Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Dickinson Wright PLLC

Dickinson Wright PLLC Assists Active Interest Media, Inc. in Acquisition of Yachting Promotions, Inc.
Active Interest Media, Inc. (“AIM”) recently announced the acquisition of Yachting Promotions, Inc. (“YPI”). AIM was formed by Wind Point Partners, a private equity investment firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Southfield, Michigan, in partnership with CEO Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III in October 2003. Dickinson Wright PLLC has represented AIM since its inception and was integrally involved in the Yachting Promotions acquistion as well as the refinancing of AIM.

YPI produces and manages five major annual boat shows, and is best known as the producer of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, the largest in-water boat show in the world. In addition to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, YPI produces and manages the Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show, the Palm Beach Boat Show, the St. Petersburg Fall Show and the Suncoast Boat Show.

“Yachting Promotions is a premier consumer event business and an excellent strategic fit for Active Interest Media” said Skip Zimbalist, AIM’s CEO. “The acquisition of YPI greatly strengthens our consumer show capabilities, and in addition adds boating as a new AIM industry category for growth and acquisition.” Entry into the boating category also leverages Skip’s previous experience as CEO of Times Mirror Magazines, where he was responsible for Yachting, Saltwater Sportsman and Motorboating magazines, in addition to numerous other titles.

“Skip has assembled an excellent team at Active Interest Media since Wind Point’s investment,” said Jim TenBroek, managing director at Wind Point Partners. “The marine industry is huge, healthy and growing, and Wind Point is excited to continue its support of Skip and AIM’s strategy of acquiring companies within the marine industry as well as in other consumer enthusiast areas.

Dickinson Wright has worked with Skip and Wind Point Partners on each step in AIM's ongoing strategy of building an unparalleled portfolio in the niche publishing and trade show categories. ""We are delighted to support Wind Point Partners and the entire AIM team, who are consummate professionals,"" said Richard M. Bolton, lead attorney on the transaction.

About Dickinson Wright PLLC
Dickinson Wright PLLC, founded in 1878, has more than 200 attorneys in offices located in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Washington, D.C. Dickinson Wright is a full-service law firm with more than 40 practice areas.

03-22-2006

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Carlton Fields

Carlton Fields Attorney Christine R. Davis Elected to The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors
TAMPA - The law firm of Carlton Fields is pleased to announce that Tallahassee associate, Christine R. Davis was recently elected to The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors.

Davis is a member of the Appellate and Trial Support and the Government Law and Consulting Practice Groups. She handles all aspects of appellate litigation in state and federal court. Davis received her B.S. from Florida State University in 1999 and her J.D. from Florida State University College of Law, with honors, in 2002.

The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, a division of The Florida Bar Association, represents the Young Lawyers in the state of Florida and presently there are over 18,000 lawyers who are members of The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division (""YLD"").

03-22-2006

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Lathrop & Gage LLP

Joseph Reid Joins Lathrop & Gage
Joseph Reid joined the Springfield office of the Lathrop & Gage L.C. law firm as an of counsel in the litigation practice area. Prior to this, he was a partner with Gannaway, Cummings & Reid in Springfield.

Reid is an experienced trial attorney with over ten years of litigation experience with a concentration in personal injury, product liability, wrongful death, medical malpractice, insurance bad faith, and premises liability cases. He is licensed to practice in Missouri and Mississippi.

Reid earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi, summa cum laude, in 1992 and his juris doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1995. He is a member of The Missouri Bar, American Bar Association, Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, and the Mississippi Bar Association.

About Lathrop & Gage:
Lathrop & Gage L.C. is a full-service law firm with 280 attorneys in 10 offices across the country and an affiliate office in Washington, D.C. The firm has a regional, national and international practice in business and tort litigation, intellectual property, government relations, corporate, environmental, labor and employment, health care, real estate, financial institutions, tax, wealth strategies, and bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. For more information, visit www.lathropgage.com.

03-22-2006

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Fenwick & West, LLP

Eleven Fenwick & West Clients Make the 2006 OnHollywood 100 List
Fenwick & West LLP congratulates its clients who were recently recognized by AlwaysOn as the most innovative emerging digital media companies. The Fenwick & West clients on this year's OnHollywood 100 include:

Agile TV
BitTorrent
Glu Mobile
GUBA
MobiTV
Phonebites
Revver
Shutterfly
Sling Media
SnoCap
Xfire

The OnHollywood100 consists solely of private companies. Winners will be recognized as part of OnHollywood 2006, an annual conference focusing on the convergence of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and the challenges, opportunities and business models of the digital era.

About Fenwick & West
Fenwick & West is a premier Interactive Entertainment law firm, working closely with innovative companies—from start-ups to publicly traded companies—to resolve the complex legal and business issues at the nexus of entertainment and technology. The firm has represented Electronic Arts since its inception in 1982 and currently represents a variety of companies in all areas of interactive entertainment.

To learn more about how we help Interactive Entertainment companies succeed, contact partner Mark Stevens at (650) 335-7257 or mstevens@fenwick.com.

03-22-2006

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Fenwick & West, LLP

Fenwick & West Defends Blogger\'s Free Speech Rights to Parody
Citing First Amendment protection for parodies, Fenwick &West and the ACLU today came to the defense of a California man who received a cease-and-desist letter after posting a parody of a billboard advertisement for so-called “reparative therapy” on his website.

""The moment I saw the billboards last September, I was deeply offended. The inspiration for the parody I created came to me instantly. How would straight people feel if their very being, their sense of self was being so overtly disparaged?"" said Justin Watt, a blogger from Santa Rosa, California. ""Their response was to try to intimidate me into taking the image down. It’s troubling that an organization as big as Exodus would go to such great lengths to silence its critics.""

The billboard, sponsored by ""ex-gay"" ministry Exodus International, read, ""Gay? Unhappy? www.exodus.to."" After seeing a photo of the billboards online, Watt posted an altered version reading, ""Straight? Unhappy? www.gay.com"" on his website, Justinsomnia.org.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian-based legal group who represents Exodus, sent Watt a cease-and-desist letter earlier this month claiming the parody violated Exodus’s intellectual property rights and threatening legal action if the parodies were not removed. In a response sent to Liberty Counsel, Laurence Pulgram, a partner in the firm’s IP Litigation Group, called upon Exodus to drop its attempts to censor Watt, pointing to case law holding parodies to be Constitutionally protected speech.

""Parodies like Justin’s are protected by the First Amendment as a form of political commentary. His point was to make a comment on a very important issue he has strongly held beliefs about: that Exodus’s tactics are wrong, that there’s nothing wrong with being gay, and that being gay doesn’t make you unhappy,"" said Ann Brick, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. ""Just as a group like Exodus has a Constitutionally protected right to say whatever it wants to about gay people, even when that view has been roundly condemned by every major psychological and medical organization, Justin has a right to use parody to voice his opposition.""

The American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and other mainstream mental health and medical groups have denounced reparative therapy, stating that there is no evidence that reparative therapy is successful and that the practice may in fact be harmful to those who undergo it.
""Justin’s use of Exodus’s own image to criticize its message is exactly the sort of speech the Constitution protects,"" said Pulgram. ""The law protects people like Justin from groups like Exodus that try to use copyright as a method of bullying their critics into abandoning their First Amendment right to express their opinions through parody.""

Watt is represented by Brick, Pulgram, and Tamara Lange of the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Project. Additional information about the case, including an image of Watt’s billboard parody, the ACLU letter responding to Liberty Counsel’s cease and desist letter, and statements from mainstream mental health and medical organizations about reparative therapy, is available at www.aclu.org/caseprofiles.

About Fenwick & West
Established in 1972, Fenwick & West LLP provides comprehensive legal services to national and international high technology and life sciences clients. The firm was recently named by Managing Intellectual Property as one of the top West Coast firms for Intellectual Property Litigation.

03-22-2006

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Michael Best & Friedrich, LLP

Litigation Attorney Joins Michael Best’s Chicago Team
Steven E. Cyranoski recently joined Michael Best & Friedrich LLP as a partner in the Chicago office. Mr.Cyranoski is a seasoned litigator who has handled a wide variety of complex and high profile commercial litigation matters, including class actions, multidistrict litigation and claims arising under various federal and state statutes.

Mr. Cyranoski’s litigation experience includes individual and class action claims involving allegations of fraud, breach of contract, consumer fraud and breach of fiduciary duties as well as claims for misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference with contract and breach of restrictive covenants and non-compete agreements. He also has experience in litigation arising under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and federal securities laws.

Mr. Cyranoski practices in federal and state court, both at the trial and appellate levels, and handles matters in arbitration and mediation proceedings. He is a graduate of Villanova University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1992), where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Villanova Moot Court Board. He received his Bachelor of Science in 1986 from the University of Illinois.

About Michael Best

Michael Best established a Chicago office in 1990. The office provides a full range of legal services to clients of all sizes on a local, regional, national and global basis

03-22-2006

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Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Claudio R. Chavez Joins Katten Muchin Rosenman as Partner in Real Estate Practice Chavez Will Practice in the Firm’s Los Angeles
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Claudio R. Chavez as a partner in its Real Estate Practice. Mr. Chavez will be based in the Firm’s Los Angeles office.
“Claudio’s broad-based experience in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions makes him an excellent addition to our practice,” said David J. Bryant, national chair of Katten Muchin Rosenman’s Real Estate Practice. “The addition of Claudio to our Los Angeles office reflects the Firm’s commitment to continued national growth in its Real Estate Practice.”
Prior to joining Katten Muchin Rosenman, Mr. Chavez was a partner with DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary U.S. LLP. Previously, he spent seven years at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, both as an associate and Of Counsel.
Mr. Chavez concentrates his practice in commercial real estate transactions, including acquisition and construction loan facilities, syndicated loans, permanent loans, securitized mortgage loans; and acquisitions and dispositions of office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, industrial properties, apartment projects, and vacant land. He is a member of the California State Bar and chair of the Real Estate Finance Sub-Section (South) of the Real Property Law Section, and a member of the Los Angeles Bar Association. Mr. Chavez is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Pasadena City College Foundation and president of the Los Angeles Morning Rotary Club.
Mr. Chavez received his B.A. from Pitzer College in 1988 and his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law in 1993.
Katten Muchin Rosenman has one of the most extensive real estate practices in the United States - comprised of more than 100 attorneys in offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Charlotte, and Irving, Texas. It serves domestic and international clients, including investors, syndicators, sponsors, real estate funds, owners, tenants, residential and commercial developers, construction and permanent lenders. Members of the Firm’s Real Estate Practice have provided counsel in connection with some of the largest and most sophisticated transactions in the real estate
March 22, 2006
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industry. It provides comprehensive services in areas including financing, fund formation and investing, capital markets, acquisitions and sales, development, leasing, and construction.
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP (www.kattenlaw.com) is a national, full-service law firm with offices in the nation's largest centers of business, government, finance and technology and an associated entity in London. The Firm’s 600 attorneys in more than 40 practice areas provide timely and cost-effective counsel to clients in numerous industries. They serve as business advisors and advocates for a wide range of public and private companies - from entrepreneurial, emerging-growth, and middle market firms to global Fortune 100 corporations - as well as government entities, non-profits, and charitable and cultural organizations.

03-22-2006

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