Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Jones Day, P.C.

Prominent deal lawyer Bryan Davis joins Jones Day's Atlanta Office
"Prominent mergers and acquisitions lawyer Bryan E. Davis has joined the international law firm Jones Day as a partner in the approximately 150-lawyer Atlanta Office. He was formerly a partner at Alston & Bird LLP, where he chaired the Firmwide M&A practice quality group.

""Besides the rising tide of cross-border M&A, almost every major transaction has some international issues these days,"" said Mr. Davis. ""Jones Day's giant footprints in Europe and Asia, as well as around the U.S., are a matchless resource in getting optimal outcomes for clients. I'm excited to be part of this great team.""

""We are all pleased and proud that Bryan has chosen to join us and add to our vibrant M&A Practice,"" said Jones Day Partner-in-Charge George Manning ""People in Atlanta already know the great experience and expertise he brings to the table. Now our worldwide clients with business in the Southeast will get to know Bryan too.""

Mr. Davis's practice focuses on the representation of public and private companies and investment banking firms in M&A transactions. He also advises boards of directors on corporate governance matters.

An author of numerous articles on M&A and securities, and a frequent speaker on legal panels, Mr. Davis is listed in both Best Lawyers in America and Georgia Super Lawyers. He is a member of the ABA's Task Force on Public Company Acquisitions and the Georgia Corporate Code Revision Committee. Mr. Davis is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Jones Day is an international law firm with 30 locations in centers of business and finance throughout the world. With more than 2,200 lawyers, including more than 400 in Europe, and 200 in Asia, it ranks among the world's largest law firms. Jones Day acts as principal outside counsel to, or provides significant legal representation for, more than half of the Fortune Global 500 companies."

04-20-2007

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Jenner & Block LLP

CBF Investing in Justice Campaign Raised $900,000 to Address Legal Aid Crisis
"The Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) has raised a remarkable $900,000 in its inaugural, three-week long fundraising effort, the “Investing in Justice Campaign,” to help provide special grants to Chicago’s pro bono and legal aid attorneys and thereby help keep them in their critical posts.

“We estimate that this year’s funding will increase the average salary of the City’s legal aid attorneys by about ten percent,” said Jenner & Block Partner Anton R. Valukas, who chaired the 2007 Campaign, which took place between March 5th and March 23rd and was joined by hundreds of attorneys at nearly three dozen Chicago law firms and companies. According to Mr. Valukas, the CBF and the Campaign leadership were able to bring Chicago’s legal community together around this cause in a way that had never been done before and may serve as a model elsewhere. A full list of law firm and company participants in the unique campaign is set forth below.

A new study (available at www.chicagobarfoundation.org), published by the Chicago Bar Foundation and the Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice, had taken an in-depth look at legal aid attorney retention and revealed that nearly half will leave their jobs in the next three years because they simply can’t afford not to. Besides low pay, large law school loan debts were cited as primary drivers of the impending crisis.

Losing just 10% of our experienced legal aid attorneys over the course of a year means that about 10,000 fewer low-income Chicagoans have access to critical legal services, the study concluded.

“We wanted to take ownership of this problem and send a clear signal to our colleagues in legal aid as well as the people of Chicago that the City’s legal community cares,” said CBF President, Kimball Anderson, a Partner at Winston & Strawn.

Currently, there are only about 250 legal aid attorneys in the Chicago area to serve the more than 750,000 Cook County residents living in poverty. As a result, more than half of low-income Chicagoans who seek legal assistance that is often critical to their safety and independence are turned away because pro bono and legal aid organizations do not have the capacity to serve them. Hundreds of thousands more are left to try to solve often complex legal problems on their own.

“By embracing this campaign, Chicago area lawyers helped to ensure that the most vulnerable members of our community will have the best legal advocates working for them,” noted Mr. Valukas.

Added Mr. Anderson: “By utilizing 100% of the campaign funds to address this fundamental need in our community’s justice system, the CBF is making a substantial down payment towards the ultimate goal of bringing legal aid attorneys’ salaries in line with comparable government service positions."

04-20-2007

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Jenner & Block LLP

Inaugural Issue of Washington, DC Super Lawyers Recognizes Jenner & Block Attorneys
"Several Jenner & Block attorneys were recently named to an inaugural list of “Washington, DC Super Lawyers” by the publishers of Law & Politics. The newest legal directory of leading lawyers is a “peer review guide to the top 5 percent of attorneys in DC,” the editors said in a press release.

Partners Paul M. Smith and Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. were included in the Washington, DC Super Lawyers’ Appellate category, while Partner Lorelie S. Masters, who represents policyholders in insurance coverage matters, was named as a top Insurance attorney and Partner Larry P. Ellsworth was listed among the top 10 Securities Litigation attorneys. Messrs. Smith and Verrilli were also listed among “The Top 100 Washington, DC Super Lawyers 2007.”

Published in the March 2007 issue of the Washington, DC Super Lawyers magazine, the list was compiled through a multi-step evaluation process, beginning with a general survey of 35,000 active attorneys in the Washington, DC metro area, asking them to nominate the best attorneys they had personally observed in action. According to the publisher, nominees were scored based on the number of votes they received, with more weight given to votes from outside their own firm.

The nominees’ names were verified and reviewed, the publisher says, by a team of researchers at Law & Politics, the trade publisher and founder of the “Super Lawyers” guides that are now published in about three dozen states, including Illinois and New York. Each candidate was assigned a point total based on a defined evaluation process of the attorneys’ credentials and good standing with the local licensing authority.

The resulting nominees were grouped into more than 50 practice areas, and those with the most points in each area were invited to serve on the “blue ribbon panel.” The panel members further reviewed and assigned points to the list of nominees in their practice area. Candidates were then divided according to firm size, and the top attorneys were named “Super Lawyers.” The list includes private practice attorneys, prosecutors, in-house counsel and public service lawyers."

04-20-2007

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Jenner & Block LLP

ISBA Luncheon Celebrates Women in Law
"In celebration of the progress of women in law, the Illinois State Bar Association recently held a reception featuring American Bar Association President Karen J. Mathis as the keynote speaker.

Jenner & Block Partner E. Lynn Grayson helped to organize the sold-out luncheon, which was held at The Standard Club in Chicago and was attended by several Jenner & Block attorneys, including ISBA President-Elect Joseph G. Bisceglia.

Ms. Mathis, the third woman president of the American Bar Association, discussed the past achievements of women in the profession, highlighting that women now enter law school in numbers roughly equal to men. However, she said, “We still have a ways to go.”

Among other things, Ms. Mathis noted that women comprise about 17 percent of partners practicing at large law firms, and that those women attorneys “still have a different experience than our male colleagues.”

Mr. Bisceglia, who will be inaugurated as President of the ISBA this June, has planned numerous initiatives aimed at increasing the number of women attorneys in leadership positions within the ISBA and the profession in general. He said he is actively seeking women and minorities to serve on the association’s committees.

“There is no way we can have a system of justice that doesn’t reflect the citizenry,” said Mr. Bisceglia in a recent Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article about the event. “To the extent that the system of justice begins to look like some exclusive club that doesn’t include women and/or people of color, we’re asking for trouble.”

Ms. Grayson is Secretary of the ISBA’s Standing Committee on Women in the Law and serves as Co-Editor of its newsletter, The Catalyst. In addition, she serves as Chair of the Firm's Women's Forum, an organization dedicated to fostering professional, social and personal growth opportunities for women attorneys.

Jenner & Block was a sponsor of the event."

04-20-2007

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Jenner & Block LLP

Jenner & Block Helps Secure Victory for SPX Corporation In Retirement Plan Case
"The Firm recently achieved a significant victory for client SPX Corporation when a federal district court dismissed a suit that alleged the terms of the SPX Individual Account Retirement Plan violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

A former SPX employee filed a multi-complaint against SPX alleging that the Plan violated ERISA’s anti-cutback, merger and age discrimination provisions in the way it calculated his retirement benefit. He also claimed that SPX failed to properly calculate his lump sum distribution amount and breached its fiduciary duty by not paying his claim and by not providing him documents he had requested in a timely manner.

The Plan, a cash balance plan and the main retirement plan for SPX’s salaried employees, had been amended to incorporate alternative benefits for employees of General Signal Corporation (GSX), a company SPX had acquired in 1998. Under the amended Plan, the participants were entitled to receive the greatest of three alternative benefits upon retirement: (1) the GSX Accrued Benefit, (2) the SPX Accrued Benefit, or (3) the “Transition Benefit.” The Transition Benefit had been created by SPX to provide a subset of merged participants the value of an early retirement subsidy even though they had not yet earned that subsidy under their former plan.

The former employee, who had signed a termination agreement waving all “known claims” against the company, had already earned an early retirement subsidy under the GSX Plan. Therefore, in 2002 when the Plan calculated his Transition Benefit, it excluded the value of his early retirement subsidy. The former employee however claimed that he was entitled to the Transition Benefit with his already earned early retirement subsidy included into the benefit’s calculation. SPX denied his appeal and refused to pay his claimed benefit amount.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that SPX’s use of alternative benefit options in its retirement plan was lawful as long as participants’ accrued benefits are not reduced under any of the alternatives. The court also held that where a participant claims a specific benefit amount that he or she is not entitled to, the company does not have a fiduciary duty under ERISA to pay even the undisputed amount absent a proper application for that benefit. In addition, the court held that an employee can waive claims for penalties under ERISA if he or she knowingly signs a general release that waives all claims against the employer.

“This decision is significant for all companies with retirement plans because the new precedent it sets for ERISA demonstrates the lawfulness of retirement plans with similar terms relating to alternative benefits, the refusal to pay incorrect benefit claims, and cash balance lump sum distribution calculations,” said Partner Ross B. Bricker, who led the Firm’s team on the matter. “It will also cut-off certain claims participants may bring against their employers and plans if the employer has the participant execute a valid waiver releasing all claims against the company.”

In addition to Mr. Bricker, the Firm’s team included Partners Andrew A. Jacobson, William S. Scogland and S. Tony Ling, and Associate Andrew W. Vail."

04-20-2007

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Holland & Knight, L.L.P.

Seven Holland & Knight Attorneys in South Florida Named Top Dealmakers by Miami Daily Business Review
"Holland & Knight announced today that seven of the firm’s attorneys in South Florida were recognized as either ‘winners’ or ‘finalists’ for the Daily Business Review’s “Top Dealmaker of the Year.”

According to the publication, the editors strive to ‘recognize the people who made the biggest, most complex and meaningful deals happen.’

Winning the Mergers & Acquisitions category, one of the survey’s most competitive, was Steven Sonberg for his work on the Kos Pharmaceuticals sale to Abbott Labs. Steve leads Holland & Knight's business law section and is a member of the firm's South Florida Public Companies & Securities Group.

Winning in the Residential category was William Bloom for his work with MCZ/Centrum in its purchase of the Flamingo apartments in Miami Beach. Bill is part of the firm's Real Estate Group.

The other lawyers from Holland & Knight named as Top Dealmakers were:

* Jose Sirven in the highly competitive International category, for his work with a complex acquisition of Digitel, a Venezuelan mobile phone company.
* Kara MacCullough and Esther Moreno in the M&A category for their work involving the acquisition of AAT Communications Corporation by SBA Communications Corporation. Kara and Esther are also part of the firm's South Florida Public Companies & Securities Group and have together worked on more than $5 billion in deals in the last three years.
* Rodney Bell and Tammy Knight also in the M&A category, for their work involving the sale of Lakeland-based Watkins Motor Lines to Memphis-based FedEx. Rod and Tammy, both of whom were also recognized as a Most Effective Lawyer by the Daily Business Review in 2006, and who are also part of the firm's South Florida Public Companies & Securities Group, have worked on more than $6 billion of deals in the last two years.

""These remarkable recognitions are indicative of the level of service and commitment that we provide for our clients,” said Managing Partner Howell Melton. “Our attorneys are some of the best in the business and certainly the best in the state of Florida. We are delighted to share in this honor with each of them.”

“That our South Florida lawyers took three of the four Mergers & Acquisition awards reflects the strength and depth of talent in our South Florida Public Company & Securities Group. Our South Florida transactional lawyers have been unbelievably active over the last 24 months and they are getting tapped for more and more of the biggest and most complex deals in Florida and Latin America,” said Robert Grammig, National Chair of the Public Companies and Securities Practice. “The recognition of so many of our lawyers as Top Dealmakers is consistent with the leading position of our firm in South Florida. We are delighted to share in this honor with each of them."

04-20-2007

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Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Jeffrey Horner Named to Second Term on Board of Directors of Council of School Attorneys
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP attorney and school law expert Jeffrey J. Horner was recently named to a second two-year term on the board of directors of the National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys (COSA) at its 2007 annual conference in San Francisco, CA.

04-20-2007

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