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  • March 2, 2009 |

    Davis Polk leads a raft of firms on $50bn Citi recap

    Government-backed recapitalization of Citigroup in the latest of a string of deals to refinance struggling banking giants.The complex deal agreed with the Treasury Department will increase the Government's stake in Citi to as much as 36%. The deal sees up to $27.5bn (£19bn) in preference shares converted into common stock, which the Government, which owns $45bn (£31.25bn) in Citi preference shares, will match up to $25bn (£17.3bn) of conversions.Davis Polk is advising Citi and negotiating with the private investors, a group that includes Capital Research Global Investors and Capital World Investors, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund) and the Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The Kuwait Investment Authority also plans to participate in the exchange, according to several lawyers involved in the talks.The Davis Polk team consists of Randall Guynn, M&A partners Gar Bason, Louis Goldberg and Michael Davis and tax partners Avishai Shachar and Neil Barr.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Citi on drafting the various securities agreements, a complicated task considering there are all sorts of contingency agreements should Citi shareholders vote down the exchange plan.Simpson Thacher & Barlett is advising the Treasury.Investor's counsel include Hogan & Hartson for bin Talal, a loyal Hogan client since before the first Persian Gulf War, according to Hogan partner Bruce Gilchrist. The prince's holdings illustrate the complications of the deal. He holds both preferred and common shares, meaning the exchange he agreed to may end up diluting the value of common stock he already owns, lawyers say.Several sources say Gibson Dunn & Crutcher advised the Kuwaiti authority, but Steven Guynn, who advised the authority in its initial $3bn (£2.1bn) investment in Citi preferred stock last year, declined comment.Sidley Austin reprised its role advising Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Sidley has been representing the fund in various investments for more than 15 years.The Capital Group relied on in-house counsel, says Andrew Felner, the deputy GC for Citi who handled much of the internal work on the exchange plan.Citi's shares dropped about 40% upon the deal's announcement, mostly over fears that the exchange will dilute the value of common shares. Citi, which lost about $28bn (£19.4bn) last year, also agreed to eliminate the dividend on preferred stock and re-jig its board of directors so that a majority of directors are new and independent.Cleary will also be handling Citi's disclosure work and filings with federal regulators. Partners David Lopez, Neil Whoriskey and Jeff Karpf are leading the firm's team.

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  • January 20, 2009 |

    Sidley and DLA Piper secure roles on Asia IPO

    Sidley Austin and DLA Piper have played key roles in one of the first initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Sidley Austin served as issuer's counsel to Chinese oil products trader Strong Petrochemical Holdings, whose 12 January IPO raised about HK$250m (£21m).The firm's team was led by Hong Kong partner Constance Choy, alongside associates Eugene Lai and Iris Yuen. China's King & Wood represented Strong on issues involving mainland Chinese law. DLA Piper represented the sponsor and underwriter, China Everbright Capital. The DLA Piper team was led by partner Esther Leung.

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  • January 15, 2009 |

    BLP boosts London arm with Katten finance duo hire

    Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has bolstered its London finance practice with a double partner hire from US law firm Katten Muchin Rosenma's City arm. Structured finance and real estate partners Jayne Black and Eleanor Hunwicks joined BLP at the beginning of this month from Katten, where they established the firm's London real estate finance group two-and-a-half years ago.Both advise lead managers, servicers, originators and ratings agencies on real estate finance and securitisation deals.Prior to joining Katten, Black and Hunwicks - both UK-qualified - worked at Sidley Austin's City office, building a practice advising servicers of commercial loans.

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  • December 1, 2008 |

    Kirkland regains former restructuring chief

    Kirkland & Ellis is set to re-hire restructuring rainmaker James Sprayregen, as the US firm's former co-head of bankruptcy and restructuring returns later this month after two and a half years at Goldman Sachs. Sprayregen left Kirkland in 2006 to take up a non-legal role as managing director in Goldman's investment banking division.He had previously spent 16 years at Kirkland in Chicago and New York.

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  • November 19, 2008 |

    Funds find law risk is one unhedged position

    Camulos Capital, a Stamford-based hedge fund with approximately $2bn (£1.3bn) in assets, was one of the lucky ones. In late July, Camulos saw trouble looming on the calendar. Like many of Camulos's peers, the performance of its funds had dropped, and the deadline for year-end redemptions was fast approaching. If too many investors fled - and there was $43bn (£28.6bn) withdrawn from US funds in September - the run on capital could have brought operations to a halt."We saw what was happening in the markets, and we thought that it was a prudent time to lock up the capital," says Michael Iuliano, the fund's general counsel.

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  • November 9, 2008 |

    Obama looks to Am Law 100 firms for best and brightest

    While most of the speculation surrounding possible appointments by President-elect Obama focuses on the treasury secretary and attorney and solicitor general,…

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  • October 24, 2008 |

    Goodwin set for City launch with Heller team

    Goodwin Procter is set to secure its long-awaited City launch as the Boston leader secures a deal to take a UK hospitality and real estate finance duo from Heller Ehrman. The initial launch, revealed today (24 October) by legalweek.com, will see US-qualified partners Bob Asher and Brian Smith join Goodwin along with two other fee earners. They will take their book of business, which includes relationships with clients such as Starwood and Dorchester Group, to Goodwin.The opening will give Goodwin its first office outside the US. The firm features in the Am Law top 50 and reported profits per equity partner of $880,000 (£543,000) during the last financial year. Goodwin, a regular referral partner of SJ Berwin, has been in expansive form over the last five years, achieving 2007 revenues of $611m (£377m).

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  • October 23, 2008 |

    Kirkland recruits trio in boost for restructuring

    Kirkland & Ellis has added to its City restructuring practice with the hire of two new partners and an associate from the London offices of Sidley Austin, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and DLA Piper respectively. Jason Salman has joined the firm as a partner from Cadwalader, where he was a special counsel, while Paul Atherton is set to join the firm as a partner in November from Sidley. Meanwhile, Mark Knight joins as an associate from DLA Piper.

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  • October 23, 2008 |

    Analysis: Banking on change

    "The leveraged finance market reality is that there is no new business. The banks will not lend."So says Clifford Chance's (CC's) James Johnson, a man who has built a good chunk of his career in leveraged finance, a market that, more than a year after the credit crunch first struck, is still in a state of dysfunction.Such comments also reflect the attempts by finance advisers to come to terms with a sector that, in the month since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, is facing its biggest shake-up for a generation.Lehman's collapse on 15 September triggered a global run on bank assets as investors feared for banks' solvency. In the weeks since, finance partners have witnessed escalating turmoil and repeated government attempts to head off the crisis. This process culminated last Monday (13 October) with the injection of £37bn of taxpayers' money into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and HBOS.

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  • October 17, 2008 |

    More staff laid off as Heller nears closure

    Today is the last day for most of the remaining Heller Ehrman staff, reports The Recorder. Affected employees were notified by an email from the dissolution committee on Thursday morning, similar to the email sent out last Friday when at least 100 employees were laid off. While it is unclear how many employees are being laid off today, employees in the firm estimate the number to be in the hundreds. The email said that staff would receive health insurance through the end of the month, but it is unclear whether insurance for current or former employees will continue beyond that point. "The firm is devoting intense effort to negotiate a continuation of benefits, and we will keep former employees informed by postings on the firm's internet site," the email promised. The homepage of Heller Ehrman's website has been wiped clean of all but one link to a list of placement opportunities for staff and lawyers.

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