The American Lawyer - July/August 2010

NEW WORK LANDED BY MAJOR FIRMS, INCLUDING HIGH-PROFILE DEALS, LAWSUITS, AND OTHER MATTERS ANNOUNCED IN MAY 2010

Clients
Firms
Background

Polish insurer PZU SA raised $2.7 billion on the Warsaw stock exchange, Europe’s largest IPO since 2007.

For PZU: Dewey & LeBoeuf

State-owned Qatari investment fund Qatar Holding LLC bought Harrods Limited for $2 billion.

For Qatar Holding: Latham & Watkins

International Business Machines Corporation is buying B2B software provider Sterling Commerce, Inc., from AT&T Inc. for $1.4 billion.

For IBM: Cravath, Swaine & Moore

UIL Holdings Corporation will buy three natural gas utilities from the U.S. division of Spain’s Iberdrola SA for $1.3 billion.

For UIL: Sullivan & Cromwell

Gentiva Health Services, Inc., will acquire hospice care provider Odyssey HealthCare, Inc., for $1 billion.

For Gentiva: Greenberg Traurig

For underwriters Credit Suisse Group AG, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank AG: Weil, Gotshal

& Manges

In the IPO, the Polish treasury, represented by K&L Gates, and Eureko B.V., represented by White & Case, together sold off 30 percent of PZU. Dewey has advised PZU for more than a decade.

For Harrods: Herbert Smith

Latham represented the Qatari Ministry of Economy and Finance last year on a $7 billion bond offering. Herbert Smith has advised Harrods’s former owner, Mohamed al-Fayed, for about 20 years.

For AT& T: Baker Botts

Cravath is longtime outside counsel to IBM. Baker Botts has regularly advised AT&T on litigation and corporate work.

For Iberdrola: Chadbourne & Parke

Chadbourne has handled previous matters for Iberdrola.

For Odyssey: K&L Gates; Richards, Layton & Finger; and Vinson & Elkins

Odyssey is a longtime client of P. Gregory Hidalgo, who recently moved to K&L Gates from Vinson & Elkins.

Pharma giant Abbott Laboratories will buy the generic drug unit of Indian company Piramal Healthcare Limited for $3.7 billion.

For Abbott: Baker & McKenzie and Luthra & Luthra

For Piramal: Stephenson Harwood and Crawford Bayley & Co.

Baker, longtime Abbott counsel, advised the company on its $7.1 billion acquisition of Solvay SA in September.

Universal Health Services, Inc., is buying mental health clinic operator Psychiatric Solutions, Inc., for $3.1 billion.

For UHS: Cravath, Swaine & Moore

For Psychiatric Solutions:

Shearman & Sterling

This is the first time Cravath advised UHS on a deal. Shearman & Sterling was hired by a special committee of Psychiatric Solutions’s board of directors.

Man Group plc will acquire another publicly traded hedge fund, GLG Partners, Inc., for $1.6 billion.

For the Man Group: Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Clifford Chance

For GLG: Chadbourne & Parke. For a committee of independent GLG directors: Winston & Strawn. For three top GLG executives, including cofounder Pierre Lagrange: Allen & Overy

Hebrew University of Jerusalem v. General Motors Company, in a suit in federal district court in central California alleging that GM used Einstein’s picture without permission in ads for the GMC Terrain.

For Hebrew University: Arent Fox

Warner Bros. Entertainment v. Marc Toberoff, the lawyer for Superman’s creators, and others, in a suit in federal district court in Los Angeles that accuses Toberoff of wrongfully trying to seize control of part of the Superman property.

For Warner Bros.: O’Melveny & Myers

For GM: At press time no counsel had appeared for GM.

For Toberoff and other defendants:

Toberoff & Associates

For more about which law firms are landing new business, go to The Work at americanlawyer.com

Clifford Chance has advised Man Group on previous deals, including the hedge fund’s acquisition of a 25 percent stake in Bluecrest Capital Management Services Ltd. in 2003.

Albert Einstein left his IP rights
to Hebrew University in his will,
according to the school. A
GM spokeswoman has said
that the company paid for
rights to Einstein’s image.