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Jenner & Block LLP

Jenner & Block Represents Public Housing Residents Displaced by Katrina
Jenner & Block is serving as lead counsel in a class action lawsuit against HUD and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) on behalf of displaced public housing residents. The clients have been out of their homes in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck in August, 2005. Like the rest of the city, they fled their homes. Unlike other evacuees though, the public housing residents have not been helped by government programs designed to support their return. Rather, federal and local housing agencies have actively blocked the return of these poor, African American, longtime New Orleans residents to their homes.

The class action complaint alleges that, before Hurricane Katrina, over 5,000 families lived in New Orleans public housing. While many neighborhoods were devastated by Katrina, public housing developments mostly came through the storm intact, with minimal or no damage. Yet, rather than opening the public housing, or clean and repair any modest damage that existed, HANO and HUD elected to shutter the developments with locks and steel bars. As a result, displaced residents still remain in Baton Rouge, Houston, Atlanta and numerous other cities, separated from their families, and often ostracized as unwelcome or undesirable additions to the community.

The complaint alleges that one of the reasons for HANO and HUD’s actions is drawn from the public and private sector opportunities presented by post Katrina New Orleans. Together with private interests, HANO and HUD have developed plans to demolish all 5,000 public housing units that existed before Hurricane Katrina and replace them with homes geared to more mixed income residents. The plans call for only a limited number of units to be reserved for public housing tenants, and even then with restrictive eligibility criteria.

The primary beneficiaries of this approach will be real estate and other developers, to the detriment of New Orleans working poor. Furthermore, this planned demolition, at a time of unprecedented housing crisis in New Orleans, will inevitably change the city’s demographics, both by eliminating former pockets of poorer public housing residents and, in a prediction made by HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson: “New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.” The class action complaint contends that defendants’ actions violate the United States Fair Housing Act, Louisiana law, and other federal and state laws.

Jenner & Block Partners Ross S. Bricker and John F. Ward, Jr., Associates Adam H. Morse, Lara E. Fitzsimmons, Gabriel A. Crowson, Abby J. Clark, Anne C. Fitzpatrick, and paralegal, Shawn K. McGee are working on the matter. Third-year law students, Nancy Jacobson, John Roberts and Sara Ruff, who worked extensively with the class during their summer clerkship at the firm have continued to provide assistance. Co-counsel includes Advancement Project, a democracy and justice action group to promote a fair and just multi-racial democracy in America, William P. Quigley, and R. Judson Mitchell professors at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, and civil rights attorney Tracie L. Washington.

10-26-2006

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Dykema Gossett PLLC

William M. Jack Joins Dykema
Dykema announces that William M. Jack has joined the firm as an Associate in the Government Policy Practice Group He specializes in government contracts, government policy, litigation and administrative law and regulation. He has experience drafting non-disclosure and teaming agreements, investigating and presenting claims and requests for equitable adjustments, representing contractors in compliance matters and government investigations, and preparing protests and claims at the Government Accountability Office, the Court of Federal Claims and various Boards of Contract appeals.

Mr. Jack is a recipient of the Administrative Law Review Award and was Note and Comment Editor of the Administrative Law Review, 2002-2003. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar.

Mr. Jack received his B.A. from Bucknell University and his J.D., cum laude, from the American University, Washington College of Law.

10-26-2006

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Davies, Ward, Phillips & Vineberg, LLP

Davies Leads All Law Firms In Q3 Worldwide Rankings
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is the top-ranked law firm in The Global Securities Information, Inc. (GSI) third quarter Legal Counsel Rankings. (Click here to see the rankings)

Davies led the worldwide rankings by total transaction value for completed mergers with 8 deals accounting for over US$50 billion in volume. The rankings consist of all deals resulting in a change in control registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including international transactions.

As a result of numerous complex transactions, practice standards and capabilities, Davies is consistently recognized among its peers, clients and third-party organizations for its excellence in M&A.

Davies, with over 235 lawyers, practices nationally and internationally from offices in Toronto, Montréal, New York and an affiliate in Paris, and is consistently at the heart of the largest and most complex commercial and financial matters on behalf of its North American and overseas clients.

10-26-2006

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Bracewell & Patterson, L.L.P.

Nation's Leading Air Quality Policy and Compliance Expert Joins Bracewell & Giuliani
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP announces that Jeff Holmstead, former Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for Air and Radiation and one of the nation's foremost air quality experts, has joined the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office.

Mr. Holmstead, who is returning to private law practice after a year abroad with his family, will head Bracewell's newly formed Environmental Strategies Group. The new practice group will advise the nation's top companies and business groups as they grapple with increasingly complex environmental and energy development challenges in the coming years.

""We are so pleased to welcome Jeff Holmstead to Bracewell,"" said senior partner Rudolph W. Giuliani. ""Jeff's familiarity with the compliance challenges facing the private sector will be a big asset to our firm.""

""We identified Jeff as the ideal person to lead Bracewell's environmental veterans as they successfully guide clients through the complex environmental regulatory landscape,"" explained Patrick Oxford, Bracewell managing partner.

Mr. Holmstead served at EPA from 2001 to 2005, and headed the Office of Air and Radiation longer than any professional in the agency’s history. During his tenure at EPA, he was the architect of several of the agency’s most important initiatives, including the Clean Air Interstate Rule, the Clean Air Diesel Rule, the Mercury Rule for power plants and the reform of the New Source Review program. He also oversaw the development of the President’s Clear Skies Legislation and key parts of the administration’s Global Climate Change Initiative. Mr. Holmstead also served in the first Bush administration from 1989 to 1993, as Associate Counsel to the President in the White House of President George H.W. Bush. In that capacity, he was involved in the passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the key steps taken to implement that act.

“Bracewell offered me a unique opportunity to head up a group that draws on the experience of talented environmental and energy lawyers and strategic communications experts to advise clients on some of their most important issues,” said Mr. Holmstead. “From my experience at EPA, I also know that many of the firm’s clients are looking for constructive and innovative ways to solve environmental problems, and I look forward to working on these efforts.”

In heading up Bracewell's Environmental Strategies Group, Mr. Holmstead will utilize his expertise in policy development, legislative and administrative advocacy, litigation, and strategic communications to counsel clients on complex environmental issues. Among the most vexing environmental issues facing the business community are climate change policy, Clean Air Act policy and enforcement, and energy policy — including the development of new coal-fired power plants, LNG terminals, nuclear power, renewable energy and the expansion of the electric transmission infrastructure.

Mr. Holmstead graduated from Yale Law School in 1987. He earned his undergraduate degrees from Brigham Young University, graduating first in his class in 1984, with degrees in economics and English.

10-26-2006

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Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP

The Private Equity Buyout Boom
Over the past 18 months there has been a marked increase in the acquisition of publicly traded companies by private equity firms as well as the size of the funds being raised by those firms. Blackstone Group recently accelerated the buyout boom further by increasing the size of the world’s largest private equity fund to $20 billion. Commenting on the quickening pace in the industry, Weil Gotshal partner James Westra stated, “[w]e are seeing a significant privatization of corporate America.”

The article, “Growing Funds Fuel Buyout Boom - Already Biggest, Blackstone Pool Will Raise Additional $4.4 Billion As Firms Seek Larger Targets,” appeared in the October 26, 2006 issue of The Wall Street Journal.

10-26-2006

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Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Ted Sorensen Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Event
On October 25, of counsel Ted Sorensen, the former special counsel, adviser and primary speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, was the keynote speaker at the opening session of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's board and staff retreat. At the event, Ted received the prestigious Lloyd Cutler Lifetime Achievement Award. He was the second recipient of this award.

10-26-2006

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Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Paul, Weiss Ranked as a Top Law Firm for Completed Mergers
Paul, Weiss was ranked as one of the top 10 law firms for completed mergers by total transaction value in Global Securities Information's third quarter 2006 counsel rankings. In the third quarter, Paul, Weiss completed four mergers valued at approximately $28.8 billion, including the mergers of Time Warner Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp., and Intelsat and PanAmSat Inc.

10-26-2006

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