Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Davis Polk & Wardwell

Goldman Sachs, Allianz and American Express Acquire $3.8 billion Stake in ICBC—The Transaction Is the Largest Investment Ever in the Chinese Financial Sector
Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in connection with a strategic investment in ICBC by an investor consortium comprised of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Allianz Group and American Express Company. ICBC is the largest wholesale and retail bank in China.

According to the terms of the transaction, Goldman Sachs, Allianz and American Express will together invest $3.78 billion in ICBC and each will separately cooperate with ICBC in wide-ranging strategic cooperation initiatives. The strategic investments will be made through the subscription of newly issued ordinary shares in ICBC. The transaction is subject to the approval of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

The Davis Polk corporate team includes partner Show-Mao Chen of the Hong Kong office, partners Chris Mayer and Randall D. Guynn, both of the New York office, associates Mark J. Lehmkuhler, Jie Shen and Gregory Wang and legal specialist Rong Chen, all of the Hong Kong office, and associate Scott L. Beal of the New York office. Legal assistants Han (Annie) Shen and Stephanie Zhu, both of the Hong Kong office, are the legal assistants on the transaction.

01-27-2006

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Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, L.L.P.

Mittal in €18.6 Billion Unsolicited Bid for Arcelor, Related $5 Billion Resale of Dofasco and €8 Billion Financing; Bid Would Unite World's Two Biggest Steel Companies
Cleary Gottlieb is representing long-time client Mittal Steel, the world’s largest steel maker, in an unsolicited takeover bid for Arcelor, its largest competitor. The bid is a mixed cash and equity exchange offer valued at €18.6 billion. The transaction would create the world's first 100-million-ton steel producer.

The bid comes on the heels of Arcelor’s victory in a bidding war with ThyssenKrupp to acquire Canadian steel company Dofasco for about $5 billion. As part of its takeover bid for Arcelor, Mittal Steel has agreed to resell Dofasco for approximately the same amount to ThyssenKrupp if the bid succeeds.

The takeover will need to accommodate at least six national regulatory regimes. Mittal Steel is based in the Netherlands and its shares are listed on the Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges. Arcelor is based in Luxembourg and is the successor of Usinor (France), Arbed (Belgium/Luxembourg) and Arcelia (Spain). Arcelor’s shares are listed on stock exchanges in all four countries.

01-27-2006

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Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Cadwalader Leads CMBS Law Firm Rankings for Fifth Consecutive Year
New York, NY, January 27, 2006 Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, one of the world’s
leading international law firms, continued to dominate the commercial mortgage backed
securities (CMBS) market in 2005, securing the firm’s position as the premier law firm in this
area for the fifth consecutive year
Again the forerunner, Cadwalader surpassed the competition with a total of 61 deals totalling
$112.9 billion as top counsel for issuers of US CMBS -- more than four times the number of
transactions as the second-place firm. The firm also ranked first as counsel for the underwriter
with 32 deals totalling $55.5 billion.
“Our clients know that we have hands-on experience garnered from participation in numerous
complex transactions. They bring not only legal expertise and judgement but the sophisticated
business perspective necessary in today’s markets,” stated Robert O. Link, Jr., Cadwalader‘s
Chairman and Managing Partner.
In addition to issuers and underwriters, the firm represents credit enhancers, investors, loan
sellers, services and trustees in CMBS transactions. Working closely with the firm’s real estate
attorneys, the Capital Markets Department has been involved in virtually every type of financing
of real estate, including: traditional, pooled, large and small loan, and single loan securitizations;
stand-alone single loan securitizations, commercial paper financings; A/B structures; tranched
subordinate note structures; mezzanine loan and preferred equity transactions; and synthetic
structures and repackagings.

01-27-2006

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Bryan Cave LLP

Firm Provides Nearly 20 Years of Training to Thomas Jefferson for Competition
For the 18th consecutive year, Bryan Cave attorneys will train students from Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn to compete at the New York State High School Mock Trial Tournament.

The tournament, which is broken up into six regions statewide, has the Thomas Jefferson students competing in the New York City region. Their competition will be held at the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, from Feb. 28 to March 6. The winner will participate in the finals, which will be held in Albany in May. The competition, now in its 23rd year, is sponsored by the New York State Bar Association.

“The tournament provides students with an understanding of the law, court procedures and our legal system,” said New York Associate Ruth Friedman, who has spearheaded the students training for the past three years. Since the beginning of January, the students have been coming to the New York office once a week to train four to five hours for the competition.

Over the course of the next two months, Bryan Cave attorneys will prepare students to defend and prosecute the People of the State of New York v. Terry C. O’Neal. It is a criminal case centered on the prosecution of a defendant for the death of a passenger caused by his allegedly reckless or negligent operation of a car.

The students are learning how to conduct direct and cross examinations, how to present opening and closing statements, and how to be zealous but courteous advocates for the state and O’Neal. They will receive instruction from a number of partners and associates, including Elizabeth Goldberg, Andrew Fried, Tom Schell, Brett Kaplicer and Andrew Rodman, all of who have been very active participants for several years.

“The competition will give the students some insight into what a career in the legal world may look like,” said New York Partner Ken Henderson, who established the firm’s relationship with the high school.

Back in 1988, Henderson worked through the Mentor Program, an organization that partners law firms with New York City public high schools, to identify Thomas Jefferson as an institution that could benefit from the firm’s pro bono efforts.

“Our lawyers have been committed to assisting Thomas Jefferson in the mock trial program, as well as many other endeavors over the years,” Henderson said. “We have taught classes, coached teachers, helped with moot court as well as mock trial, conducted court tours and arranged for speakers. Sometimes, though, just spending time with the students and teachers makes all the difference in the world.” Thomas Jefferson is located in the East New York section of Brooklyn, one of the city’s more troubled areas.

The firm is currently helping students raise money so they can participate in a week-long program in Washington, D.C., in April, which will let them experience government in the nation’s capital. The program is sponsored by the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible and informed participation in the democratic process through a variety of educational programs. The firm made an initial contribution to kick-off the students fundraising efforts, but individual attorneys continue to donate money.

01-27-2006

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Alston & Bird LLP

Alston & Bird Acquires New York Real Estate Finance Group to Diversify Its Real Estate Capital Markets Practice
Addition of 14 Attorneys Expands Firm’s National Presence in Financial Markets with Unique Ability to Offer Both Debt and Equity Focus

Alston & Bird LLP announced today that Joseph Philip Forte, Ellen M. Goodwin, Carson M. Leonard and Gerard C. Keegan, Jr., have joined the New York office as partners; William J.
Lippman has joined as counsel; and nine other attorneys have joined as associates, expanding the firm’s real estate capital markets practice. The nine associates are: Carey LeRoux, Meryl Diamond, Donald Frey, Blase Iaconelli, Michael Vines, Britta Thornquist, Danielle Myers, David Freedman and Joseph Tully. All were previously with the New York office of Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP.

“For generations Alston & Bird has had a vibrant and well respected real estate practice,” said Ben Johnson, Alston & Bird’s managing partner. “With the addition of Joe, Ellen, Carson, Gerard and their team to our firm, our practice has reached a preeminent level – unique in its ability to address both debt and equity in the primary and capital markets.”

The highly credentialed team brings with them substantial experience in real estate finance and securities transactions relating to the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market, including large loan originations and the sale, securitization syndication and servicing of commercial mortgage loans for capital markets.

“Alston’s reputation as a leading national firm and its growing presence in the New York market have established us as a strong national real estate capital markets practice.” Joe Forte said. “The group has married its top-notch securities and lending practices with its legacy real estate capabilities to create a service area aligned with the real estate industry as it evolves and recreates itself in different ways.”

01-27-2006

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Adams & Reese LLP

Labor and Employment Team Gains Three New Attorneys in Houston
Adams and Reese is pleased to announce that Victoria M. Phipps, Monetta Kaye DeWalt and David J. Manley have joined the Labor and Employment Team in the firm’s Houston office. All three attorneys join the firm from Epstein, Becker & Green, PC.

01-27-2006

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Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC

Womble Carlyle Announces Addition of Two New Real Estate Development Attorneys
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, today announced that Jacqueline Bourgeois and Mark Polston have joined the firm's Real Estate Development Practice Group as associates in the Washington, D.C. office. Both are experienced attorneys who come to Womble Carlyle from other major law firms.

"I'm very excited that Jacqueline and Mark have joined our firm," said Pamela Rothenberg, managing member of Womble Carlyle's D.C. office. "They are both bright, personable, motivated, and thoughtful attorneys. Our real estate clients are going to enjoy working with both of them, and they will add great value to our already superb real estate team."

Bourgeois, 32, is a 1996 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2000, she received both her J.D. and her M.B.A. from the University of Richmond.

Before joining Womble Carlyle earlier this month, Bourgeois worked as an associate in the D.C. office of Kutak Rock. She joined Kutak Rock in 2002 after two years as an associate in the Baltimore office of the firm now known as DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

Bourgeois is admitted to the Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. Bars.

Polston, also 32, graduated from the College of Charleston in 1995, earning a bachelor's degree with honors. In 1996, he received a certificate in theological studies from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fla. He received his J.D. in 2002 from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Polston joins Womble Carlyle from the D.C. office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where he worked in the corporate department, focusing on mergers and acquisitions. He started as a Northern Virginia associate for the Pillsbury firm in 2004 and later moved to the D.C. office. Between 2002 and 2004, he was an associate at Frost Brown Todd LLC in Louisville, Ky.

Polston is a member of the Kentucky, Virginia, and D.C. Bars.

About Womble Carlyle
A full-service business law firm, Womble Carlyle ranks among AmLaw's 100 leading firms in the country and is a top law firm for companies doing business in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The firm is the 2003 recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund Corporate Leadership Award, making Womble Carlyle the first law firm ever to receive the highest honor given to a company in recognition of its support of the Fund and its 45 member institutions.

Founded in 1876, Womble Carlyle operates in four states and the District of Columbia with nearly 550 attorneys in nine offices located in Atlanta, GA; Greenville, SC; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, NC; Washington, DC; and Tysons Corner, VA.



01-26-2006

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