Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Winstead, Sechrest & Minick, P.C.

Winstead Names Mark Johnson Chair of Corporate & Securities Practice: Adds Additional Corporate Attorneys
Texas law firm Winstead PC has beefed up the Corporate & Securities Practice Group and named Mark G. Johnson the new chair. Johnson has been with Winstead since 1998, advising both national and international clients on a variety of corporate transactional matters and specializing predominantly in mergers and acquisition work. His clients operate in a wide spectrum of businesses and industries and he advises them on legal matters involving acquisitions, divestitures, financings, and corporate formation.

According to Johnson, "We have a very strong team of corporate attorneys at Winstead with recent enhancements of senior corporate talent in our Austin and San Antonio Offices. We are fortunate to have an impressive list of clients we have built strong relationships with over the years. Our future focus will be to leverage the new talent in Austin and San Antonio, position ourselves to best provide our clients with business and legal advise, and continue to grow our corporate practice throughout all of the Winstead offices."

New shareholders added to the Corporate & Securities Practice Group in Winstead's Austin Office include J. Rowland Cook, a corporate and securities attorney; Andrew Kever, a corporate attorney with extensive regulatory, legislative, litigation and transactional experience; John Menchaca II, a corporate attorney with extensive mergers and acquisitions, securities, and venture capital experience; and Kathryn K. Lindauer, a corporate attorney representing clients in public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, and SEC compliance. Other corporate attorneys who have joined Winstead's Austin Office include Of Counsel Martha E. Smiley, a telecommunications veteran with legislative and administrative experience in public utility law and corporate associates Alexander R. Allemann, Mandy Jones Ford and Jennifer J. Kracht.

Phil Freeman, a corporate attorney with clients in high technology, medical group practice management organizations, manufacturing companies, and distribution and consulting services also joined Winstead's corporate & securities practice in the San Antonio Office. The Corporate & Securities Practice Group of Winstead has 38 attorneys in six cities.

05-22-2007

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Wiley, Rein & Fielding, L.L.P.

Wiley Rein Aviation Attorneys Secure Victory for AirTran Airways
Wiley Rein aviation attorneys secured two coveted high-density slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) for AirTran Holdings, Inc., parent company of AirTran Airways. Partner Edward P. Faberman, assisted by Associate Christine Z. Freund, represented AirTran during the four-month process that ended Friday, with AirTran’s selection over competitors Delta, U.S. Airways, Midwest Airlines and ATA.

Airline carriers cannot add service at DCA unless awarded authority to do so by the federal government. In awarding the new slots to AirTran, the Department of Transportation stated, “it was an extremely competitive case in which each proposal satisfies at least one of the statutory criteria. However, given the current competitive situation at DCA…we find that AirTran’s Atlanta proposal best meets the criteria set in Section 41718. … [W]e find that a fifth round trip a day from DCA to Atlanta on AirTran should provide greater consumer benefits with respect to pricing than would the selection of others.”

This is an important victory for AirTran and will help them expand markets. AirTran will begin to offer an additional nonstop roundtrip flight to Atlanta, Georgia, effective July 10, 2007.

05-22-2007

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Wiley, Rein & Fielding, L.L.P.

Wiley Rein Amicus Brief Cited in Connecticut Supreme Court Decision on the American Rule
Wiley Rein secured a key victory for its client the Complex Insurance Claims Litigation Association (CICLA), a group of major property-casualty insurers, in ACMAT Corp v. Greater New York Mutual Insurance Co., No. SC 17740 (Conn. May 29, 2007) as the Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed its fidelity to the American rule, deciding that a policyholder cannot shift the costs of litigating an insurance coverage action to the insurer in the absence of insurer bad faith.

The opinion, which favorably quotes the CICLA amicus brief, adds to a string of recent decisions regarding the American rule in insurance coverage cases and creates strong precedent that attorney’s frees are generally not recoverable.

In response to policyholder claims that bargaining power disparities supported an exception to the American rule, the court stated it found “more persuasive the argument of the amicus curiae that this position assumes too much and sweeps too far, because, ‘[a]s with contracts generally, there are insurance policies written between large insurers and relatively small scale policyholders, but there are also many insurance policies written between [midsized] or large insurers and major corporate or business entities….’”

The policyholder in this case is an acoustics tile manufacturer purportedly facing numerous asbestos liabilities stemming from historical business operations. In this action, the policyholder sought to prove the existence of a lost policy allegedly issued to it by the defendant insurer. Ultimately, the trial court ruled that a policy was issued, but denied judgment for the policyholder on its bad faith allegations. After that result was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Connecticut, the trial court granted the policyholder its attorney fees for litigating the coverage action. The only issue on appeal was the trial court’s award of attorney’s fees.

05-22-2007

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Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Freshfields advising EMI on Terra Firma offer
EMI Group plc has announced the terms of a recommended cash offer for EMI by Maltby Limited, a company formed at the direction of Terra Firma. International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is advising long-standing client EMI on this transaction. The cash offer of 265 pence per share values EMI on an enterprise value basis at approximately £3.2bn and values the entire issued and to be issued share capital of EMI at approximately £2.4bn.

The Freshfields team is led by corporate partner Mark Rawlinson and includes Martin Nelson-Jones and Graham Watson. Rachel Brandenburger and Thomas Janssens are advising on the competition and regulatory issues.

Mark Rawlinson said, "I have nearly done more transactions with EMI than any other client. I have known some of the team there for a long time, so I hope they are successful on this one." `

05-22-2007

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Fenwick & West, LLP

Fenwick & West Represents Electronic Arts in $167M Equity Investment in China-based The9
Fenwick & West LLP represented Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) in its recently announced $167 million investment in The9 Limited (NASDAQ: NCTY), and in a licensing agreement that gives The9 exclusive publishing rights for EA SPORTS™ FIFA Online in mainland China. The9, an online game operator in China, is primarily focused on operating and developing high-quality games for the Chinese game market, including Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft. In 2006, EA and Seoul-based Neowiz Corporation partnered to launch EA SPORTS™ FIFA Online in Korea, a game with more than 4.4 million registered subscribers. Upon completion of the investment, EA will own approximately 15% of the common shares of The9.

The Fenwick & West transaction team included corporate attorneys Mark Stevens, David Michaels, Matthew Rossiter and Christian Lymn; technology transactions attorneys Stephen Gillespie, Lance Stern and Tracy Randall; and tax attorneys Ron Schrotenboer, Bart Bassett, Timothy Fitzgibbon and Melinda Vance. Attorneys from the Beijing, China offices of TransAsia Lawyers and King & Wood assisted on the transaction.

05-22-2007

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Dechert LLP

Dechert Client AnalogicTech Receives Full Defense Verdict in ITC Patent Case
Dechert client Advanced Analogic Technologies Incorporated (AnalogicTech), a California-based developer of power management semiconductors for mobile consumer electronic devices, announced today that Administrative Law Judge Sidney Harris of the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in its favor in a dispute involving two patents brought in February 2006 by Linear Technology Corporation of Milpitas, Calif.

Linear had claimed that AnalogicTech's charge pump and switching regulator products, components for managing power in devices such as cell phones and MP3 players, had infringed on Linear's patents. At issue in ITC investigation No. 337-TA-564 were U.S. Patent Numbers 6,411,531 and 6,580,258. Judge Harris disagreed with Linear's claims and ruled that the importation of AnalogicTech's products did not constitute a violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act because AnalogicTech's products did not infringe any valid claim of Linear's patents. Judge Harris also found that Linear had not established a "domestic industry" with respect to one of Linear's patents.

This defense victory is significant because AnalogicTech had nearly 70 different products at issue in the case. Also, the switching regulator products patent, the '258 patent, has been asserted against other companies in the industry, and this is the first judicial decision on that patent.

AnalogicTech's General Counsel Joseph Hollinger stated, "We could not be happier with this decision and with the tremendous efforts of the Dechert team."

Dechert's Andrew Thomases, 39, is lead counsel and tried the case. Dechert's nationwide team included attorneys from its Palo Alto, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas offices.

Other Dechert partners on the team included Chris Scott Graham, Stephen Rosenman, Jonathan Baker, and Ben Bedi. Dechert associates and counsel included Philip Barilovits, Anthony Diepenbrock, Kathy Huang, Hieu Phan, Ayumi Urabe, John Van Loben Sels, George Webb, and Michelle Yang.

The Nasdaq symbols for the companies involved are AATI (Analogic Tech) and LLTC (Linear).

05-22-2007

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Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione, P.C.

Richard A. Kaplan Elected a Director of America-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chicago
Richard A. Kaplan, a shareholder at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the U.S., has been named a Director of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chicago (AICC).

Mr. Kaplan has been actively involved on many AICC committees and was a trade mission member for the Chicago-Israel Business Initiative on the November 2005 and November 2006 delegations. He is currently involved in the planning of the 2007 trade mission scheduled for later this year.

Mr. Kaplan is a trial lawyer specializing in patent, trade secret and related antitrust, unfair competition and contract matters. He has extensive experience in the litigation of damages in patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation cases and is experienced in jury and bench trials, Federal Circuit appeals and appeals in other federal circuits.

The America-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chicago was founded in 1958 to develop business relationships between U.S. and Israeli companies. AICC, a not-for-profit trade association, connects its members into a global network that provides vital information and facilitates business contacts worldwide. AICC's main focus is in trade regarding homeland security, health care/biotechnology, information technology, communications and agri-technology. For more information on AICC, please visit the organization's Web site at www.americaisrael.org.

05-22-2007

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