Law Firm News

---

Law Firm News

Firm Name

News Title

News

News Date

25383 matches |  8317-8323 displayed

1  1186 1187 1188 1189 1190  3627

---

Fenwick & West, LLP

Fenwick & West’s Third Annual San Francisco Bay Area Life Sciences Venture Capital Survey
Fenwick & West, one of the nation's premier law firms providing comprehensive legal services to technology and life sciences clients, today announced the results of its Third Annual San Francisco Bay Area Life Science Venture Capital Survey.

The survey analyzed the valuations and terms of venture financings for 79 life science companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area that reported raising capital during calendar year 2006.

"The results show a continuation of the positive trend in the life science venture environment," said Barry Kramer, partner in the firm and co-author of the survey.

"Up rounds outpaced down rounds 79% to 15%, with 6% flat, an improvement over 2005 where up rounds outpaced down rounds 65% to 21%, with 14% flat," said Kramer. "The results were also better than the results posted by non-life science companies in 2006, which were 67% up, 22% down and 11% flat."

An up round is one in which the price per share at which a company sells its stock has increased since its prior financing round. Conversely, a down round is one in which the price per share has declined since a company’s prior financing round.

The Fenwick & West Life Science Barometer™ – which measures the average price increase for life science companies receiving venture capital in 2006 compared to such companies’ prior financing round – was up 50%.

"This is a very healthy increase," said Kramer. "It represents an improvement over the 43% increase for life science companies in 2005 and the 27% increase in 2004, although it's somewhat less than the 55% increase for non-life science companies in 2006."

"Non-life science company results," he said, "benefited from a larger number of companies with unusually high price increases, primarily in the Web 2.0 and related fields."

Michael Patrick, also a partner in the firm and survey co-author, pointed out that medical device valuations increased more on average than pharmaceutical valuations in 2006 – 55% vs. 41%.

"As reported by Dow Jones/VentureSource, venture capital investment in U.S. health care companies was up solidly in 2006 compared to 2005 – $8.2 billion vs. $7.4 billion," said Patrick. "Overall, health care's share of total U.S. venture investment increased slightly, from 31% in 2005, to 32% in 2006."

"Of note, U.S. medical device/equipment companies raised approximately $2.6 billion in 2006," he said, "the best year ever for that sector.

03-28-2007

---

Dechert LLP

Dechert LLP Wins Landmark Bankruptcy Decision Clarifying Fraudulent Transfer Law in the Context of Hedge Funds Operated as Ponzi Schemes
Dechert LLP recently argued and prevailed in a significant matter resulting in a court decision that illuminates fraudulent transfer law in relation to alleged Ponzi schemes.

The Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss made by nearly one hundred investors in the now defunct Bayou Hedge Funds, which were operated as a massive Ponzi scheme from the late 1990's through August 2005 when the Bayou funds imploded in revelations of fraud. This group of investors had redeemed their investments in the two years prior to the bankruptcy filing of the Bayou funds in May 2006. The Bayou funds imploded in fraud in August 2005.

In the recent Bayou decision, the court ruled that the redemptions of fund investments may be fraudulent transfers, and in so holding, clarified the standard for claims of actual fraudulent transfer of redeemed principal and fictitious profits under the bankruptcy code and for claims of constructive fraudulent transfer of fictitious profits under the bankruptcy code.

In denying the investors' motion to dismiss, Bankruptcy Judge Adlai S. Hardin Jr. of the Southern District of New York held as follows:

- Fraudulent transfer claims based on the actual fraud of the transaction under the Bankruptcy Code avoid the entire amount of any transfer made with the actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors, regardless of whether or not the debtor received value in exchange, unless the transferee can prove its affirmative defense of good faith;

- Where a Ponzi scheme is alleged, it is presumed that redemptions were made with the actual intent to defraud creditors and the presumption applies broadly to "any sort of inherently fraudulent arrangement under which the debtor - transferor must utilize after - acquired investment funds to pay off previous investors in order to forestall the disclosure of fraud"

- That actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud is "intuitive" and "inescapable" where, as in Bayou, it is alleged that intentionally overpaid redemptions of entirely fictitious profits and over-stated principal amounts were made to earlier investors by using funds attained from new investors

- Even if there were no allegations of actual intent to defraud, claims based on constructive fraud, when proven, will yield the return of fictitious profits;

- Fictitious profits cannot be retroactively deemed to constitute payment of imputed interest; and

- Plaintiffs are not obligated to plead a lack of transferee good faith. Defendants received the redemptions, must plead and prove good faith as an affirmative defense.

"The Bayou decision is a landmark matter, and represents the clearest authority that overpaid redemptions to Ponzi scheme investors are inherently fraudulent, and subsequently can be recovered in bankruptcy," said H. Jeffrey Schwartz, partner in the bankruptcy/corporate reorganization and insolvency practice at Dechert LLP, and lead counsel to Bayou in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case.

03-28-2007

---

Collier, Shannon & Scott, P.L.L.C.

Kelley Drye Expands Private Equity Expertise
Kelley Drye has announced that Siobhan McCleary has joined the firm as Partner in the Corporate Department, specializing in the area of private equity. Ms. McCleary will practice in the firm's New York office.

Formerly Of Counsel at Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross P.C., Ms. McCleary's practice focuses on the representation of private equity funds and their portfolio companies, including venture capital financings and merger and acquisition transactions. Ms. McCleary also has extensive experience representing start-up and early stage biotechnology, pharmaceutical and technology companies in all aspects of the business cycle, from formation through multiple financings to IPO, as well as corporate counseling for day-to-day operations. In addition, Ms. McCleary has represented biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and technology companies in connection with the licensing of intellectual property rights and the licensing, development and distribution of software respectively.

For the first four years of her legal career, Ms. McCleary was an Associate at O'Sullivan, Graev & Karabell LLP, where she represented private equity funds in connection with venture capital financings and merger and acquisition transactions. Ms. McCleary is admitted to practice law in both New York and New Jersey and a member of each state's Bar Association. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and performed graduate studies in economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the interim.

The addition of Ms. McCleary will bolster the growth of the firm's strong Private Equity Practice Group. The practice has a long-standing representation of venture capital and private equity funds, large pension plans and institutional investors including Credit Suisse Private Equity, Thomas Weisel Capital Partners (and its manager, Tailwind Capital Partners) and ProQuest Investments in a multitude of portfolio company investments and acquisitions. Kelley Drye has in-depth involvement with numerous start-up and developmental stage companies due to the group's venture capital and private equity history and current-market experience. The group has represented clients in a wide variety of industries including biotechnology, computer software and hardware, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, telecommunications and travel.

03-28-2007

---

Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP

Calfee Attorney Advises Shaw High in Mock Trial
students from Shaw High School in East Cleveland successfully took on the roles of attorneys and witnesses while arguing both sides of a hypothetical case as part of the Ohio High School Mock Trial Competition, conducted under the auspices of the Ohio Center for Law Related Education. The Cleveland Bar Association (CBA) hosted and coordinated the Cuyahoga District Competition in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas at the Justice Center. Shaw High School’s team was among 28 area teams participating in the district event.

The Shaw team won both trials by spending over three months in preparation for the competition. Team advisors were volunteers from the legal community - including James M. Lawniczak of Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP and Michelle Proia of RPM International, Inc. Lawniczak was introduced to Shaw students through participation in the CBA’s 3rs program - Rights, Responsibilities and Realities. The 3Rs sends 700 volunteer lawyers, judges and law students into the high schools of Cleveland to teach about law and the U.S. Constitution and to encourage students to develop education and career plans for successful futures.

The case before the students was based upon the proper limitations of a government’s right to take private property under the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment "Eminent Domain" provision. In the case, the City of Strawberry Hills wanted to take the house owned by Chris Washington, not for a public project, but rather to permit a private developer to build a mixed use development as part of an urban revitalization project.

The Ohio Center for Law-Related Education designs programs to assist teachers in teaching about government, citizenship and the law. OCLRE is sponsored by the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Ohio State Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. In addition, the Ohio Mock Trial Competition is made possible in part by a grant from the Ohio State Bar Foundation.

The CBA has sponsored the Cuyahoga District Competition in each of the program’s 24 years. Program partners include the CBA, which provides funding support, the Litigation Section of the CBA, and the court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County, which provides courtrooms and help with logistical arrangements. Over 40 lawyers and judges volunteered to serve as judicial panelists for the district competition.

03-28-2007

---

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Cadwalader Named Asian Legal Business Award Finalist
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP has been named a finalist for the Equity Market Deal of the Year honor at Asian Legal Business’s 2007 China Law Awards. The winner of this prestigious accolade will be announced at the April 27, 2007 ceremony in Shanghai. The event is expected to draw China’s leading lawyers, senior business leaders, investment bankers, in-house counsel, members of the judiciary, and corporate executives.

Cadwalader’s nomination is based on the firm’s work on the Hua An International Balanced Fund with Lehman Brothers. The deal involved an offering of a U.S.-dollar denominated principal protected note to Articles Nexis Chinese domestic fund managed by Hua An Fund Management that is linked to the performance of investments that are jointly managed by Hua An and Lehman. The managers use constant proportion portfolio insurance techniques to ensure the return of the notes. Hua An is one of China's largest asset management companies and the first asset manager to be granted Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor status by the nation’s regulators, allowing them to convert Renminbi Yuan currency into foreign currency to be invested overseas.

The other finalists in the category are all for IPOs: the Bank of China with Goldman Sachs and UBS, China Merchants Bank with JPMorgan Securities and UBS, China National Building Material Company with Morgan Stanley, ICBC with Merrill Lynch and Shenyin & Wanguo Securities, Mindray Medical with Goldman Sachs and UBS, and Shimao Property with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The ALB China Law Awards recognize legal professionals for the successful and outstanding work they have done in the past year. ALB researchers conduct interviews with leading practitioners and in-house counsel to evaluate the major deals of the year, and once a list of finalists is completed, a panel of inhouse counsel rate each deal according to size, complexity, breadth, and innovation.

Cadwalader’s nomination comes on the heels of the firm winning awards at the IFLR Americas Awards and IFLR European Awards ceremonies earlier this month.

03-28-2007

---

Brown & Brown

BROWN RUDNICK HOSTS PANEL DISCUSSION ON “THE CHANGING ROLE OF REGULATORS IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKETPLACE”
Brown Rudnick will host the New England Chapter of the Federal Communications Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association for a panel discussion on "The Changing Role of Regulators in the Telecommunications Marketplace." This seminar will feature current and former state and federal regulators as well as members of academia who will share their opinions on the respective role of regulation in light of the rapid changes in technology and deployment of new products and services.

The panel will be moderated by Paul G. Afonso, Co-Practice Leader of the Brown Rudnick’s Government Law & Strategies Group in Boston. Mr. Afonso is the former Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy. He was recently appointed to the Massachusetts Broadband Access Oversight Council, a government task force organized to develop and recommend strategies that will expand broadband internet to every community in the Commonwealth.

Panelists include Bill Flynn, Partner, Harris Beach, and former Chairman of the New York Public Service Commission; Commissioner Jack Goldberg of the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control; Brad Ramsey, General Counsel for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners; Bryan Tramont, Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP and former Chief of Staff to Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell; and Charles Davidson, Director of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School and former Commissioner of the Florida Public Service Commission. Following the panel, the group will hear from Daniel Crane, Director of the Massachusetts Office of Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome 2 Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation on the recent changes announced by Governor Deval Patrick regarding state cable and telecommunications regulation.

03-28-2007

---

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Douglas L. Patin - 2007 Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer
Doug Patin has been listed as a 2007 Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer in the area of Construction/Surety. Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers is published annually in March and delivered to more than 39,000 readers in Washington, D.C. The objective of the Super Lawyers selection process is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource to assist attorneys and sophisticated consumers in the search for legal counsel. They identify qualified candidates by using a multi-step evaluation process that incorporates peer recognition and professional achievement.

03-28-2007

---

25383 matches |  8317-8323 displayed

1  1186 1187 1188 1189 1190  3627