has worked on all recent high-yield bond offers by Australian companies. This is the third high-yield bond offer by an Australian resources company in which Mr Reilly has represented the issuer in the past twelve months. In addition to representing Bemax, Mr Reilly represented The Griffin Coal Company in its US$400 million high-yield bond offer and Fortescue Metals Group in its US$2.1 billion high-yield bond offer in 2006. With other Australian resources companies seeking to develop their projects, Mr Reilly expects other Australian companies to tap the US debt markets, which offer competitive pricing, maturity and covenants compared to traditional bank financing.

08-09-2007

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Baker & McKenzie, L.L.P.

Baker & McKenzie LLP Advise on £1 Billion Digital TV Agreement
Baker & McKenzie, London has advised Arqiva on its successfully completed contract negotiations with Digital 3 and 4 to design, build and operate a new high power national digital terrestrial TV network. The contract will run until 2034 and is estimated to be worth up to £1 billion.

The new network will carry ITV and Channel 4's main digital services including ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, Channel 4, E4 and More4 and will reach 98.5% of the UK population.

Duncan Reid-Thomas, commercial Partner at Baker & McKenzie, commented: ''With the award of the BBC contract last year, Arqiva is now responsible for rolling out all of the public service digital terrestrial TV networks, as well as the network for SDN which was announced last month. Having advised Arqiva on its contracts with the BBC and SDN, we were pleased to have acted for Arqiva again on this latest contract, which is a crucial part of the UK's Digital Switchover project.''

The Baker & McKenzie team was led by Duncan Reid-Thomas, with associates Andrew Handelsmann and Sam Parr. IT and commercial Partner Robbie Downing advised on regulatory issues.

Digital 3 and 4 were advised by Paul Herbert of Goodman Derrick LLP.

08-09-2007

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Baker & McKenzie, L.L.P.

Baker & McKenzie LLP Strengthens International Commercial Practice in Dallas
Baker & McKenzie LLP expanded its International Commercial practice in Dallas with a team of three lawyers. The team consists of Partner Michael E. Santa Maria, Of Counsel Todd Bowers, and associate Kevin Maher, all joined the Firm from DLA Piper last month. Mr. Santa Maria was previously an associate at Baker & McKenzie in Dallas from 1994 to 1999, and Todd Bowers was also an associate at the Firm from 1997 to 1999.

The team’s 30 years of experience in cross-border transactions will complement the Firm’s existing practice in complex commercial cross-border transactions.

“We welcome Mike and Todd back, and Kevin to the Firm,” said Miguel Noyola, a member of the North American International Commercial practice Steering Committee. “They are all highly regarded and talented cross-border transactional lawyers. They will add depth to our already successful international commercial practice, with special focus on cross-border work in Latin America.”

Michael Santa Maria was the founding partner of the Dallas office of DLA Piper, where he was the firmwide head of their Latin American practice. His practice consists of cross-border commercial transactions for clients in the hospitality, hotel, resort and restaurant segments and for other clients in the retail and services sectors involved in international development. Mr. Santa Maria will continue to focus on complex cross-border transactions and to steer the continued growth of the Firm’s international commercial group in Dallas.

A fluent Spanish speaker, Mr. Santa Maria has extensive experience dealing with most Latin American jurisdictions. Before entering the private practice of law, he obtained an MBA, worked as a financial analyst in leveraged buyouts in the transportation industry and was a Registered Investment Advisor in the State of Texas.

Mr. Santa Maria’s academic background includes obtaining a J.D. in 1992 from Texas Tech University School of Law, magna cum laude, and two business degrees from Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business (BBA in 1986 and an MBA in 1988).
Commenting on his joining, Michael Santa Maria said: “I am very excited to bring my practice back to Baker & McKenzie. The Firm has a strong global presence and the leading practice in Latin America. Its established global presence and seasoned cross-border lawyers will allow us to grow our practice and continue to provide practical business solutions to our clients’ cross-border needs.”

Todd Bowers concentrates his practice on assisting clients in cross-border business transactions, with special emphasis on Latin America. He has experience in assisting clients with direct investment (mergers, acquisitions and dispositions), licensing, franchise and distribution and related transactions in Mexico, Brazil and throughout Latin America. He is also a fluent Spanish speaker. Mr. Bowers received his J.D. from Georgetown Law School in 1995, and his B.A. from Abilene Christian University in 1992.

Kevin Maher focuses his practice on cross-border transactions, including, franchising and distribution, real estate and finance, mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations and taxation. He also has experience in domestic real estate and corporate transactions, including leasing, dispositions and acquisitions, foreclosures, development, corporate formation, joint ventures and M&A. He received his J.D., summa cum laude, from Texas Tech University in 2002, and his B.A., cum laude, from the University of Dallas.

“The talents of Mike, Todd and Kevin tie in very well with Baker & McKenzie’s strong presence and depth of experience in Latin America,” said David Hackett, North American Managing Partner. “The team is an excellent strategic fit as the Firm continues to boost its transactional practices across its global platform.”

08-09-2007

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