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Hagens, Berman, Sobol & Shapiro, L.L.P.

Post Office Employees Cry Foul over Alleged Privacy Violations
Today Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the United States Postal Service (USPS) on behalf of all employees, claiming the Federal government agency has violated terms of the Privacy Act and distributed contact information of its employees to marketing partners.

According to the filed complaint USPS has allowed private businesses, as part of its Strategic Business Initiatives plan, to access and utilize its 'employee master file' that contains private information including home addresses of all career and non-career, full and part-time employees.

The complaint states the business initiatives plan allows private corporations to submit bids for co-branding agreements. Under these agreements the USPS logo is branded on various marketing materials and sent to the private residences of USPS employees.

"It appears that USPS is sharing sensitive employee information to a wide range of marketers, hawking everything from cell phones to credit cards," said Steve Berman, lead attorney and managing partner of HBSS. "Not only do we think this sort of activity is illegal, we think it sets a very bad example as the nation's second largest employer."

Specifically Berman cites potential violations of the U.S. Privacy Act, which spells out very strict protections prohibiting employers from sharing employee information within federal agencies.

According to the complaint USPS recognizes that it is subject to the protection requirements of the Privacy Act. The postal service outlines the Privacy Act's specifications on its Web site and in its handbook. Among those is a mandate to protect the privacy its customers, employees, individuals and suppliers and a requirement not to disclose personal, private information from employee records without the employee's prior written consent - yet it is still happening.

The plaintiff alleges he has been subject to numerous mailings of these sorts for approximately the past two years and says he was never made aware of the 'opt-in' 'opt-out' programs which USPS claims are available.

"Our client is outraged that an organization he has dedicated the last 10 years of his life would be so quick to sell his personal information for a quick buck," said Berman. "We expect a huge outpouring from postal employees throughout the U.S. who have experienced the same thing."

The USPS is a Federal government agency that delivers mail daily to more than 300 million people at 146 million homes, businesses, and post office boxes throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. USPS has an annual operating budget of $73 billion which is generated through sale of postage and money from other business ventures.

This class action suit seeks to recover the amounts which USPS unjustly received through the co-branding agreements and for the use of employees' private information to be stopped.

07-30-2007

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Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, L.L.P.

Maja Hazell Joins Fried Frank as Director of Diversity and Inclusion
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP announced today that Maja D. Hazell has joined the Firm as Director of Diversity and Inclusion.

Ms. Hazell will have overall responsibility for firm-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives. She will work directly with Firm management and the Firm’s Diversity Committee and will also work closely with all attorneys and firm administrative staff, in particular the Office of Attorney Development, Human Resources, Legal Recruitment and Marketing Departments developing, implementing and monitoring programs and processes that promote and sustain diversity, equity, and respect throughout the Firm.

“At Fried Frank we believe that diverse perspectives enrich the experience of our colleagues and, ultimately, the service we provide to our clients. We are delighted to have found Maja. She has the background and experience to continue building upon that principle,� said Douglas Flaum, co-chair of Fried Frank’s Diversity Committee.

“Our Firm is committed to maintaining an inclusive environment and fostering a professional atmosphere that promotes equal opportunity. Working closely with our Diversity Committee, Maja will be charged with providing a forum for identifying, prioritizing and discussing diversity issues, as well as for developing and supporting related proposals, initiatives and programs,� said Michael Rivera, co-chair of Fried Frank’s Diversity Committee.

“I am delighted to be joining such an exceptional organization. With minorities and women leading practices and actively involved in governance activities Fried Frank has more than demonstrated its commitment to the principles I am charged with further promulgating. I look forward to joining the team and building on the momentum already in place throughout the Firm,� said Ms. Hazell.

Ms. Hazell joins Fried Frank from Pace University School of Law where she was the Assistant Dean for Career Development. Prior to that, she was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP practicing in the executive compensation and employee benefits group and labor and employment litigation practice group. Ms. Hazell worked extensively at Simpson Thacher with partners on both the Recruiting Committee and Diversity Committee, and with the firm’s Recruiting Department, to improve associate recruitment and retention at the firm. Prior to becoming an associate, Ms. Hazell served as a Law Clerk with the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP in their Washington DC office, the Office of Equal Employment for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington DC, and the New Haven Legal Assistance Association in Connecticut. She received her JD from Georgetown University Law Center and her BA from Yale University.

07-30-2007

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advises Continental on €11.4bn acquisition of Siemens VDO
International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Continental AG on the acquisition of Siemens VDO Automotive AG, a leading international supplier of dashboards, car infotainment systems and other components to the automotive industry, from Siemens AG for €11.4bn. The transaction is subject to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities.

Together Continental and Siemens VDO had a 2006 revenue of approximately €25bn with almost 140,000 employees worldwide, which will place Continental in the top five for the global automotive supply industry.

The Freshfields team was led by Hamburg corporate partners Christoph Seibt and Marius Berenbrok, both long-standing advisers to the company. They were assisted by Hamburg partners Klaus-Stefan Hohenstatt (employment, pensions and benefits), Ulrich Blaas (tax), Jochen Dieselhorst (intellectual property/information technology) and Michael Schäfer (environment, planning & regulatory), with Burkhard Richter (antitrust competition and trade, Düsseldorf) and Matt Jacobson (corporate, New York). Freshfields offices in Shanghai, Moscow, London, Paris, Tokyo and Bratislava were also involved.

07-30-2007

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Fenwick & West, LLP

Fenwick & West Represents ShoreTel in its Initial Public Offering
Fenwick & West LLP represented ShoreTel, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOR) in its initial public offering. ShoreTel, based in Sunnyvale, CA, is a provider of enterprise IP telephony solutions. The offering raised approximately $75 million for ShoreTel, which issued 7,900,000 shares of its common stock in the offering. Lehman Brothers Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. acted as joint book-running managers. Piper Jaffray & Co., JMP Securities LLC and Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. acted as co-managers.

More information can be obtained from the ShoreTel Web site.

The Fenwick & West transaction team included corporate attorneys Dennis DeBroeck and Jeff Vetter; patent attorneys Rajiv Patel, Stuart Meyer and Jae Won Song; and patent litigation attorneys Dave Hadden and Michael Sacksteder.

07-30-2007

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Dechert LLP

Dechert LLP Advises on Landmark US$1bn Sukuk Issuance Programme
International law firm Dechert LLP, advised Dresdner Kleinwort and HSBC Bank plc as Co-Arrangers, Dealers and Bookrunners on the establishment of a landmark US$1bn Sukuk Certificate Issuance Programme for Gulf Finance House in Bahrain.

Listed on the London Stock Exchange, this is only the fourth Euro Sukuk Programme and the first to have a capital appreciation extraction mechanism for covering liquidity shortfalls. The structure provides flexibility to Gulf Finance House in injecting different kind of asset classes into the structure for issuing Sukuk Certificates (including Shari'ah compliant shares) and also enables extraction and substitution of assets. As counsel to the Co-Arrangers and Dealers, Dechert drove the documentation on this key, innovative transaction. The firm also advised HSBC Trustee (C.I.) Limited as the Transaction Administrator (a role similar to a bond trustee for Islamic bond transactions). Dechert LLP was involved in the structuring phase as well as the documentation, implementation and listing phase.

GFH has positioned itself at the cutting edge of the rapidly expanding international Islamic banking industry, having introduced innovative Sharia'h compliant structures such as "Investment Notes," "Financing Notes," and "Participating Rights" that have since found wide acceptance in the Shari'ah compliant market.

The Dechert team was led by London partner Abradat Kamalpour, assisted by senior associate Puzant Merdinian and Amr Marar.

Said Abradat Kamalpour:

"This was an extremely important and groundbreaking deal that we pitched for and won in the face of competition from some of the leading law firms in the world. The Islamic capital markets space is a dynamic and growing sector of the Shari'ah compliant finance industry and we are delighted to have worked with such high profile clients on this groundbreaking transaction."

Dechert's growing Islamic finance practice was the recipient of the "Best Global Islamic Finance Legal Advisor for the year 2006-2007" at the annual Euromoney Islamic Finance Conference in London, and the Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum Award for Special Recognition in Islamic Finance, at The International Islamic Finance Forum, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the previous year.

07-30-2007

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Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP

Gary Ellsworth Joins Calfee
Gary Ellsworth joins Calfee as a senior attorney with the Real Estate group. Gary is a graduate of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He earned his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University.

07-30-2007

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Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP

Ryan Long Joins Calfee
Ryan Long joins Calfee as an associate with the Securities and Capital Markets group. Ryan is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio University.

07-30-2007

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