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Law Firm News

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Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein P.C.

LONG ISLAND LEGAL BRIEFS.
Another first for the Hofstra University law school

Hofstra University has named its first-ever female law school dean: Professor Nora V. Demleitner, who takes over as interim dean effective immediately.

Demleitner takes the reins from departing Dean Aaron Twerski, who announced his resignation following quadruple-bypass heart surgery. He had hoped to return to the school this month and work through July, but his condition made that impossible. Twerski, believed to be the first Hasidic Jew to head a U.S. law school, was dean for two years.

Demleitner said that while the appointment is an honor, it came from distressing circumstances. "Dean Twerski was a wonderful dean and it's too bad his deanship had to end prematurely for health reasons," she said.

Demleitner joined the law school faculty in 2001 and has served as the vice dean for academic affairs for the past year.

A formal search committee will be formed shortly to begin an international search for the next permanent dean of Hofstra Law School, according to school officials.

Demleitner, 40, received her law degree from Yale University in 1992. After law school, Demleitner clerked for Samuel A. Alito Jr., then a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She testified in front of the U.S. Senate in 2006 on behalf of Justice Alito's successful nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Demleitner has written and taught in the areas of criminal, comparative and immigration law. Among other university affiliations, she has been a visiting professor at the University of Freiburg and a visiting researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, both in Germany.

Protecting trade secrets

When an employee leaves, it's not a simple matter of collecting the keys to the office.

Instead, employers need to conduct thorough exit interviews with departing employees and take steps to ensure they can't access a firm's computer system, making sure passwords have been changed and employees haven't been e-mailing sensitive files to their private accounts.

That's the advice of Erica B. Garay, a partner in the Garden City law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein. Garay spoke in an interview about recent trends in trade secret law ahead of an address on the topic set for Thursday at the Practicing Law Institute in Manhattan.

"It's very important to not get back just the paper," she said, but also to focus on electronic access. In trade secret disputes, the level of protection a firm has in place can determine if the courts will consider the information secret.

"In the old days," Garay said,"you'd have a file cabinet with a lock on it and one or two people would have a key. With computers, you need to do the same thing. If everyone has access, it's not a trade secret. "

Garay was recently involved in a case in which an employee leaving a medical practice took a list of referring doctors. But because the information was easily found, the list was ruled not to be secret.

"If it's easy to recreate something with publicly available information, it's not a trade secret," she said.

The classic example of a trade secret is the formula for Coca-Cola, Garay said. To drive that home: An Atlanta jury recently found a former Coke executive assistant guilty of conspiring to steal trade secrets and sell them to PepsiCo.

The case came to light when Purchase-based Pepsi gave Coke a copy of a letter from a person claiming to be a high ranking employee of Coke. The letter offered product samples and other confidential information, prosecutors said. Coke contacted the FBI, which launched an undercover investigation.

Garay has been practicing for 28 years in business litigation and lectures frequently on federal practice and employment law. The other major subject she planned to address at the Practicing Law Institute, a non-profit continuing legal education organization, was trends in court opinions on restrictive covenants, such as non-compete and non-solicitation agreements. To be enforceable, covenants have to be reasonable in terms of time, geographic area and scope, Garay said.

03-09-2007

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Kohn Swift & Graf P.C.

Settlements in Auto Refinish Paint Antitrust Litig
Proposed settlements totaling $39 million have been reached with defendants PPG Industries, Inc. ("PPG"), The Sherwin-Williams Company and Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corporation (collectively "Sherwin-Williams"). The Court has preliminarily approved these proposed settlements and directed that notice of the settlements be sent to potential Class Members.

PPG and Sherwin-Williams are the two remaining defendants in this litigation, in which plaintiffs allege that defendants conspired to increase artificially the prices of Automotive Refinishing Paint sold in the United States during the period from January 1, 1993 to December 31, 2000, in violation of the federal antitrust laws. Settlements with the other defendants, totaling $66.75 million, were previously approved by the Court. If approved by the Court, the PPG and Sherwin-Williams settlements will bring the total recovery in this case to $105.75 million, and will conclude this litigation.

The proposed settlements with PPG and Sherwin-Williams must receive final approval by the Court in order to become effective. The Court will hold a hearing on August 9, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. in Courtroom 8A at the United States Courthouse, 601 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 to consider whether the proposed settlements should be approved, and related matters.

03-09-2007

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Alston & Bird LLP

Matthew Gilligan Featured in FORTUNE Small Business Q&A on Employment Issues
Matthew Gilligan was featured in the “Ask FSB” column in the March issue of Fortune Small Business. Matt addressed questions about rehiring returning Iraq War Vets and notes that the burden of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act falls heavily on small companies.

03-09-2007

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Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP

Ricardo Ramírez Quoted On NAFTA Tribunal Award
Ricardo Ramírez was quoted in an article, "US court confirms NAFTA award," in Global Arbitration Review, regarding confirmation of a NAFTA tribunal's decision and cost award against a Canadian gaming company: "[the request was] "a thinly veiled attempt to re-litigate certain questions and clearly an attempt by Thunderbird's lawyers to revoke the award on costs and fees by re-litigating the issue. This confirms that NAFTA rulings are only subject to review under very strict circumstances. The confirmation of the award of costs and fees against the investor should deter frivolous challenges by investors under NAFTA Chapter 11. In fact, no new challenges against the Mexican government have been brought for almost three years."

This article was reprinted in the March 15 issue of LatinLawyer.

03-09-2007

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Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, LLP

Firm Represents LPL Financial Services in its Acquisition of the Majority of Broker-Dealers Owned by Pacific Life Insurance Company
Simpson Thacher is representing Linsco/Private Ledger Corp. (LPL Financial Services) in its acquisition of three of Pacific Life Insurance Company’s broker-dealers – Mutual Services Corporation, Associated Financial Group, Inc. and Waterstone Financial Group, Inc. The acquisition was announced on March 2, 2007. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, and is expected to close by June 2007.

LPL Financial Services, which is majority owned by affiliates of Hellman & Friedman and Texas Pacific Group, is the nation’s leading independent brokerage firm with over 7,700 independent financial advisors nationwide and over $1.4 billion in gross revenue last year. Collectively, the three acquired broker-dealers have approximately 2,200 financial advisors serving retail clients and $353 million in revenues. The transaction will increase LPL’s independent financial advisors to 9,900 nationwide.

The Simpson Thacher team includes Edward Chung, Peter Martelli, Shalini Aggarwal and Ellen Rosenberg (M&A – New York), Daniel Clivner and Sylvia Park (M&A – Los Angeles), Charles Rappaport and Noah Beck (Tax) and Gregory Grogan (Employee Benefits).

03-09-2007

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Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, LLP

Firm Represents First Reserve Corporation and GenPower Holdings in Project Financing
The Firm represented First Reserve Corporation and the sponsor, GenPower Holdings, L.P., in the project financing of the Longview coal-fired power plant. The financing included a $1.1 billion debt package consisting of term loans, a revolving credit facility and a synthetic letter of credit. The total project cost is $1.8 billion, with GenPower Holdings, L.P. committing to provide the balance of the construction funding required for the project. Financial closing for the project occurred on February 28, 2007.

The Longview project is a 695 net megawatt supercritical, pulverized coal-fired generating facility being built in Maidsville, West Virginia. The project will sell electricity on a merchant basis, with only 300 megawatts of its output covered by an off-take contract at the financial closing.

GenPower Holdings is a joint venture between First Reserve and the Massachusetts-based developer GenPower, LLC. The debt underwriters and financial advisors for the project were Goldman Sachs & Co. and WestLB AG New York Branch.

Simpson Thacher fielded a broad team of advisors to assist GenPower Holdings and First Reserve in this transaction:

Ken Wyman, David Lieberman, Alden Millard, Vanessa Bressler, Jessica Tuchinsky (Credit); Mark Tibberts, Amy Beller and Sean Murphy (Project Development and Credit); Barrie Covit (Private Funds); Barry Ostrager, Mary Beth Forshaw, Jamie Gamble, David Elbaum, Jason Stone, Ryan Kane, Sandra Chiocchi, Paul Quigley and Elizabeth Warnick (Litigation); Mardi Merjian (Real Estate); Nancy Mehlman and Diane Gipstein (Tax); Adeeb Fadil, Mike Isby and Tim Mulvihill (Environmental); Jeanne Annaruma (ERISA). Paralegals Aimee Sorbo and Doug Henderson provided valuable assistance.

03-09-2007

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Ropes & Gray, LLP

Robert Borzone joins Ropes & Gray’s Investment Management Group
Ropes & Gray is pleased to announce that Robert J. Borzone Jr. is a new partner in the firm's Investment Management Group. Borzone will base his practice in the firm's New York office.

Borzone has extensive experience in representing investment companies and advisers in the organization and registration of exchange traded funds, mutual funds, and closed end investment companies. His work for funds and advisers includes advice regarding fund governance and reorganizations, and compliance and regulatory issues. He also advises clients in virtually all facets of college savings programs, which are also known as 529 plans.

Borzone comes to Ropes & Gray from K&L Gates. He will be reunited with his former colleague, Richard D. Marshall, who left K&L Gates to join Ropes & Gray in February 2007.

“We’re very pleased to add Bob to our team,” said Gregory D. Sheehan, the chairman of Ropes & Gray's Investment Management Group. “With his deep, broad experience in the investment management industry, Bob will make an immediate contribution in serving our sophisticated clients.”

Borzone is admitted to the Bar of New York. Before entering private practice, Borzone was a certified public accountant in New York. He earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and his law degree from the New York University School of Law.

03-09-2007

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