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Venable LLP

Venable LLP Partner Vicki Margolis Named One of Maryland’s Top 100 Women
Venable LLP is pleased to announce that partner Vicki Margolis was selected by The Daily Record as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women. Ms. Margolis was awarded for her professional accomplishments, her devotion to community action and her commitment to mentoring others.

Ms. Margolis has been with Venable for more than 16 years. As chair of Venable's Patent Litigation Group, Ms. Margolis' practice focuses on patent and trademark litigation for a variety of industries, including global pharmaceutical companies, national financial services firms, and consumer products companies. She is co-chair of Venable's Diversity Committee and co-head of the firm's recently announced strategic alliance with the minority-owned law firm Brown & Sheehan, LLP, the largest Minority Business Enterprise law firm in Maryland. Ms. Margolis is also a past member of Venable's Executive Board.

Ms. Margolis is a member of Network 2000, and a graduate of the Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership Program. She is also a member of the Character Committee of the Court of Appeals of Maryland for the Sixth Appellate Court where she screens and mentors applicants for the Maryland State Bar.

In the community, Ms. Margolis devotes her time, energy and resources by serving as Board Governance Chair of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Maryland affiliate, and as a board member with the Maryland SPCA.

Ms. Margolis was named to Baltimore Business Journal's ""Who's Who in Intellectual Property Law"" and was selected for its ""40 Under 40"" award.

Started in 1996, the Top 100 Women contest was created to recognize Maryland's leading women who are positively impacting our state by mentoring others and working in their communities. The contest was also created to provide the business community with a resource for selecting candidates to fill management positions or corporate board seats. This year's winners will be honored at an awards ceremony on Monday, May 8, 2006 beginning with a reception at 5 p.m. at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore City.

As one of The American Lawyer's top 100 law firms, Venable LLP has lawyers practicing in all areas of corporate and business law, complex litigation, intellectual property and government affairs. Venable serves corporate, institutional, governmental, nonprofit and individual clients throughout the U.S. and around the world from its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and offices in Maryland, New York and Virginia. For more information, visit www.venable.com.

04-04-2006

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Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo P.C.

MINTZ LEVIN MAKES SIGNIFICANT EXPANSION TO WEST COAST; ACQUIRES PROMINENT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BOUTIQUE IN SILICON VALLEY
Marking a significant expansion to the West Coast, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. -- a full-service, AmLaw 100 firm with offices throughout the U.S. and in the U.K. -- announced it has acquired the Reed Intellectual Property Law Group, a prominent, Palo Alto-based boutique with extensive experience representing clients in the life sciences, chemical and technology sectors.

Already among the most active major law firms in the intellectual property area, Mintz Levin has more than 90 attorneys, scientists and other professionals focused on the protection, licensing and enforcement of intellectual property rights. The firm's roster of more than 400 intellectual property-related clients includes many of the most prominent names in the life sciences and technology industries including: StemCells Inc., Merck, 454 Life Sciences and Neuromolecular Pharmaceuticals Inc. The firm also represents a number of life sciences companies in other areas including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and public and private financings. These clients have included Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Inc., Curagen Corporation, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Qaigen, to name only a few.

As part of the acquisition, Dianne E. Reed, founder and managing partner of The Reed Intellectual Property Law Group, and approximately ten other attorneys, agents, and patent specialists, will join Mintz Levin, bringing complementary experience and backgrounds. The Reed group represents a number of U.S. and foreign clients, including start-ups, major corporations, investment groups, foreign law firms, research institutes, and universities. The group is well known for its expertise in patent preparation and prosecution, opinion work, strategic counseling, patent portfolio management, due diligence investigations, and FDA-related patent analyses and submissions. The acquisition is the first in the 73-year history of Mintz Levin, which was founded in Boston in 1933 and has grown to more than 450 attorneys.

""Mintz Levin has established one of the largest Intellectual Property practices of any major U.S. law firm,"" said Steven P. Rosenthal, the firm's co-managing Member. ""As our IP practice and our firm as a whole continue to grow, this acquisition presents a significant opportunity to increase our geographic footprint in an area that is seeing enormous growth in the life sciences industry; it also establishes a platform for the firm's future expansion. The establishment of our Palo Alto office is just the beginning of our significant expansion plans in California.""

""Dianne and the other talented attorneys have deep experience in a variety of technical areas, from chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology to engineering and applied physics, and they have established an outstanding reputation on the West Coast and beyond for their work on behalf of an impressive list of companies and institutions such as Bayer Corporation, SRI International, IBM, Labcyte Inc., Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, and the California Institute of Technology,"" added Ivor Elrifi and Jason Mirabito, Co-Chairs and Members of the firm's Intellectual Property practice. ""That background, combined with the similarities in our approach to client service and our shared commitment to culture and values created a natural fit as well as a significant business opportunity.""

""Mintz Levin has been a leader in the field of intellectual property for many years,"" said Ms. Reed, a former partner at Morrison & Foerster who founded The Reed Intellectual Property Law Group in 1992. ""We are thrilled to be joining this exceptional group of attorneys and to be at the forefront of the firm's exciting expansion to the West Coast. We are looking forward to bringing our experience to bear in further enhancing the firm's intellectual property capabilities as well as the opportunity to expand our existing client relationships by calling on the firm's depth and breath of expertise in other areas of the law, including business and finance; healthcare; employment, labor and benefits; regulatory matters and litigation, among others.""

A veteran of the intellectual property field, Ms. Reed has expertise spanning a wide variety of technology areas in the life sciences as well as in the physical sciences and engineering, and is perhaps best known for her patent work in the areas of complex chemistry, drug delivery, and nanotechnology. She has prepared and prosecuted about 2000 United States patent applications, has handled all types of work related to the generation, acquisition, and maintenance of intellectual property, and has served as a patent expert in patent infringement litigation. In her 22 years in private practice, Dianne has worked closely with numerous clients in creating and managing valuable and often complex patent portfolios, assessing and re-assessing patent strategy on an ongoing basis, preparing opinions of counsel, conducting due diligence reviews, and handling all matters related to the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. She also has experience handling FDA-related patent matters, including analysis of patent issues associated with ANDA submissions and preparation of patent certifications and related documents. Her clients have included SRI International, Copley Pharmaceutical, Cohesion Corporation, Corium International, Labcyte Inc., IBM, Quantum Dot Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Pharmascience, Inc., Nektar Therapeutics, and the California Institute of Technology.

Ms. Reed obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from M.I.T. in 1979, attended graduate school in nuclear chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, and obtained a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1984. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association, the Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Chemical Society. Ms. Reed is admitted to practice in California and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Joining her as Members are Carol A. Schneider, Flavio M. Rose and Karen Caanan.

Dr. Schneider represents clients mainly in the biotechnology and biomedical fields, and has drafted and prosecuted patent applications to issuance in areas such as molecular biology, immunology, genomics, gene therapy, pharmaceuticals, and drug delivery. She has been involved in a variety of proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, including interferences, reissues, and ex parte reexaminations, and has also prepared numerous opinions on patentability, validity, infringement, and freedom of operation. Her background also includes life sciences patent litigation including: Hormone Research Foundation and Hoffmann LaRoche v. Genentech, Inc., Genentech, Inc. v. Abbott Laboratories, Calgene Inc. v. Enzo Biochem, Inc., Vestar v. Liposome Technology, Inc., University of California and Idexx Laboratories v. Synbiotics, and GenSci Regeneration Laboratories, Inc. v. Osteotech, Inc.

Prior to joining The Reed Intellectual Property Law Group, Dr. Schneider was a partner at Irell & Manella LLP in Los Angeles. She received her J.D. from the University of Southern California in 1988, where she was a member of the USC Law Review and Order of the Coif. She received her bachelor?s degree in bacteriology from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1973, and her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Southern California in 1980. Dr. Schneider is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mr. Rose has worked on patent litigation, prosecution, and client counseling in a wide variety of technologies, including biotechnology, drug delivery, diagnostic contrast media, semiconductor manufacturing, microprocessor design, and cinematic special effects. His patent litigation experience includes Bayer v. Elan Pharmaceutical Research Corp., Novartis Consumer Health v. Elan Transdermal, Elan v. Biovail Corp., Affymetrix v. Hyseq, Applied Materials v. Novellus, Sonus v. Molecular Biosystems, Pitney Bowes v. Stamps.com, and Bloomstein v. Paramount Pictures.

A graduate of the University of Santiago in Chile, Mr. Rose earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1982. Prior to attending law school at the University of California at Berkeley, he worked for a number of years in industry, focusing on computer-aided design software, computer graphics, networking, and integrated circuit design. After graduation from law school in 1994, Mr. Rose served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Irma E. Gonzalez of the Southern District of California in San Diego, and then spent a number of years in the litigation department of Irell & Manella LLP. Mr. Rose is admitted to practice in California and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Ms. Canaan's practice focuses on patent preparation and prosecution in the biotechnical, pharmaceutical and chemical arts. As part of her practice, Ms. Canaan prepares non-infringement, invalidity, patentability and freedom-to-operate opinions as well as analyses associated with new drug and generic drug applications for the Food and Drug Administration.

Ms. Canaan graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry. She received her J.D. in 1997 from Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Canaan worked for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Texas Medical Center and at Stanford University where she focused on recombinant DNA techniques, the production of transgenic animals, and derivation and maintenance of embryonic stem cell lines. After law school she worked as an attorney-advisor at the United States Patent and Trademark Office reviewing petitions on a variety of legal questions. Ms. Canaan began working with Ms. Reed in 2002 and became a partner of The Reed Intellectual Property Law Group in 2005.

Mintz Levin is an AmLaw 100 law firm with offices in the US and the UK. The firm has exceptional depth in a broad range of practice areas, but our clients recognize that what sets us apart from other law firms is our industry focus. By truly understanding business drivers and industry trends, we are able to provide our clients with more than just legal advice. We provide legal solutions to our clients' business issues. Since 1933, our lawyers have represented entrepreneurs, emerging growth companies, government agencies, and leaders in primary industries that include Life Sciences/Biotechnology; Technology & Communications; Financial Services & Insurance; Healthcare; Real Estate, Hospitality & Construction; and Retail & Consumer Products. Our practical knowledge combined with our industry expertise enables us to provide our clients with enterprise legal advice that gives their business a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

04-04-2006

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Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Allan Reich and Hillary Ebach noted in The American Lawyer
The "Big Deals / Big Suits" column of the April 2006 issue of The American Lawyer notes Allan Reich and Hillary Ebach as outside [corporate and securities] counsel to Klaff Realty LP, part of the group led by Cerberus Capital Management, L.P in purchasing 655 supermarket stores from Supervalu which it had acquired from the break-up of the Albertson's supermarket and drugstore chain. Albertson's announced on January 23 that it would sell to a consortium of seven acquirors led by Supervalu Inc. for a total of $17.4 billion in cash, stock, and assumed debt. The various members of the consortium will acquire different pieces of the target. Supervalu will pay $3.8 billion in cash and $2.5 billion in stock and assume $6.1 billion in Albertson debt in exchange for 1,126 Albertson's stores on the West Coast and in the Chicago area, Pennsylvania, and New England. In the second part of the deal, CVS Corporation will pay $2.93 billion in cash for Albertson's 700 drugstores as well as a California distribution center. And in the deal's final component, a group led by Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., will buy the 655 supermarket stores that Supervalu is passing on for $2.1 billion in cash. Cerberus is being joined in this acquisition by Kimco Realty Corporation, based in New Hyde Park, New York; Schottenstein Stores Corporation, in Columbus; Lubert-Adler Partners, in Philadelphia; and Klaff Realty LP, in Chicago.

04-04-2006

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Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Ashcroft Holdings, Inc. to Be Acquired by Nagano Keiki Co., Ltd.
Angelo Bonvino, Thomas V. de la Bastide III, Valerie Radwaner, James H. Schwab, Lisa Yano, Didier Malaquin, Richard J. Bronstein, Harris B. Freidus, William J. O'Brien, Robert C. Fleder, Tristan M. Brown


As reported by the April 4 Daily Deal, on April 3 Paul, Weiss client KPS Special Situations Funds announced that it entered into an agreement to sell all of the outstanding stock of Ashcroft Holdings, Inc., a manufacturer of gauges, thermometers, switches, transducers, transmitters, calibration equipment and isolators for pressure and temperature measurement, to Japan-based Nagano Keiki Co., Ltd. The sale is expected to close in the second quarter of 2006. The Paul, Weiss team included corporate partners Angelo Bonvino, Thomas de la Bastide, Valerie Radwaner, James Schwab and Lisa Yano; counsel Didier Malaquin; associates Ryan Baker, Doron Goldstein, Lindsey Jones, Ben Kaplan and David Tayar; staff attorney Stella Jiang; and paralegal Brooke Spiegel; tax partner Rick Bronstein and associate Joanna Mazur; real estate partner Harris Friedus and associates Riva Horwitz and David Speiser; environmental law counsel William O'Brien; employee benefits partner Rob Fleder, counsel Tristan Brown and associate Reuven Falik.

04-04-2006

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Nixon & Peabody, LLP

Nixon Peabody Represents Constellation Brands in Arrangement Agreement for Acquisition of Vincor International
Rochester, New York. National law firm Nixon Peabody LLP represented Constellation Brands, Inc., a leading international producer and marketer of beverage alcohol brands, in the arrangement agreement by which Constellation will acquire Vincor International Inc., the eighth largest producer and distributors of wine and related products . The acquisition is to be completed in June by way of a statutory plan of arrangement in Canada under which Constellation will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Vincor at a cash price of C$36.50.

The transaction is valued at approximately C$1.52 (U.S. $1.31) billion, which includes approximately C$1.27 (U.S. $1.09) billion of equity, based on Vincor’s approximately 34.8 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis, and the assumption of approximately C$250 (U.S. $220) million of Vincor’s net debt as of December 31, 2005. The transaction will be modestly accretive to Constellation’s fiscal 2007 comparable earnings per share. Constellation has received a commitment for an all-debt financing that would be sufficient to complete the transaction.

Nixon Peabody advised Constellation on the securities, mergers and acquisitions, and financing aspects of the deal. Led by partner James A. Locke III, the team consisted of partners Richard F. Langan, Jr., M&A Securities, and Mats Carlston and Peter Alfano, Bank Finance. Toronto law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP also advised Constellation on the deal with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz assisting Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., on the investment banking side.

About Nixon Peabody LLP
Nixon Peabody LLP is one of the largest law firms in the United States with approximately 600 attorneys collaborating across 15 major practice areas in 16 office locations, including Boston, New York, Rochester, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. The firm’s size, diversity, and advanced technological resources enable it to offer comprehensive legal services to individuals and organizations of all sizes in local, state, national, and international matters. Nixon Peabody has been recognized by FORTUNE magazine as a “100 Best Companies To Work For®” in 2006.

04-04-2006

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Nixon & Peabody, LLP

Nixon Peabody LLP Partner, Christopher Thomas, Tapped to Train Federal Magistrate Judges on Media and the Law; Lawyer Represents National Media Conglomerates and Will Lead Break-Out Session at Training
Rochester, New York. Nixon Peabody LLP announced today that Christopher Thomas, a partner in the Rochester office, has been selected by the Federal Judicial Center to train federal magistrate judges on issues related to media, the law and the federal courts. The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency for the federal courts. Mr. Thomas will be leading a break-out group at two different symposiums hosted by the Federal Judicial Center and focused on training federal magistrate judges from across the country on a variety of legal topics. Mr. Thomas will be leading training sessions on media and the law.

He will be joined by other leading authorities in media law, including counsel for Time Warner and a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who recently retired from the New York Times.

“To be asked to train magistrate judges from across the nation is a significant honor for me and for Nixon Peabody,” said Mr. Thomas. “I am fortunate to be part of a law firm that has experience working with significant media enterprises, and have been drawn to this kind of work because of the critical role the press plays in American democracy today.”

Thomas explained that, like media organizations themselves, newsgathering and reporting is evolving rapidly, and federal courts decide many constitutional issues presented by media disputes that inevitably arise out of the changing industry. As recent high-profile cases demonstrate, handling such cases can be difficult for the court, its staff, journalists, and the parties to an action. Using hypothetical situations, Thomas and his copanelists will be addressing some of today’s hottest issues with those charged in deciding such issues in a fair and impartial manner.

Mr. Thomas received his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from State University of New York at Albany, and his J.D. degree from State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law.

About Nixon Peabody
Nixon Peabody LLP is one of the largest law firms in the United States with approximately 600 attorneys collaborating across 15 major practice areas in 16 office locations, including Rochester, Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The firm’s size, diversity, and advanced technological resources enable it to offer comprehensive legal services to individuals and organizations of all sizes in local, state, national, and international matters. Nixon Peabody has been recognized by FORTUNE magazine as a “100 Best Companies To Work For®” in 2006.

04-04-2006

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Cooley Godward Kronish LLP

Cooley Godward Report Shows Venture Capital Financing Strong In 2005
Cooley Godward LLP today released its most recent quarterly report of venture capital financing, which showed that the investment climate for privately-held startups continued to strengthen in the fourth quarter of 2005. According to the year-end report, company valuations are continuing to rise, entrepreneurs are striking better deals with investors, and startups are attracting strong interest from VCs.

The complete version of Cooley's comprehensive and detailed report on venture capital investing, Private Company Financings Report, is available at www.cooley.com. Among the report's highlights:

—Company valuations are continuing to rise. The percentage of up-round financings (transactions in which the valuation of a company increased relative to the prior round of financing), rose to 75% of all deals in the fourth quarter of 2005, a significant jump from the previous quarter's 64%. For all of 2005, up rounds accounted for nearly two-thirds of transactions, a significant change from several years ago when down rounds accounted for more than half of all deals. Median pre-money valuations of later-stage companies also increased steadily in each of the last three quarters of 2005.

—Entrepreneurs are striking better deals with investors. The fourth quarter saw a significant drop in the percentage of transactions with fully participating preferred, from 47% of deals to just 29%, yet another indication of the stronger bargaining position of entrepreneurs. In addition, ratchet antidilution provisions (a method by which investors protect their ownership stake in a company during subsequent rounds of financing) accounted for just 5% of all deals in the fourth quarter, compared to 9% in the same period of 2004.

—Startups are attracting strong interest from VCs. Venture capitalists showed a strong interest in investing in early-stage startups throughout most of 2005. Early-stage financings (Series A and B) accounted for 74% of all deals during the first three quarters of 2005. That number dropped to 64% in the fourth quarter. The decrease is consistent with drops in early stage investments in the fourth quarter of prior years and likely represents a seasonal slowdown during the end-of-year holidays. But reports from Cooley’s offices indicate that early-stage financings in the first quarter of 2006 are strong, and will probably return to something close to the robust rate that typified the first three quarters of 2005.

“2005 was another great year for the venture ecosystem,” said Jim Fulton, a partner in Cooley Godward's Palo Alto office, and head of the firm's Emerging Companies practice group. “A healthy number of companies continue to attract financing on terms that are very reasonable. The increase in company valuations which began a couple of years ago continued throughout the year, indicating confidence on the part of investors that companies will be able to build value and generate returns.”

Cooley's Private Company Financings Report is published every quarter. It is based on private company transactions in which the Firm served as counsel to either the issuing company or the investors. In the fourth quarter of 2005 Cooley participated in 73 transactions, resulting in aggregate proceeds to private companies of about $916 million. For all of 2005 the Firm participated in 337 transactions totaling $3.465 billion.

In 1959, Cooley formed the first institutional venture capital limited partnership in the western United States. Since then the Firm has been at the vanguard of private company financings, both as a representative of hundreds of venture capital and private equity partnerships and as counsel to companies and entrepreneurs raising money from the venture capital community. Industry sectors include all areas common to venture capital financings, including communications, computer hardware and networking, consumer electronics, general retail, Internet, life sciences, semiconductors, and software.

About Cooley Godward

Cooley Godward is an established provider of strategic litigation and business transaction services and a recognized leader in the representation of high-growth private and public companies, financial institutions, venture capital firms and nonprofit organizations. Our singular focus on providing the highest quality legal services has enabled our clients to achieve their strategic business objectives and garnered for Cooley recognition as one of the country's leading law firms.

Cooley was recently named to The American Lawyer magazine’s 2005 “A List,” the publication’s annual ranking of “the best of the best” among the nation's top law firms. For additional information please visit www.cooley.com.

04-04-2006

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