Cleary Gottlieb Elects 13 New Partners and Counsel

Cleary Gottlieb has elected seven partners and six counsel, effective January 1, 2020.

The elections will bring the firm’s total worldwide partners to 180 and counsel to 62.

“I am proud to introduce our new class of global partners and counsel,” said Cleary Gottlieb Managing Partner Michael Gerstenzang. “Our clients turn to us to help with their most complex transactions and challenging problems. We deliver results by assembling world-class teams of lawyers, who bring their market-leading experience, collaborative approach, and client focus to every matter. This group of talented individuals embodies our firm’s commitment to serving our clients’ needs across practice areas and around the world.”

The new partners and counsel are resident in the firm’s Abu Dhabi, London, Milan, New York, Paris, Rome, São Paulo, and Washington, D.C. offices. Their varied practice areas include antitrust, corporate advisory, litigation and arbitration, mergers and acquisitions, private clients, private funds, real estate, structured finance, and tax.

The new partners and counsel are:

• Roberto Argeri, counsel, focuses on national and international litigation and arbitration. He is resident in the Rome office. Roberto regularly represents domestic and foreign clients in a wide range of disputes involving corporate, commercial, banking, and financial matters, as well as sport, bankruptcy, and competition issues across numerous industries. Roberto has successfully represented Dexia Crediop in litigation proceedings under derivative transactions against Italian public municipalities before Italian and English courts; F.C. Internazionale Milano before the Italian Supreme Court and other authorities in its successful defense of a series of appeals by Juventus Football Club to have Inter’s 2005-06 championship title revoked; Sky Italia before the Court of Milan, which rejected urgent claims brought by partners and service providers, as well as claims brought by a company alleging that Sky Italia had failed to comply with its obligations under an advertising concession contract; Trenitalia before the Rome Tribunal, which dismissed an urgent petition filed by one of Trenitalia’s competitors, as well as claims brought by a leading insurance company and a former service provider involved in illegal activities; and Vivendi in complex litigation, including in obtaining a Court of Milan order upholding the company’s request to be granted admission to a Mediaset shareholders’ meeting and allowed to exercise its voting rights. Roberto joined the firm in 2005.
• Lina Bensman, partner, focuses on complex civil litigation. She is resident in the New York office. Lina has acted as counsel to financial institutions and multinational corporations, as well as individual clients, in a variety of securities and other commercial litigation matters. She also has experience in white-collar criminal defense and internal investigations. Her experience includes advising ESL Investments in its $5.2 billion acquisition of Sears Holdings and related litigation; National Amusements, Shari Redstone, and Sumner Redstone in Delaware Chancery Court litigation against CBS Corporation and certain members of its board of directors; Robert Bosch GmbH and Robert Bosch LLC in multidistrict litigation and other proceedings in the United States; Petrobras in securities fraud litigation arising out of “Operation Car Wash,” one of the largest corruption scandals in the history of Latin America; Alpha Natural Resources and certain of its directors and officers in successful motions to dismiss a derivative action and a federal securities law class action in multiple jurisdictions; and pro bono plaintiffs in securing a unanimous jury verdict in Ferguson v. JONAH, a first-of-its-kind lawsuit challenging the provision of conversion therapy as a fraudulent and unconscionable business practice. Lina joined the firm in 2011.
• Elana S. Bronson, partner, advises private clients and family offices. She is resident in the New York office. Elana’s practice involves all aspects of domestic and international estate, gift and income tax planning, trust and estate administration, planning for closely held businesses, and matrimonial matters. She has had extensive experience counseling ultra-high net worth clients in all aspects of their lives. Her recent experience includes representing people in the real estate industry, advising expatriates from the U.S. in the establishment of offshore trusts, advising foreign nationals on inbound U.S. investments, and advising artists and charitable foundations. Elana is a former member of the Committee on Estate and Gift Taxation of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She joined the firm in 2008.
• Rodolphe Elineau, partner, focuses on corporate and financial matters and mergers and acquisitions. He is resident in the Paris office. Rodolphe has represented Capgemini in its announced €5 billion acquisition of Altran Technologies. He has also advised Thales in its €5.4 billion acquisition of Gemalto and in the divestment of its general purpose hardware security modules business to Entrust Datacard Corporation; Total in its €950 million acquisition of Saft Groupe and its €2.5 billion acquisition of Direct Énergie; General Motors in its €2 billion divestment of Opel/Vauxhall and GM Financial’s European operations to PSA Group; and Safran in its €2.4 billion divestment of its identity and security activities to Advent International. Rodolphe joined the firm in 2011.
• Carl F. Emigholz, counsel, advises major financial institutions and securities market participants on securities and derivatives regulatory and enforcement matters. He is resident in the Washington, D.C. office. Prior to rejoining the firm, Carl served as Counsel to the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He advised the Director and other senior officers, and worked closely with the offices of the Chair and Commissioners on regulatory issues, including equity market structure reform, Dodd-Frank Act implementation, the Volcker Rule, Regulation SHO, broker-dealer registration and sales practices, and self-regulatory organization oversight. Between 2012 and 2014, Carl served as Special Counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets’ Office of Chief Counsel. His experience at Cleary includes advising a large financial institution in launching a new digital asset custody and transaction services business; Cushman & Wakefield and its principal shareholders in the company’s $765 million IPO; Allergan in a margin loan financing; and Carlyle Global Partners in its agreement to purchase a 31% stake in the TCW Group. Carl joined the firm in 2006, left to join the SEC in 2012, and returned to the firm as a senior attorney in 2016.
• Kyle A. Harris, partner, focuses on public and private mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments. He is resident in the New York office. Kyle has represented Warburg Pincus and its portfolio companies in numerous transactions, including Warburg Pincus in its acquisition of Universal Services of America and Guardsmark and subsequent merger of equals between Universal and AlliedBarton Security Services, creating Allied Universal; and Warburg Pincus in its acquisition of CityMD. He represented Dun & Bradstreet in its $6.9 billion sale of the company to a private equity consortium; Kindred Healthcare in its $4.1 billion sale to a consortium led by TPG, Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, and Humana; and TPG in its $2.25 billion acquisition of RCN and Grande Communications, and RCN’s $2.36 acquisition of Wave. His additional notable experience includes representing Google in its $1.1 billion agreement with HTC relating to the smartphone design business; International Flavors & Fragrances in its $7.1 billion acquisition of Frutarom; América Móvil in its $905 million acquisition of Nextel’s Brazil operations; GlaxoSmithKline in its $3.6 billion acquisition of Human Genome Sciences; and Lafarge in the divestiture of its cement operations in Ecuador and in various divestitures in connection with its €40 billion merger of equals with Holcim. Kyle joined the firm in 2011.
• Chris Macbeth, partner, focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and private equity and funds, has extensive experience representing Middle East sovereign wealth funds in their investments across a wide range of sectors and geographies, and is part of the firm’s English law M&A practice. He is resident in the Abu Dhabi office. Chris has represented a consortium of selling shareholders on the sale of Farnborough Airport; TAG Group in the £275 million acquisition of Ron Dennis’ stakes in McLaren Technology Group and McLaren Automotive, their combination under a new holding company, and a related £564 million bond offering; Philip Morris International in its $625 million acquisition of 49% of Arab Investors-TA, and the creation of a new manufacturing and distribution joint venture in Egypt; Warid Telecom International in the $758 million sale of a 30% interest in Warid Telecom to SingTel and the merger of Warid with Mobilink, the first mobile telecoms merger in Pakistan; OMV in its purchase of a 15% stake in ADNOC Refining; OCI in its strategic nitrogen fertilizer partnership with ADNOC; and Silk Road Fund in subsidiary CVXF’s $155 million acquisition of a 49% stake in ACWA Power Renewable Energy. Chris joined the firm’s London office in 2006, relocated to the Abu Dhabi office in 2012, and became counsel in 2013.
• Jonathan Mendes de Oliveira, counsel, focuses on corporate and financial transactions, especially debt and equity capital markets and financings, including leveraged and project financings, as well as debt restructurings. He is resident in the São Paulo office. Jonathan has provided advice to a variety of high-profile clients, including Suzano Papel e Celulose in the $9.2 billion financing for its acquisition of Fibria Celulose, the largest acquisition financing ever in Latin America; Vale, the world’s largest iron ore miner, in numerous global bond offerings and liability management transactions, involving more than $12 billion; the Federative Republic of Brazil in its $1.5 billion SEC-registered global bond offering; the underwriters in various Basel III-compliant capital notes offerings of Banorte, one of the largest banks in Mexico; the issuers or underwriters in various bond offerings, including offerings of BNDES, CSN, and Globo; the underwriters in connection with the R$5.75 billion secondary offering of shares of Banco do Brasil; Biotoscana and Alliar in their Brazilian IPOs; Suzano and Movida in their follow-on equity offerings; and an ad hoc group of bondholders in connection with the restructuring of Odebrecht Oil & Gas and its project companies, representing over $4.8 billion in consolidated debt. Jonathan joined the firm in May 2011.
• Paolo Rainelli, counsel, focuses on advising Italian and international clients on private and public mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance including anti-activism defense, and insurance regulation. He is resident in the Milan office. Paolo has represented Vivendi in disputes over Telecom Italia’s governance; Vivendi in obtaining a Court of Milan order upholding the company’s request to be admitted to Mediaset shareholders’ meeting and allowed to exercise its voting rights; Credit Suisse as financial advisor to special committee of Unipol Gruppo in connection with the €220 million sale of Unipol Banca; UniCredit in its successful defense of regulatory capital instruments before the European Banking Authority; and Confindustria in the capital increase of the listed company Il Sole 24 Ore and in the negotiation and execution of a shareholders’ agreement with 53 other entities belonging to its association network in Italy. He is a Professor of Business Law at the Polytechnic University of Turin and a Member of the National Executive Board of AIDA – Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances. Paolo joined the firm’s Rome office in 2006 and relocated to the Milan office in 2008.
• Manuel Silva, partner, focuses on capital market transactions, finance, and mergers and acquisitions, and concentrates on cross-border transactions, principally in Latin America. He is resident in the New York office. In his capital markets practice, Manuel has represented issuers and underwriters in securities offerings and liability management transactions totaling in the tens of billions of dollars, including transactions by Petrobras, Pemex, CEMEX, Unifin, Grupo Alfa, and Teva Pharmaceutical. Manuel recently advised the Mexican Ministry of Communications and Transportation in the January 2019 tender offers and consent solicitations to purchase a portion of the $6 billion of outstanding notes relating to the development of airport infrastructure in Mexico City. During his time as an associate, Manuel advised on more than $3 billion in Latin American IPOs. In M&A, Manuel advised Vitro, the leading glass manufacturer in Mexico, in its acquisition of PPG Industries’ flat glass business and its acquisition of Pittsburgh Glass Works, and FEMSA in the sale of part of its interest in the Heineken Group to institutional investors. Manuel was part of the firm’s international lawyer program from 2009 to 2011, and rejoined as an associate in 2012.
• Paul Stuart, counsel, focuses on competition law and litigation. He is resident in the London office. Paul has represented clients in proceedings before the EU General Court, the European Commission, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and the Competition Appeal Tribunal. He has advised “K” Line in defense of a claim by Daimler arising out of the European Commission’s Maritime Car Carriers decision; NSK in defense of a claim by Peugeot arising out of the European Commission’s Automotive Bearings decision; OpenText on the antitrust aspects of its $1.2 billion acquisition of GXS Group; Ryanair on aspects of its acquisition of a minority share in Aer Lingus; a joint venture between Total UK and Phillips 66 in proceedings against Associated British Ports concerning the terms and conditions of continued use of the Immingham Oil Terminal; Google in the European Commission’s investigation into its Android business and a subsequent appeal to the General Court in Luxembourg of the European Commission’s decision in that matter; and HarperCollins in the European Commission’s e-books investigation. Paul joined the firm’s Brussels office in 2010 and relocated to London in 2013.
• David Yudin, counsel, focuses on the structuring, formation, and operation of private investment funds. He is resident in the New York office. David has extensive experience organizing and advising private investment funds, including buyout funds, credit funds, venture capital funds, fund of funds, and other types of “alternative asset” investment vehicles. His experience includes representing MBK Partners in connection with the formation of various funds; the Carlyle Group in the formation of certain Carlyle funds; TPG and TPG Sixth Street Partners in connection with a number of its funds and investment activities; iCapital in the formation of feeder funds structured to facilitate the investment by high net worth investors in various alternative investment funds; and Deutsche Bank in the formation of numerous feeder funds structured to facilitate the investment by high net worth investors in various alternative investment funds. David joined the firm in 2001 and became a senior attorney in 2011.
• Aron M. Zuckerman, partner, focuses on commercial real estate transactions, including the financing, acquisition, and development of real property. He is resident in the New York office. His experience includes serving as regular counsel to Goldman Sachs in real estate financings, including its origination of $1.05 billion in mortgage and mezzanine loans to refinance the Fontainebleau Miami Beach; a syndicate of lenders led by Goldman Sachs in the $1.40 billion mortgage and mezzanine financing of the acquisition of a portfolio of seven luxury hotels by Blackstone; counsel to Grupo Financiero Inbursa in two loans totaling $225 million for the construction of a residential condominium tower and retail space at the Miami WorldCenter project; and counsel to AllianceBernstein in a $170 million loan to finance the redevelopment of the historic May Hosiery site in Nashville, Tennessee. He also recently advised the Qatar Investment Authority in its acquisition of a 24% stake in a $5.6 billion portfolio of Fifth Avenue-Times Square properties owned by Vornado; advised Ports America on a lease from the City of New York for the operation of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal; and advised Empire Resorts Inc. in its development of the Resorts World Catskills casino and hotel in Monticello, New York. Aron joined the firm in 2011.