Cleary Gottlieb Elects 14 New Partners and Counsel

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP announced today that it has elected seven partners and seven counsel, effective January 1, 2016. The elections will bring the firm’s total worldwide partners to 197 and counsel to 51.

“It is with great pleasure that I introduce our new global partners and counsel,” said Mark Leddy, Cleary Gottlieb’s Managing Partner. “Our new class of partners and counsel reflects the internationalism that has always been at the core of our firm and underscores our commitment to all the regions and markets in which we operate. These exceptional lawyers are resident in our offices on four continents and, collectively, speak English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu. This diverse and dedicated group exemplifies Cleary Gottlieb’s commitment to delivering the highest-quality legal service to our clients around the world.”

The new partners and counsel are resident in the firm’s Buenos Aires, London, Milan, Moscow, New York, Paris, and Washington offices. Their broad spectrum of practice areas include antitrust, arbitration, bankruptcy and restructuring, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, securities regulations, and tax.

The new partners and counsel are:

Laurie Achtouk-Spivak, counsel, focuses on international arbitration and litigation, with a particular emphasis on public international law. She is resident in the Paris office. Laurie represents investors and sovereigns in investment treaty arbitrations before ICSID as well as in other arbitration institutions. She has acted as counsel and advocate in several commercial and sovereign arbitrations, and provided numerous companies with investment structuring advice. She has advised OJSC Tatneft in a UNCITRAL arbitration against Ukraine under the Russia-Ukraine bilateral investment treaty. She has also recently advised the Hellenic Republic in an ICSID arbitration commenced by Poštová banka a.s., a Slovak bank that alleges to have purchased Greek sovereign bonds in 2010. The bank is challenging measures taken by the Hellenic Republic in 2012 to address its financial crisis.

Elaine Ewing, partner, focuses on antitrust merger review, criminal investigations, and litigation. Elaine is resident in the Washington office. Elaine advised Medtronic in its $49.9 billion acquisition of Covidien, Google in the $2.91 billion sale of Motorola Mobility’s mobile devices business to Lenovo, and The Dow Chemical Co. in several transactions, including in connection with the divestment of its global polypropylene and chlorine businesses. She also advised The Coca-Cola Co. on its $2.15 billion acquisition of a 16.7% equity stake in Monster Beverage Corp. and its $1.2 billion acquisition of a 10% equity stake in Keurig Green Mountain. Her experience in antitrust litigation includes winning a ruling for Embraco dismissing the plaintiffs’ Sixth Circuit appeal in the refrigerant compressors antitrust litigation and winning the denial of a competitor’s motion for preliminary injunction in multidistrict antitrust litigation against Keurig Green Mountain.

Jared Gerber, partner, focuses on litigation. He is resident in the New York office. Jared was the lead associate in the firm’s representation of over 40 underwriters of securities issued by Lehman Brothers (prior to its bankruptcy) in a series of securities litigations, obtaining the dismissal of several such suits. He has been a lead associate in the firm’s representation of Petrobras in several securities fraud actions, on a number of lawsuits filed by investors in mortgage-backed securities issued by Bank of America and its affiliates, and in several lawsuits filed by investors in collateralized debt obligations issued by Barclays, a number of which have been dismissed with prejudice. Jared successfully argued an appeal on behalf of ING before the Second Circuit (obtaining affirmance of the dismissal of a securities class action complaint) and assisted with the firm’s representation of Marc Gabelli before the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the Court unanimously ruled in favor of the firm’s client with respect to when the statute of limitations for filing certain civil penalty actions by the SEC begins. He has also been the lead associate on several amicus briefs written on behalf of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association concerning statutes of repose, class action tolling, and class action standing.

Francesca Gesualdi, counsel, focuses on domestic and international litigation and arbitration. She is resident in the Milan office. Francesca regularly represents domestic and foreign clients in a wide range of disputes involving corporate, commercial, banking, and financial matters, as well as bankruptcy and competition issues across numerous industries. Francesca successfully represented Versalis (an ENI company) in civil proceedings commenced by an Italian contractor before the Court of Milan and SNAM Rete Gas in obtaining favorable decisions by various Italian courts against several companies operating on the regulated gas market. She represented Hewlett-Packard Italiana and SKY Italia in obtaining the dismissal by the Court of Milan of two class action lawsuits for damages alleging unfair commercial practices under the consumer code. She also advised HSBC Holdings in the successful defense against all damages claims in the first Italian decision in the Madoff case.

Corey Goodman, partner, has extensive experience advising on matters related to taxation. He is resident in the New York office. Select matters include advising Family Dollar in the $9.3 billion sale of the company to Dollar Tree; Google in the $2.91 billion sale of Motorola Mobility’s mobile devices business to Lenovo; Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. in a Chapter 11 restructuring; Nortel in its complex and protracted bankruptcy; Medtronic in its $49.9 billion acquisition of Covidien; and Medtronic on tax aspects of its $17 billion Reg S/Rule 144A multitranche senior notes offering, representing the largest offering of 2014 and the second-largest ever.

Maxim Izvekov, counsel, focuses on international and domestic mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, and antitrust. Maxim is resident in the Moscow office. Maxim advised Rosneft Oil Co., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, in its $55 billion acquisition of TNK-BP and in the subsequent tender offer, which was the largest in Russian history, and in the squeeze-out with regard to remaining minority shareholders. Maxim also advised MegaFon in its $1.18 billion purchase of 100% of Scartel and Yota from Garsdale Investments, making MegaFon the leading 4G LTE operator in Russia, and advised Lafarge in the sale of its cement production units in the Urals region. He has advised Transmashholding, Russia’s largest train manufacturer, in several international and domestic joint ventures and in its successful bid to supply a new generation of cars for the Moscow metro. He has advised many international and Russian clients on Russian antitrust matters.

Humayun Khalid, counsel, focuses on corporate restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy, and related litigation matters. Humayun is resident in the New York office. Currently, he is counsel to J. Aron & Company in the Energy Future Holdings Corp. Chapter 11 cases and related litigation, and the ad hoc group of bondholders and DIP lenders in the ongoing restructuring of OGX, the largest private Brazilian reorganization in history. Humayun advised Newcastle Investment Corp. and affiliates of Fortress Investment Group in the prepackaged bankruptcy of GateHouse Media’s $1.2 billion in debt. He represented Stora Enso in its successful negotiation of a global settlement agreement in the Chapter 11 proceedings of NewPage Corp. He also advised Goldman Sachs in the filing of a competing plan and the settlement of plan and derivatives claims issues in the Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 cases.

Colin Lloyd, partner, focuses on U.S. derivatives, commodities, and securities regulation. Colin is resident in the New York office. Colin regularly represents clients before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other U.S. financial regulators. Colin advises many leading financial industry trade associations and ad hoc groups of major U.S. and international banks on a broad spectrum of significant regulatory matters. He also regularly advises a wide range of other market participants, including corporate end users of derivatives, sovereigns, funds, advisers, market intermediaries, and market infrastructure providers.

Neil Markel, counsel, focuses on mergers and acquisitions transactions. He is resident in the New York office. Neil also advises with respect to director fiduciary duties, corporate governance, and shareholder activism. He represented Medtronic in its $49.9 billion acquisition of Covidien, American Express in the formation of a Global Business Travel joint venture, Envision Pharmaceutical Services in its sale to Rite Aid for approximately $2 billion, The Home Depot in its $1.6 billion acquisition of Interline Brands, and the Corporate Governance and Conflicts Committee of TerraForm Power in connection with the pending $2.2 billion acquisition of Vivint Solar by SunEdison. Neil has also advised Warburg Pincus in its acquisition of a majority stake in Sterigenics and the acquisition of Consolidated Precision Products, as well as Warburg Pincus and Vestar Capital Partners in their purchase of a controlling interest in Triton Container International Ltd.

Emilio Minvielle, counsel, is resident in the Buenos Aires office and focuses on corporate and financial transactions in Latin America. He has recently represented the Republic of Uruguay and Banco Estado (Chile) as issuers of debt securities in the international capital markets, as well as the underwriters in debt offerings by the Republic of Paraguay and by Empresa Nacional del Petróleo, Chile’s national oil company. In addition to his capital markets practice, which includes advising issuers on SEC-reporting obligations as well as transactional work, Emilio advises commercial banks on complex cross-border financing transactions and advised Metrogas and GASA in the restructuring of their outstanding debt obligations.

Milo Molfa, counsel, focuses on domestic and international litigation and arbitration. He is resident in the London office. Milo regularly advises and represents companies in a broad range of industries on commercial and corporate disputes, as well as sovereign states in investment treaty arbitrations, before a range of international arbitral tribunals. Milo has advised the Russian Federation in investment treaty arbitrations in The Hague commenced by the former majority shareholders of Yukos Oil Company under the Energy Charter Treaty. He has also advised SKY Italia in ICC proceedings instituted by RTI, a subsidiary of Mediaset, in a broadcasting rights dispute.

Mikhail Suvorov, partner, focuses on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, corporate restructurings, and Russian regulatory matters. He is resident in the Moscow office. Mikhail has extensive experience in oil and gas matters, having advised Gazprom and other clients on a number of complicated transactions, including Gazprom’s recent $2 billion swap transaction with Wintershall involving an exchange of interests in Russian gas fields for interests in European gas distribution and storage and in North Sea oil and gas fields. Mikhail has advised on the restructuring of the ownership of Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, Russia’s largest airport, and related joint venture arrangements between the Russian government and private interests, and advised Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company, in establishing a joint venture with CGG, the world’s leading Geoscience company, to provide maritime geophysical exploration services. He also advised Rosneft Oil Co. in its $55 billion acquisition of TNK-BP.

Jane VanLare, partner, focuses on restructuring, insolvency, and bankruptcy litigation. She is resident in the New York office. Jane represented Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. in its successful global restructuring and Cascade Investment as senior secured party in the recent reorganization of Optim Energy’s operating assets. Jane also represented the Truvo Group in its Chapter 11 reorganization, and Colony Capital in the dismissal of the Chapter 11 case of debtor JER/Jameson Mezz Borrower II. In addition, she advised an ad hoc group of bondholders in connection with the debt restructuring of Maxcom Telecommunications, and represented Goldman Sachs and other derivative creditors in the Chapter 11 proceedings of Lehman Brothers in litigation and a related settlement resolving various disputes concerning Lehman Brothers’ Chapter 11 plan.

Rishi Zutshi, partner, focuses on complex commercial litigation and enforcement matters. He is resident in the New York office. Rishi has substantial experience representing clients in significant disputes that arise in a variety of commercial contexts, including contract, UCC, bankruptcy, and anti-terrorism cases. In particular, Rishi has successfully handled a number of major matters involving termination and close-out rights under ISDA-documented derivative contracts and related valuation issues. He is a co-author of the chapter on Derivatives in the third edition of the treatise, Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, and is also a member of the Hedge Fund and Capital Markets Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association. Rishi also has significant enforcement experience and is assisting a major financial institution in responding to numerous government investigations relating to its trading business. Rishi’s major clients include Goldman Sachs, Assured Guaranty, Daiwa Securities, National Westminster Bank, and Credit Lyonnais.