Cleary Gottlieb Announces 14 New Partners and Counsel Worldwide

International law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP announced today that it has elected 8 new partners and 6 new counsel, effective January 1, 2007.  The elections bring the total number of Cleary Gottlieb partners worldwide to 189, and the total number of counsel to 43. 

“We are very proud to introduce these five women and nine men as partners and counsel of Cleary Gottlieb,” said firm managing partner Mark Walker.  “Representing six offices and nine practice areas, these outstanding individuals reflect the firm’s commitment to legal excellence, internationalism and diversity, and their elections will broaden our abilities to provide our clients with unparalleled legal service throughout the world.”

The new partners and counsel include lawyers who are fluent in English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.  They are admitted to practice law in England and Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the United States.  The experience of the 14 lawyers spans the following practice areas: mergers and acquisitions, securities and capital markets, leveraged finance, tax, employee benefits and executive compensation, financial institutions, litigation and international arbitration, Latin America, and Russian law. 

“Cleary Gottlieb’s position as one of the preeminent international law firms is founded on our single, integrated, worldwide partnership, members of which bring a range of geographical, cultural and educational backgrounds to the firm,” Mr. Walker continued.  “The men and women we have elected today continue that tradition.”   

Biographical information of the newly elected partners and counsel follows.

FRANKFURT/COLOGNE

Volker Junge, counsel, whose practice focuses on German and international tax law, joined the firm’s Frankfurt office in 2004.  He regularly advises financial institutions and corporate clients on the tax aspects of global capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and debt restructurings.  In 2005, he provided German tax advice on the employee offering associated with Gaz de France’s €4.5 billion IPO—one of the largest IPOs in recent years and the largest IPO of a French state-owned company since the 1999 privatization of Crédit Lyonnais.  He also represented Goldman Sachs in the financing of the acquisition of various German real estate portfolios.  Most recently, he advised private equity firm HMD Capital Partners on the debt restructuring of the German fashion retailer SinnLeffers.  He is a member of the Bar in Frankfurt.

Oliver Schröder, partner, joined the firm’s Frankfurt office in 2004.  His practice focuses on corporate and capital markets matters, particularly mergers and acquisitions.  During the past two years, he has advised clients on several major European transactions, including the Hogg Robinson Group on German legal matters associated with its IPO on the London Stock Exchange and Henkel in the divestiture of its rubber-to-metal bonding business and its acquisition of a unit of French Rhodia Group.  He also represented Deutsche Post in its acquisition of Exel, and was a member of the firm’s team that acted for HypoVereinsbank in its business combination with UniCredito—the largest ever cross-border M&A deal in Europe’s banking sector.  He is a member of the Bar in Frankfurt. 

LONDON

Kate Habershon, counsel, joined the firm’s London office in 2003.  A Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and in New South Wales, Australia, she specializes in corporate taxation, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and financial products.  She also specializes in employee compensation tax work.  Recently, she provided tax advice to Texas Pacific Group in its bid for foam rubber producer British Vita, and Hellman & Friedman on the buyout of investment manager Gartmore.  She also advised on the tax aspects of the recent management buyout of A.T. Kearney.

Raj S. Panasar, partner, joined the firm’s London office in 1997.  His practice focuses on international financing transactions.  He represents corporate issuers and their underwriters, in public and private international equity, high yield and other debt offerings, and also advises on syndicated bank lending transactions and leveraged finance.  A recognized expert on complex listings under the new EU prospectus regime and a member of the London Stock Exchange’s Primary Markets Group, he has represented many issuers, including major emerging market companies such as Rosneft and Evraz Group, in their IPOs and London Stock Exchange listings, as well as representing leading investment banks, such as UBS and Credit Suisse, as underwriters of high profile capital markets transactions.  He has also advised on many high yield and other leveraged finance transactions for companies including British Vita, Debenhams and Telenet.  He is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and is a member of the Bar in New York.

Tihir Sarkar, partner, a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, joined the firm in January 2003.  His corporate practice is broadly based and includes public and private mergers and acquisitions, international joint ventures, and restructurings.  Recently he has acted for Luxfer Group in its restructuring negotiations with bondholders and shareholders, Hellman & Friedman in aspects of its acquisition of Gartmore, the Jordanian Government in relation to the privatization of Jordan Telecom, Mittal Steel on its negotiations and merger with Ispat, and Euronext on its joint venture with Atos Origin and aspects of its proposed merger with New York Stock Exchange.  He was also counsel in the recent sale of SR Technics to a Dubai-based private equity consortium.

MOSCOW

Vladimir Frolov, counsel, joined the firm’s Moscow office in September 1994.  His practice includes financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other corporate matters, such as joint ventures, generally having a cross-border element.  A member of the Bar of the Russian Federation, he has advised on many international equity and debt capital markets transactions by Russian companies, including Gazprom, Lukoil, Mosenergo, Megafon and Gallery Group.  His M&A and corporate experience includes representing Alcoa, Alenia and Texas Pacific Group on various matters. 

NEW YORK

Kathleen M. Emberger, counsel, joined the firm’s New York office in 1998.  Her practice focuses on executive compensation and benefits matters, including global employee incentive arrangements, benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions transactions, and corporate governance.  She recently was a member of the team that advised the United Auto Workers in its negotiation of a groundbreaking agreement with General Motors to modify GM’s obligations to provide health care benefits to its retirees.  She has also represented clients on major M&A transactions, including handling the benefits aspects of Capital One’s $5.3 billion acquisition of Hibernia, Texas Pacific Group’s and Warburg Pincus’ $5.1 billion acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group, and PeopleSoft’s $10.3 billion acquisition by Oracle.  She also represented Capital One in its pending $14.6 billion acquisition of North Fork.  In addition, she has advised companies such as Citigroup, Constellation Energy, Continental Airlines, The Interpublic Group of Companies and Tech Data Corporation on corporate governance and disclosure matters related to executive compensation arrangements.  She is a member of the Bar in New York. 

Juan G. Giráldez, partner, joined the firm’s New York office in 1998 and was resident in the Paris office from 2001 to 2005.  His practice focuses on international financing and business transactions, particularly capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border financings, joint ventures, and privatizations.  He has advised on many significant Latin American transactions, including, most recently, the Dominican Republic’s first international offering since the restructuring of its outstanding global bonds in 2005, and the Province of Buenos Aires’ $3.1 billion sovereign debt restructuring.  He has also been involved in capital markets transactions in North Africa and Europe, including the IPO of Maroc Telecom—the first Moroccan international offering—which listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and Euronext Paris, France Telecom’s €15 billion capital increase, and Veolia Environnement’s €1.85 billion private placement.  He is a member of the Bar in New York. 

Duane McLaughlin, partner, joined the firm’s New York office in 1999.  His practice focuses on corporate and financial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and financings, particularly in Latin America.  Most recently, he advised Codelco in its groundbreaking joint venture with China Minmetals Non-Ferrous Metals Co. and the underwriters in the follow-on offering of Copa Holdings, in which selling shareholder Continental Airlines reduced its ownership of Copa.  In 2005, he advised the issuer and the underwriters, respectively, in the global equity offerings by Mexican multinationals FEMSA and CEMEX.  From 2000 to 2003, he represented long-time client América Móvil in several acquisitions, which led to its current status as the largest cellular company in Latin America.  In addition, he regularly represents our client Texas Pacific Group and its portfolio companies, particularly in financing transactions.  He is a member of the Bar in New York.

Breon S. Peace, partner, joined the firm’s New York office in 1996.  His practice focuses on white-collar defense, securities enforcement, and related civil litigation.  From 1997 to 1998, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.  In January 2000, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney through July 2002.  He then spent a year as an Acting Assistant Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law, where he taught the Prosecution Clinic.  A member of the Bar in New York, he returned to the firm in September 2003.  He recently represented Bear Stearns in state and federal investigations of mutual fund trading and Doral Financial Corporation in federal investigations of various financial accounting problems.

Nancy I. Ruskin, counsel, joined the firm’s New York office in 2004.  Her practice focuses on complex commercial and securities litigation and she has litigated numerous private and class action securities cases on behalf of issuers, directors and officers, and financial institutions.  She has also represented clients before the SEC and other regulatory authorities.  She was a member of the team that successfully represented a group of Wall Street banks in negotiating a settlement for class actions brought against the banks for their roles as underwriters and/or lenders to Adelphia Communications.  She also successfully represented Goldman Sachs in a class action suit by former shareholders of Portland General Corporation.  She is a member of the Bar in New York.

PARIS

Anne-Sophie Coustel, partner, joined the firm’s Paris office in 2001.  Her practice focuses on French and international tax matters, and she has represented corporate clients on the tax aspects of major transactions, including capital markets and mergers and acquisitions matters.  She also has extensive experience with employee stock offerings (including leveraged offerings), employee benefit plans and management incentive packages.  A member of the Bar in Paris, she is currently providing tax advice to Mittal in the implementation of its acquisition of Arcelor, and to Euronext in its proposed merger with the New York Stock Exchange.  Previously, she advised Euronext subsidiary Clearnet in its merger with London Clearing House.

Cécile Loiseau, counsel, joined the firm’s New York office in 1998 and in 1999 transferred to the Paris office, where she is now based, after having spent a year in the firm’s London office.  A member of the Bar in New York and Paris, her practice focuses mainly on financing matters, in particular complex structured, leveraged and real estate financing and bank regulatory matters.  Recent transactions on which she has been working include numerous LBO financings and refinancings (Picard, Polyconcept, Nybron, Eau Ecarlate, Batisante), real estate financing (Coeur Defense, Delphi, Oiseau Bleu), numerous mezzanine loans, and asset-based financings.

ROME/MILAN

Ferdinando Emanuele, partner, is a resident in the firm’s Rome office.  He joined the Brussels office in 1998 and was based in the London office from 2001 through 2002.  His practice focuses on litigation and international arbitration, concentrating on disputes having cross-border dimensions.  In 2005, he represented ABN AMRO in a widely publicized litigation, the successful conclusion of which enabled that bank to gain control of Banca Antonveneta—marking the first acquisition of an Italian bank by a foreign bank.  He has represented several foreign sovereigns before the Italian courts, most notably the Republic of Argentina in a series of cases arising out of the Republic’s suspension of payments with respect to approximately €10 billion in bonds held by Italian investors, culminating in a landmark decision by the Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione), which recognized the Republic’s immunity from suit.  He also has extensive experience representing Italian and foreign clients in litigation and arbitration matters involving a broad range of commercial disputes, including antitrust telecommunications claims, intellectual property issues, and M&A transactions.  In 2004, he was elected to membership in the Rome Bar Council.  He writes and lectures regularly on a broad range of topics of Italian and international law.

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For further information, you can contact Richard Lincer at +1 212 225 2560 (New York).

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About Cleary Gottlieb

Founded in 1946 by lawyers committed to legal excellence, internationalism and diversity, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is a leading international law firm with approximately 850 lawyers around the world.  Thomson Reuters ranked the firm #1 in U.S. IPOs as managers’ counsel for the first half of 2006.  Also in 2006, LatinFinance rated Cleary Gottlieb Best International Securities Law Firm for the third consecutive year, International Tax Review named Cleary Gottlieb U.S. Tax Firm of the Year in Europe, and the firm’s Brussels office won International Law Office’s Client Choice Award for Belgium.  Last year, Bloomberg ranked the firm as the top Global Financial Industry M&A Legal Advisor, legal publisher Chambers and Partners named Cleary Gottlieb Western Europe Competition/Antitrust tLaw Firm of the Year for the second consecutive year, and German legal publication JUVE recognized Cleary Gottlieb as German Law Firm of the Year.  The most recent edition of Chambers Global lists Cleary Gottlieb as a leading international law firm, with 41 top-ranked practices and 80 distinguished lawyers worldwide.  Cleary Gottlieb has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, Brussels, London, Moscow, Frankfurt, Cologne, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong and Beijing.