Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Vedder Price Kaufman Kammholz

The Legal 500 Names Vedder Price Among Top US Employment and Labor Firms
The Legal 500 recently named Vedder Price among the top 10 employment and labor law firms in the United States. Firms were selected based on the quality and variety of work undertaken over the past year, their clientele and their development compared with market trends.

An overview of the Firm’s practice group, prepared by The Legal 500 editorial staff, highlights Vedder Price’s long-standing national labor and employment practice and notes that its attorneys are well-respected and possesses a considerable amount of expertise and experience in the field. A solid range of clients interviewed by the publication noted that the firm “consistently offers wise counsel.�

Vedder Price represents management in a variety of cases, from single-plaintiff matters to class actions. The firm has a great deal of experience in representing clients from the healthcare industry, manufacturing and financial institutions.

The Firm has enjoyed a steady growth in the past few years, in terms of workload and number (the labor and employment practice group now employs 45 attorneys), and “as the Firm continues to grow in experience and depth, it will be interesting to see the extent to which it is able to mount a challenge to top-tier players,� noted the report.

Bruce R. Alper, a Shareholder in the Chicago office and Chair of the Labor and Employment practice group, has been praised by many as “an outstanding attorney; he is responsive, honest and creative.� Thomas G. Abram is seen as a particular asset to the Firm. The Legal 500 report states that he is “seen by clients as a ‘first class attorney’… he is an expert in statistical and economic analysis – which is handy, considering his vast class-action based practice.� Other attorneys noted in the report included Edward C. Jepson Jr., who represented Sentry Insurance in a high-profile sexual harassment case, and Richard H. Schnadig, former special counsel to the governor of Illinois. All are based in the Firm’s Chicago office.

07-27-2007

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Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP

Sutherland Represents BlackRock Kelso in $160 Million IPO
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP recently represented J.P. Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC as representatives of the underwriters in connection with the initial public offering of 10,000,000 shares of common stock of BlackRock Kelso Capital Corporation, for total proceeds of $160 million, before the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

The Sutherland team representing BlackRock Kelso was led by members of the firm's Securities/Corporate Governance Group, including Partner Cynthia M. Krus and Associates Blair F. Petrillo and Hannah L. Friedberg.

07-27-2007

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Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP

Sutherland Represents Hercules Technology in $124.2 Million Public Offering
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP recently represented Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. in connection with the public offering of 9,200,000 shares of its common stock, including full exercise of the underwriters’ overall allotment, for total proceeds of $124.2 million, before the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

Founded in December 2003, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. is a Nasdaq Global Market traded specialty finance company providing debt and equity growth capital to technology-related companies at all stages of development.

The Sutherland team representing Hercules was led by members of the firm's Securities/Corporate Governance Group, including Partner Cynthia M. Krus and Associates Blair F. Petrillo and Hannah L. Friedberg.

07-27-2007

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Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP

Smith Moore Recognized as a Top NC Law Firm
Smith Moore LLP has again been recognized as one of the top law firms in North Carolina, according to Chambers and Partners, which listed four of the firm's practice areas among the best in North Carolina. The honors are included in the 2007 listing of "America's Leading Business Lawyers," released each year by the London-based publisher of reference guides that identify and rate lawyers and firms around the world.

Smith Moore was cited for excellence in its Environmental, Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Real Estate practice areas. In addition, 11 of the firm’s attorneys, Jonathan A. Berkelhammer, J. Donald Cowan, Jr., Herbert O. Davis, Alan W. Duncan, Stephen W. Earp, Martin N. Erwin, Charles E. Melvin, Jr., Ramona Cunningham O’Bryant, George J. Oliver, Larry B. Sitton, and Julianna C. Theall were included in a listing of Top U.S. Business Lawyers.

The Chambers and Partners listing is based on research conducted by the publisher. Chambers and Partners spent eight months interviewing attorneys and their clients before compiling the listing.

07-27-2007

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LeClairRyan

Attorneys Elected to State Bar Leadership Positions
Five LeClair Ryan attorneys were elected to serve in various Virginia State Bar positions at the 2007 Virginia State Bar Conference.

- Brian L. Buniva will serve a three year term, representing the 13th Judicial Circuit on the Virginia State Bar Council, the policy making body of the mandatory Bar.
- James C. Hale was elected as the chairman of the Business Law Section.
- Jean D. Mumm will serve a one year term as the chair of the Real Property Section.
- Eric M. Page was elected to a second term as the chair of the Virginia State Bar Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board.
- Rhodes B. Ritenour will represent the 14th Judicial Circuit on the Young Lawyers’ Conference Committee.

07-27-2007

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Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro LLP

Green Hotel Development Conference
Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP (JMBM) announces today that The Hotel Developers Conference™ 2008 will focus entirely on green hotel development and renovation. Presented by the 50-lawyer team of JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® this green hotel "summit" is co-sponsored by the University of Las Vegas (UNLV) and the Los Angeles Chapter of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). More than 450 hospitality industry leaders are expected to attend, March 12-13, 2008, at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"It seems like only yesterday that sustainable hotel development represented a 10-20 percent cost premium, which was largely unaffordable to most developers," says hotel lawyer Jim Butler, chairman of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group®. "Today the premium cost for green-certification can be as low as 1-2 percent, and developers can expect economic payback of that premium in as little as 12-24 months.�

Focusing on why hotel developers can't afford NOT to build green, the revolutionary conference will present leading experts in the green development world – from environmentally conscious architects to seasoned green builders – all centered on how to "grow" a project from the ground up, renovate an existing structure from the top down, stay on budget, and operate efficiently. Panels on the hard facts of financing and property management are just two of the innovative topics hotel developers can expect.

"Because hotel developers represent the last real estate food group to understand the compelling economics of green development, this conference will offer a 'Green Hotels 101' education all the way through the 'post graduate' work of continuing sustainability," says Butler, author of the well-respected www.HotelLawBlog.com. "And we're not just going to talk the talk without walking the walk either. We intend to make the entire conference itself completely carbon-neutral."

Already signed up as a keynote speaker is David Gottfried, founder of the U.S. Green Building Council with over 10,000 member organizations, and the World Green Building Council, now 10 countries strong and growing. The author of Greed to Green, an inspirational account of his 20-year journey as a successful real estate developer to a pioneer of the green building movement, Gottfried, took on the $3 trillion global building industry in the 1980s and pushed it to embrace sustainability.

"I'm more of a pragmatic, business-oriented hotel advisor and lawyer than a tree hugger, but it's clear to me that 2007 marks the 'tipping point' of the green movement," says Butler. "If hotel developers don't start surfing on this green wave, they're going to drown in lost opportunity – besides, there's an added premium. Building green is simply the right thing to do."

Sponsored by JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®, The Hotel Developers Conference™ covers the full spectrum of hotel/resort development as well as hotel mixed-use, including condo hotels and hotel condos. By dedicating the 2008 conference to green development, the Global Hospitality Group®, which has helped clients with more than $40 billion in hospitality transactions, hopes to encourage hotel owners, developers and lenders to launch green initiatives into future and existing hotel projects.

07-27-2007

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Heller Ehrman, LLP

Heller Ehrman Earns Another Important Victory for Merck KGaA in Closely Watched Patent Infringement Case
Heller Ehrman earned another victory today for Merck KGaA, when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of the company in a major patent infringement case against Integra LifeSciences I, Ltd. In June 2005, Heller Ehrman successfully represented German-based Merck KGaA before the U.S. Supreme Court, which handed down a unanimous decision in Merck KGaA v. Integra Lifesciences I, Ltd. The Supreme Court ruled that the so-called “FDA exemption� provides a broad safe harbor from patent infringement claims for pre-clinical research and development work on innovative investigational drug products. The case was then remanded to the Federal Circuit, which issued its ruling today.

On behalf of Merck KGaA, Heller Ehrman’s position before the Federal Circuit was that, based on the Supreme Court’s decision, Merck KGaA is entitled to judgment as a matter of law if it was reasonable for Merck KGaA to believe (1) that the compounds being tested could stunt the growth of blood vessels; and (2) that every accused experiment would yield information relevant to efficacy, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, or pharmacology. The Federal Circuit agreed, and held that Merck KGaA met the two-part test. Judge Rader dissented in part, based on the view that some of Merck's patents were “research tools,� which should be subject to a different test.

The initial lawsuit arose in July 1996 from animal experiments on a drug candidate that appeared to kill cancer tumors. The tests were conducted by Merck KGaA, in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute, to generate data needed for FDA approval. Integra LifeSciences sued Merck KGaA in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleging that Merck KGaA was infringing a patent that Integra claimed encompassed the drug being tested. In March 2000, a jury returned a verdict in Integra’s favor.

In 2003, when the Federal Circuit first heard the case on appeal, Merck KGaA contended the experiments were protected by the FDA safe harbor provision that immunizes research “reasonably related to the development and submission of information� to the FDA. The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to deny Merck KGaA’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, holding that the FDA safe harbor did not apply to preclinical studies. The Federal Circuit held then that the exemption primarily covers generic drugs and only covers clinical trials on human patients, not the necessary precursor animal experiments.

Merck KGaA again appealed. Before the U.S. Supreme Court, Merck KGaA was represented by an appellate team led by Heller Ehrman. The Supreme Court reversed and rejected the Federal Circuit’s limited interpretation of the FDA exemption. The Court also addressed the question of exactly how far back the exemption extended through the chain of drug development. Justice Scalia, who authored the opinion on behalf of the unanimous Court, wrote that safe harbor “extends to all uses of patented inventions that are reasonably related to the development and submission of any information� to the FDA. As a result, drug companies responsible for bringing safe and effective medications to the marketplace can now rely on the understanding that the FDA safe harbor exemption provides "a wide berth for the use of patented drugs in activities related to the federal regulatory process."

In June 2006, one year after the Supreme Court’s decision in the case, Heller Ehrman represented Merck KGaA before the Federal Circuit, preparing the appellate briefs and handled oral argument.

07-27-2007

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