Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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White & Case, LLP

Landmark $600 Million Sukuk is First International Issuance by Saudi Corporate
The Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh, in association with White & Case LLP, advised ABC Islamic Bank E.C., Arab National Bank, Standard Bank Plc, Unicorn Investment Bank BSC and WestLB AG as Joint Lead Managers and Underwriters in connection with Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company's ("Dar Al-Arkan") groundbreaking $600 million Sukuk issuance. The three-year Islamic bond, based on an Ijara structure, is the first Sukuk issued in the international capital markets by a Saudi corporate. Dar Al-Arkan is one of the largest real estate developers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"Demand for Shari'a-compliant investments is growing rapidly in the international capital markets, with Gulf real estate emerging as an asset class in its own right," commented White & Case partner Mohammed Al-Sheikh.

The Dar Al-Arkan transaction follows on from the first true-sale securitisation Sukuk in the Gulf Cooperation Council in 2006, on which the Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh, in association with White & Case LLP, also acted. The Firm advised Unicorn Investment Bank and Standard Bank in connection with the securitisation, in which Kingdom Installment Company LLC, a leading provider of housing finance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was the originator.

The Law Office of Mohammed Al-Sheikh in association with White & Case LLP also last year advised Dar Al-Arkan in connection with the Islamic Murabaha tranche of the financing for the SAR1.35 billion (approximately £190 million) Al-Qasar real estate project. At the time it was one of the largest Islamic financings of real estate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Partner Mohammed Al-Sheikh was lead counsel to the Joint Lead Managers and Underwriters on the current transaction, working with associate Harj Rai.

03-12-2007

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Thompson Hine LLP

Thompson Hine’s Tracy Hannan to Participate in Lawyer Exchange Program With U.K. Firm Burges Salmon
Tracy Hannan, an associate in Thompson Hine’s Business Litigation practice group has been selected to visit U.K. firm Burges Salmon for six weeks as part of the firms’ annual lawyer exchange program. Burges Salmon is one of the U.K.’s leading law firms with more than 300 lawyers operating from offices in Bristol and London, England. The lawyer exchange program was established in order to better serve both firms’ international clients and to provide associates with an exciting opportunity to gain valuable work experience overseas. In June this year Burges Salmon will be sending Noel Beale to Thompson Hine. Beale is part of the firm’s commercial and competition practice.

“Our relationship with Burges Salmon is a longstanding and productive one,” says Stuart Welburn, a partner in the Corporate Transactions & Securities practice in Thompson Hine’s New York office and the firm’s liaison partner for the relationship since 1999. “We initiated the lawyer exchange program in 2002 and so we now have multiple lawyers at both firms who have direct experience of working on the ground at the other firm. There aren’t many U.S. law firms with London offices that can provide the range of services that Burges Salmon can. Strategically, it made far more sense for us to invest our time in a relationship with a top 50 U.K. law firm rather than opening a London office of our own and trying to service clients there with limited resources,” continues Welburn.

“We have been delighted to assist some of Thompson Hine’s clients with some major U.K. acquisitions, as well as a broad range of activities across multiple practice areas, including tax, dispute resolution, IP, commercial and financing matters,” comments Richard Spink, a corporate partner at Burges Salmon and the other liaison partner for the firms’ relationship. “In fact, two recent acquisitions for public company clients of Thompson Hine were led by Jennifer Handler, a corporate partner at Burges Salmon who was the first associate to participate in the lawyer exchange five years ago. In our view, this kind of experience really validates the strategy behind the program.”

Hannan, who is based in Thompson Hine’s Atlanta office, focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and arbitration for public, private and not-for-profit organizations. She began her legal career with Thompson Hine and has been with the firm for five years. She is a graduate of Boston University’s School of Law and previously studied abroad at City University in London, England.

“I am very pleased to have been selected to visit Burges Salmon this year and am excited for the opportunity to work and collaborate with the wonderful lawyers that make up the firm. I am also looking forward to going to Brussels, Belgium to work with the lawyers in Thompson Hine's office there. It will be a great experience,” says Hannan. “Our relationship with Burges Salmon and Thompson Hine's European presence in the form of our Brussels office is an asset not only to our attorneys in the U.S. but to our clients on both sides of the Atlantic. I look forward to providing a broader international service to our clients during and after this program.

03-12-2007

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Strong & Hanni

Strong & Hanni to participate in the Wasatch Back Relay
Strong & Hanni's Team is running from Logan to Park City on June 22 and 23, 2007, to benefit children everywhere as part of the Wasatch Back Relay Race. The team will be made up of attorneys, paralegals, staff members and friends of Strong & Hanni. As part of the race the team is collecting contributions that will go directly to Operation Kids for all children in need. The Strong & Hanni Team thanks you for your kindness and contribution to this worthy cause. Be sure to tell your friends and associates about our fund raising campaign. Through your contributions, we welcome you as a member of the Strong & Hanni Team from Logan to Park City.

03-12-2007

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Sills, Cummis, Epstein & Gross, P.C.

Arlene Elgart Mirsky - U.S. Markets Losing Edge Because of Regulation, Critics Say
Arlene Mirsky appeared as one of three pundits on whether or not the U.S. markets are losing their edge to foreign markets. Ms. Mirsky commented:"There is a tremendous expansion of our global capital markets...To the extent that investors perceive a regulatory advantage in investing in London and a disadvantage in the United States, they are going to put their money elsewhere. She went on to say:"We have lost a number of IPOs, and there's been an amazing migration of IPOs to Europe and to Asia...Additionally, we see here in the United States many companies have decided to go private rather than to face the regulatory burdens that Sarbanes-Oxley has imposed. This interview comes on the heels of U.S Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's conference being held in Washington D.C. on March 13th.

03-12-2007

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Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP

Sheppard Mullin Launches Shanghai Office
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP today announced the opening of the law firm's Shanghai office, marking a natural expansion of the firm's U.S.-based East Asia practice. The new office, Sheppard Mullin's first international location, is housed in the Platinum Tower in Shanghai's Luwan District, near several of the firm's existing clients.

Sheppard Mullin represents 55 of the U.S. Fortune 100 companies, most of which have significant business operations in greater China. The new office in Shanghai marks the next step in Sheppard Mullin's strategic growth plan, which saw the opening of offices in Washington, D.C. in 2003 and New York in 2005. As with Washington and New York, the decision to open in Shanghai was driven by the needs of existing clients.

"Many of our clients have operations in China and are pursuing aggressive growth plans there. It is natural for us to establish a footprint in China to provide the support and guidance that our clients require on both sides of the Pacific," said Guy Halgren, chairman of Sheppard Mullin. The firm has well established China and Korea teams handling outbound as well as inbound investment matters in a variety of industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, infrastructure, entertainment/media, and hospitality.

Opening in Shanghai is also a natural expansion of the firm's other international practices, which include the successful prior launch of Latin America, Italy, and Israel teams. "Several of our domestic and international practices focus to a significant degree on Chinese companies looking to raise capital or develop markets outside of China, and our new Shanghai office allows us to expand the services that we provide to those clients," said Halgren.

The Shanghai office opens with four seasoned China hands positioned to immediately handle a full range of investment, intellectual property, real estate, trade, financial restructuring, and international disputes matters. Partner David Huebner has relocated from Los Angeles to Shanghai to head the China practice and lead the new office. Also relocating to Shanghai is special counsel Xudong Ni from the firm's Washington, D.C. office. Special counsel William Zheng and senior legal consultant Michael Zhang have joined Sheppard Mullin from China's AllBright Law Firm.

In addition, partners Edward Tillinghast and Jerry Gumpel will remain integral members of the Shanghai team and will anchor the U.S.-side of the firm's greater China practice from their offices in New York and Del Mar, California, respectively.

Huebner, a former chairman of Coudert Brothers LLP, specializes in intellectual property and international dispute resolution. He has represented governments and corporations in various sectors including pharmaceuticals, technology, entertainment/media, telecom, and construction. Huebner is a solicitor in England & Wales as well as a member of the Bars of California, New York, and D.C. He is a graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and Yale Law School, and worked earlier in his career in Tokyo as a policy advisor to a member of the Japanese Diet. He sits on the ICC Commission on Arbitration and has handled numerous disputes in and related to greater China.

Ni, a native of China, has many years of experience handling foreign investment and trade matters, and helped found one of China's first private law firms. He also has prior experience at a Virginia-based business strategy consulting firm. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Peking University School of Law, and earned an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has particular expertise in strategic planning for foreign companies doing business in China, as well as deep industry experience in the aviation and banking sectors.

Zheng focuses his practice on foreign direct investment in the greater China region and has extensive experience in advising clients in various matters relating to intellectual property, corporate law, M&A, and venture capital in China. He worked earlier in his career for one of the Big Five accounting firms. He received his bachelor degree from Brandeis University and J.D. from Pace University School of Law. He is a member of the New York Bar.

Zhang has broad experience in intellectual property and corporate law, with a focus on advising clients on structuring investments and protecting intellectual assets. He has handled a wide range of matters in China for U.S. Fortune 100 companies and other international clients. He is a graduate of the Law School of the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade.

Tillinghast specializes in financial restructuring, cross-border insolvencies, creditors’ rights litigation, distressed mergers and acquisitions, and advising distressed asset investors. Former head of Coudert Brothers' Global Insolvency and Restructuring practice, Tillinghast has written and spoken widely on the challenges of cross-border restructurings, and represents U.S. and greater China-based clients in cross-border matters in the U.S. and China.

Gumpel, the leader of the firm's International group, is a cross-border investment and M&A specialist. He represents U.S.-based multinationals and non-U.S. companies that have invested in the U.S.

03-12-2007

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Schiff Hardin LLP

SCHIFF HARDIN LLP MANAGING PARTNER RONALD S. SAFER FEATURED ON ABC NEWS' "20/20" FOR FREEING WOMAN WRONGLY CONVICTED OF MURDERING SON
ABC News' "20/20" featured Schiff Hardin LLP managing partner Ronald S. Safer on March 9, 2007 in a report on the successful exoneration of Julie Rea Harper, who was retried last summer after being wrongfully convicted of stabbing her 10-year-old son to death in October 1997.

Mr. Safer served as Julie Rea Harper's lead attorney in the retrial last summer in downstate Illinois, representing her on a pro-bono basis in conjunction with the Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University.

In presenting Julie Rea Harper's case, Mr. Safer explained to the jury how crime scene investigators failed to dust for fingerprints or to search for hair and fibers at the murder scene. Each of these basic crime scene investigation methods could have produced evidence supporting Julie Rea Harper's unwavering story that an intruder entered her home in the middle of the night and stabbed her son, Joel, to death as he slept.

"These police officers decided 30 seconds into this investigation that Julie had done it. They had who they believed was the perpetrator, and then they shaped the evidence to that end," Mr. Safer told "20/20" correspondent Lynn Sherr in his broadcast interview. "There were fibers on the scene. They never collected them. Why not? They didn't want to know. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say there's no evidence of a third person. They didn't look for the evidence."

Despite a lack of any direct evidence that she committed the horrific crime, investigators and a zealous prosecutor refused to accept any other theory for the crime — that Julie Rea Harper murdered her own son so her ex-husband couldn't have custody of him. At her first trial, without the assistance of Mr. Safer and the Center for Wrongful Convictions, she was convicted and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

But a fascinating twist took place just a few weeks after she was sentenced in May 2002. ABC's "20/20" aired its first segment on her case, which led to new information supporting her insistence that an intruder killed her son.

Diane Fanning, a Texas author writing a book on serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells, watched the "20/20" program and saw clear similarities to home invasion murders of other children to which Sells had already confessed. Fanning corresponded with Sells, who was already on death row in Texas for a similar killing. Sells admitted killing Joel, providing dates and details that backed his claim. Despite this blockbuster development, Illinois prosecutors disregarded Sells' confession as fantasy.

After Julie Rea Harper's first conviction was thrown out on a legal technicality, a second jury heard Mr. Safer present evidence about the sloppy crime scene investigation and Sells' confession. As highlighted in the March 9, 2007 "20/20" broadcast, Mr. Safer was there to help lift Julie Rea Harper off the courtroom floor when she collapsed after the jury foreman in Carlyle, Ill., proclaimed the words "not guilty" on July 26, 2006.

"There is no better feeling in the world than to know you have brought justice to someone wrongly accused. While the prosecutor and investigators stubbornly refuse to pursue Joel's real killer, I am at least honored to have led the team that gave Julie back her freedom. After all she has been through, she deserves the opportunity to pursue a life full of new dreams.

03-12-2007

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Parker & McCay, Attorneys At Law

Phyllis E. Bross to Discuss Brownfields at Bankers and Brokers Breakfast
Parker McCay attorney Phyllis E. Bross is a featured speaker at the Gloucester County Department of Economic Development’s annual Bankers and Brokers Breakfast on Friday, March 23, 2007 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the RiverWinds Community Center in West Deptford, N.J.

The Bankers and Brokers Breakfast is an annual forum designed to provide information about what is happening in Gloucester County and help business leaders and investors gain knowledge about state financing products and how to navigate the governmental system. Ms. Bross will speak on the benefits of redeveloping brownfields versus greenfields.

Ms. Bross, a Turnersville, N.J. resident, focuses her practice in the areas of brownfields redevelopment and environmental law, with an emphasis on the acquisition, remediation and reuse of contaminated sites. She serves as chair of the Legal Committee and co-chair of the Legislative Affairs committee of the National Brownfield Association, New Jersey Chapter.

03-12-2007

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