Law Firm News

---

Law Firm News

Firm Name

News Title

News

News Date

25383 matches |  21904-21910 displayed

1  3126 3127 3128 3129 3130  3627

---

Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP

Thacher Proffitt's Mexico City Office Announces Two New Counsel
Thacher Proffitt announced today two new Counsel in the Firm — Derek Woodhouse has been promoted to Counsel effective April 26, 2006, and J. Anthony Girolami joins the Firm as Counsel, effective June 19, 2006. Both Derek and Anthony are members of the Structured Finance Practice Group and reside in Thacher Proffitt’s Mexico City office, Thacher Proffitt & Wood S.C.

“We want to congratulate both Derek on his promotion and Anthony on joining the Firm,” said Boris Otto, Mexico City’s Office Managing Partner. “Derek is an experienced advisor of public-private partnerships, and will bring a sophisticated UK approach to Mexico’s nascent PPS (projects for the provisions of services) programs. Anthony has considerable experience in the areas of infrastructure development and cross-border financings throughout Latin America. Both will add tremendously to our depth in structured finance in Latin America.”

Recently, Thacher Proffitt significantly broadened the scope of its Mexico City office by almost doubling its number of attorneys — a group that includes Luis Enrique Graham, a prominent Latin American attorney — in the areas of litigation, arbitration, bankruptcy and infrastructure.

About Derek Woodhouse

Derek Woodhouse has extensive experience advising public and private entities on energy and infrastructure projects in countries all over the world. He also advised the Mexican President’s office and Ministry of Finance and Public Credit on the adoption of a new finance initiative which would allow private participation in the infrastructure projects traditionally reserved only for the public sector. In addition, he counseled the Communications and Transport Ministry on the design and implementation of the first road project under this program.

Derek’s background includes working in Mexico’s federal government for over seven years in the energy sector, as well as in private practice in London for five years on both energy and infrastructure projects. In addition, he has worked extensively on public-private partnerships (PPP) throughout Latin American and Europe.

Derek received his JD equivalent at Escuela Libre de Derecho in 1996. He also received an international diploma from Harvard Institute for International Development in 1999, and completed a legal program at the International Law Institute, George Washington University, in 1997.

About J. Anthony Girolami

Anthony Girolami represents clients in transactions involving the development, construction and financing of large scale infrastructure projects throughout Latin America, as well as lenders and borrowers in cross-border syndicated credit facilities. He has advised financial institutions, infrastructure developers and energy companies with the formation of joint ventures, project financings, engineering, procurement and construction contracts and restructurings.

Before joining Thacher Proffitt, Anthony was with Shearman & Sterling, LLP, practicing in the Project Development and Finance Group in New York and Sa?o Paulo, Brazil. He also served as the Director of International Legal Affairs at Grupo ICA, S.A. de C.V., Mexico’s largest infrastructure development company.

Anthony received his JD from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his BA from the University of San Diego, magna cum laude. He is admitted to the California bar and the Orden dos Advogados in Brazil as a foreign legal consultant.

07-11-2006

---

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Accomplished Real Estate Attorneys David B. Roseman and Mark Mengelberg Join Seyfarth Shaw as Partners in San Francisco
Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of America’s leading full service law firms, announced that David B. Roseman and Mark Mengelberg have joined the firm as partners in San Francisco. Prior to joining Seyfarth Shaw, Roseman was a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and Mengelberg was with Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory and Natsis LLP. Along with earlier important geographic additions to Seyfarth Shaw's real estate group over the past 12 months, their addition to the west coast practice emphasizes the firm's strong commitment to meeting the increasing client demand for real estate representation in California. Roseman and Mengelberg will join to solidify Seyfarth’s national practice which includes more than 86 real estate attorneys who are strategically located throughout the United States in business centers such as Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Roseman and Mengelberg have successfully served clients in all areas of transactional real estate law, including leasing, purchase and sale, financing, development, and joint venture structuring and formation. Each attorney has extensive experience representing developers of large commercial and residential projects throughout California. In addition, they each have strong leasing and capital transaction practices that they are bringing to Seyfarth Shaw.

“Because David and Mark have such broad practices, we feel they make a perfect fit for our firm,” stated J. Kelly Bufton, chair of the firm’s real estate group. “Their addition to the firm will both meet the extensive California real estate needs of existing clients as well as expand our real estate client base to include more California-centric real estate companies. This is a crucial development in our firm’s ability to provide our clients with full service real estate representation in every part of the United States.”

Seyfarth Shaw’s real estate practice spans the full spectrum of commercial real estate transactions. The group’s national client base includes firms that have real estate as their key business, such as REITs, pension fund advisors, developers, lenders and builders, and companies for whom real estate is an ancillary but crucial aspect of their business, including hoteliers, retailers, service companies, and manufacturers.

“I am delighted to welcome David and Mark to our San Francisco office and the firm’s expanding real estate practice,” noted Nick C. Geannacopulos, managing partner of Seyfarth Shaw’s San Francisco office. “They both have significant experience in the real estate industry and the west coast marketplace. Their addition to the firm immediately enhances the levels of service we can provide our clients to meet their California real estate needs.”

Roseman, a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the American Bar Association, is admitted to practice law in California and New York. He holds an A.B. (magna cum laude) from Duke University and earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University. Roseman was selected as a 2006 (and 2005) Northern California Super Lawyer by San Francisco and Law & Politics Magazines, which annually select five percent of Northern California attorneys for this honor.

“My move to Seyfarth Shaw is an excellent opportunity to integrate my real estate expertise with a firm possessing and committed to retaining a strong national real estate practice,” said Roseman. “At a time when many national law firms are marginalizing their real estate practices, Seyfarth Shaw has chosen to go the other direction and make it a core practice area for the firm. Seyfarth Shaw provides the perfect platform for me to serve my existing California and national clients, and to expand my practice by servicing the firm’s national clients in their California real estate endeavors.” He added, “I am thrilled that Mark Mengelberg has joined me in this move. Mark is one of the stars of the new generation of seasoned California real estate attorneys.”

Mengelberg received his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law. He also holds a Masters of Law in Real Property Development from the University of Miami School of Law.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 650 attorneys located in nine offices throughout the United States including Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento as well as Brussels and Belgium. In addition to real estate, the firm provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation and business services, and its practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business community. Clients include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, real estate companies, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. Seyfarth Shaw also represents a number of federal, state, and local governmental and educational entities. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.

07-11-2006

---

Powell Goldstein LLP

Akin Gump Loses Two Partners To Powell Goldstein
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld took a hit Tuesday when two partners and at least 11 staff attorneys and paralegals in its real estate and finance practice defected to Powell Goldstein.

07-11-2006

---

Pepper Hamilton, L.L.P.

Leon R. Barson Joins Pepper Hamilton's Bankruptcy Practice as a Partner
Pepper Hamilton LLP announced that Leon R. Barson has joined the firm as a corporate restructuring and bankruptcy partner resident in the Philadelphia office.

“Leon is a well-known and well-respected bankruptcy lawyer who has been in practice for more than 15 years in the Philadelphia and Wilmington areas,” said Robert E. Heideck, Pepper’s executive partner. “His addition complements our bankruptcy group and will help us expand our middle market debtor’s practice. We’re delighted to have him join us.”

“Pepper offers me the opportunity to enhance the services that I can provide to clients,” said Mr. Barson, who previously was a shareholder with Adelman Lavine Gold and Levin, P.C., a bankruptcy boutique where he has practiced since 1991. “Pepper has the resources to advise clients not only on bankruptcy issues, but also in many related areas of law, which is so important in sophisticated corporate restructurings.”

Mr. Barson focuses his practice on corporate reorganizations, workouts, debtors’ and creditors’ rights, and corporate transactions. He has represented parties in the restructuring, reorganization or sale of complex businesses in an array of industries, including the telecommunications, health care, manufacturing, hospitality, apparel and retail industries.

His practice includes advising acquirers of financially distressed assets and providing counseling on business opportunities and the bankruptcy implications of strategic transactions. He counsels boards of directors, chief executive officers and other members of senior management with respect to their duties and obligations to, and exposures in connection with, financially challenged companies. He also represents borrowers in out-of-court restructuring transactions.

A frequent author and lecturer on a variety of subjects related to business reorganizations, Mr. Barson is recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the field of bankruptcy/restructuring (2005 and 2006 editions).

Mr. Barson received his law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1990, and his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from New York University in 1987.

Pepper’s Bankruptcy and Reorganization Practice Group handles a full range of debtor/creditor matters, regardless of the complexity, location, industry or market sector involved. Members of the group, drawing on their own experience and the assistance of Pepper’s other practitioners, address many complex subjects necessary to the successful resolution of bankruptcy and reorganization matters, including environmental, collective bargaining, transportation, leveraged buyout, toxic tort, pension, intellectual property, health care, financial institution, mortgage banking, real estate, construction/surety, insurance and tax issues. Pepper is one of the few national firms with a significant bankruptcy practice in Wilmington, Delaware, often a forum of choice for bankruptcy filings of national significance.

Pepper Hamilton LLP is a multi-practice law firm with 400 lawyers in six states and the District of Columbia. The firm provides corporate, litigation and regulatory legal services to leading businesses, governmental entities, nonprofit organizations and individuals throughout the nation and the world. The firm was founded in 1890.

07-11-2006

---

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

ABA Intellectual Property Law Section’s Resolution 413-1
On June 22, 2006 the Intellectual Property (IP) Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) held its summer meeting in Boston. On the agenda were the presentation, debate, and vote upon various resolutions drafted by select subcommittees. One resolution in particular, 413-1, entitled State Prescription Drug Compulsory Licensing, drafted jointly by subcommittees 413 (Patent Licensing) and 108 (Prescription Drug Compulsory Licensing), was presented, debated, and overwhelmingly passed. Presented by BayBio member Allison Young, an attorney in Morgan Lewis & Bockius’ Palo Alto office and coauthor of the resolution, along with a fellow contributing author, the resolution establishes the ABA IP Law section’s official opposition to any state or local law that provides for compulsory licensing of any patented product or process. With its ratification, this opposition became the official position of the ABA’s IP arm regarding state compulsory licensing proposals.

The resolution responds to various bills that have been introduced recently in state legislatures contemplating compulsory license schemes for pharmaceuticals that attempt to undercut current drug prices. State compulsory patent licensing allows a state government to grant licenses to make, use, or sell a patented invention by the state or its designees, without the permission of the patentee. Prompted by the perceived unreasonable cost of patented pharmaceuticals, and by the inability of some patent holders to manufacture sufficient amounts of potentially life-saving drug treatments, state governments have exhibited signs of resorting to the issuance of compulsory licenses for pharmaceutical compositions protected by a U.S. patent. The compulsory licenses effectively would permit the states to force a patentee, in most cases a pharmaceutical company that patents a useful and innovative new pharmaceutical composition, into a license agreement. Using the compulsory license, the state government would permit third parties to manufacture and sell the pharmaceutical composition in competition with the patentee in an attempt to greatly reduce prices to, for example, Medicaid patients and state employees, or alternatively all citizens within its territorial boundaries.

In recent years, states such as West Virginia and the District of Columbia have considered (though not yet successfully passed) legislation that would allow them to grant a license to a state designated manufacturer to produce and sell a generic version of a patented drug product if the price of the drug in their state or the district is deemed unreasonable, inflated, or above other designated limits. Various proposals include limiting generics developed under a compulsory license only to state employees, while some propose availability to all citizens; some limit targeted drugs to only “life-saving” medications, while others target any and all medicines; and some determine an “inflated” price by comparison to the cost of the drug in other countries. On May 25, 2006, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced Senate bill S.3175 before Congress that would allow U.S. companies to make generic versions of patented medicines for export to impoverished nations that face public health crises but cannot produce certain life-saving medicines for themselves. (Life-Saving Medicines Export Act of 2006). Those patent holders would receive compensation in the form of a royalty payment under a so-called “compulsory license,” and the generic companies would then be required to sell those less-expensive generic drugs only to least-developed or developing nations.

Resolution 413 addresses arguments both in favor of and against state compulsory licensing, but overwhelmingly takes the position that these proposals are unconstitutional, have detrimental economic and social consequences, and, therefore, should be adamantly opposed. In the resolution and during the debate, proponents of compulsory licensing argued that the law already allows states to grant compulsory licenses so long as the Due Process Clause is satisfied and just compensation is paid. In Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, 527 U.S. 627 (1999), the United States Supreme Court indicated that a state’s infringement of a patent violates the Constitution only where the state provides no remedy, or only inadequate remedies, to injured patent owners for its infringement of their patent under a deprivation of property without due process theory. Proponents also argued that compulsory licensing would meet the U.S. obligations to comply with its agreements to certain world treaties, and that questions of global health, humanitarianism, and even national security demand compulsory licensing, citing the emergence in recent years of serious diseases and outbreaks, as well as threatened pandemics such as SARS, avian influenza, and HIV/AIDS, in addition to the potential for future outbreaks if serious diseases are not treated, cured, and contained. Opponents of state compulsory licensure, however, won the debate, arguing that any state compulsory licensing legislation would be unconstitutional in view of federal preemption founded in the Supremacy Clause, Due Process, the Commerce Clause, and the inability to meet the requirement of “just compensation” under the Takings Clause. Opponents also argued the policy and wider implications of compulsory licensing such as implications and issues related to regulatory approval and Hatch-Waxman ANDA requirements; consequences to preexisting licensing agreements; economic implications, such as astronomical costs associated with such programs; threats to industries; commerce and the economy; inequities with respect to which drugs would be subject to compulsory licensure and why, as well as who would get the benefit of availability of generic alternatives; negative impacts on the pharmaceutical industry; innovation and advanced development; and the inconsistency with U.S. positions taken with respect to agreements under TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). The resolution discusses all of these issues in detail and concludes that state compulsory licensure efforts are misplaced, unconstitutional, and potentially more damaging than any perceived problem they are suggested to address, and any proposals of such would be opposed by the ABA and its members. For a more thorough discussion, and to read the resolution in its entirety, click on State Prescription Drug Compulsory Licensing.

07-11-2006

---

McDermott Will & Emery

MCDERMOTT NAMED AMONG THE LEADING PATENT LITIGATION FIRMS
McDermott Will & Emery’s Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department was recognized in IP Law & Business' annual patent litigation survey published in its July 2006 issue. McDermott ranked as one of the Top 10 busiest patent litigation firms in the United States. With a total of 34 new patent cases filed on behalf of clients in 2005, both plaintiff and defense, McDermott ranked 9th overall out of 32 firms. McDermott was listed 9th with 15 plaintiff cases and ranked 12th with 19 cases as defense counsel. The cases included in IP Law & Business' survey were only federal district cases filed in 2005 and active as of February 1, 2006. The survey did not include International Trade Commission and Federal Circuit cases.

""This success is due in large part to our continued commitment to the growth and development of our IP practice,"" said Ray Lupo, head of the Firm's IP, Media & Technology Department.

McDermott's strategic patent prosecution program also resulted in 1,282 patents for its clients in 2005, ranking the Firm in the Top 10 of Intellectual Property Today's annual survey of top patent firms (March 2006). The Firm also recently ranked among the leading U.S. firms for trademark prosecution and litigation in Managing Intellectual Property's World IP Survey (March 2006).

McDermott's IP, Media & Technology Department currently numbers more than 190 lawyers and patent agents. Our lawyers engage in various aspects of IP work, including advertising and marketing, computer and internet law, copyrights, legislation, litigation, patents, trade dress, trademarks, trade secrets, unfair competition and antitrust. More than 130 of the Firm's IP lawyers hold technical degrees and are patent bar members. Of those, more than half hold a degree in electrical engineering, biotechnology, chemistry or other technical disciplines including computer engineering.

07-11-2006

---

Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, L.L.P.

Kennedy Covington Nationally Recognized for Excellence; Attorneys Receive Top Rankings in National Publication
Kennedy Covington, one of the largest law firms in the Carolinas, has been named an industry leader in six practice areas. The rankings appear in Chambers USA Guide: America's Leading Business Lawyers 2006, a prestigious national legal directory published by Chambers & Partners.

The publication ranked Kennedy Covington among North Carolina's leading firms in the areas of banking and finance, bankruptcy/restructuring (First Tier), corporate/mergers and acquisitions, environmental, commercial litigation, and real estate (First Tier).

Chambers USA also recognized 15 of Kennedy Covington's attorneys as leaders in their respective practice areas: John Murchison (First Tier), anti-trust; Don Lassiter and Joe Kluttz, banking and finance; Mike Booe (First Tier) and Joe Kluttz (First Tier), bankruptcy/restructuring; Norfleet Pruden (First Tier) and Ace Walker, corporate/mergers and acquisitions; Dave Franchina and Carol Jones Van Buren, environmental; George Covington and Kiran Mehta, commercial litigation; Brian Evans, Glen Hardymon, Allen Prichard and Maynard Tipps, real estate.

Chambers USA based its ratings on more than 10,000 phone interviews with attorneys and clients. The qualities on which the rankings were assessed included technical legal ability, professional conduct, client service, diligence, commitment and other qualities most valued by the client.

Founded in 1957, Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, L.L.P. is one of the largest law firms in the Carolinas with offices in Charlotte, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, Columbia and Rock Hill. Our nearly 200 attorneys use their diverse experience and knowledge to counsel clients in varied industries such as banking and finance, real estate, technology and manufacturing. At Kennedy Covington, we give more than a legal opinion; we provide a business perspective.

07-11-2006

---

25383 matches |  21904-21910 displayed

1  3126 3127 3128 3129 3130  3627