Cleary Gottlieb Elects Eight Partners and Counsel

International law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP announced today that it has elected four partners and four counsel, effective January 1, 2011. Today’s elections will bring Cleary Gottlieb’s total worldwide partners to 195 and counsel to 49.

“I am proud to introduce our new partners and counsel,” said Mark Walker, the firm’s managing partner. “These lawyers are resident in our New York, London, Paris, Brussels, Hong Kong and Moscow offices, and they continue our tradition of internationalism, which is more important than ever in today’s global market.”

The new partners and counsel have experience in a broad range of practice areas, including: antitrust and competition; banking and financial institutions; bankruptcy and restructuring; capital markets; corporate governance; energy; intellectual property; litigation and arbitration; mergers and acquisitions; private equity; sovereign governments and international institutions; and white-collar defense, securities enforcement and internal investigations. The lawyers are admitted to practice law in the Supreme Court of England and Wales, the Supreme Courts of Victoria and South Australia, the High Court of New Zealand, and New York, California, Paris, Brussels, Genoa, Hong Kong and Russia. They are active in our Africa, Asia, Belgium, China, European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Latin America, Middle East, Russia, United Kingdom and United States practices.

Biographical information for the new partners and counsel is below.

Sam Bagot, partner, joined the firm’s London office in 2007 and focuses on public and private mergers and acquisitions transactions. His work has spanned numerous industries, including consumer products, energy, mining and telecommunications. Sam has worked on a number of high-profile acquisitions, including advising the financial advisors to Cadbury in the company’s acquisition by Kraft. He also represented Vale in its acquisition from Rio Tinto of holding interests in a potash project in Argentina and the Corumbá iron ore mine in Brazil. Sam regularly advises on private equity acquisitions and has advised TPG on various matters, including its acquisition of Republic and its investment into Greenko Group. He also represented J.C. Flowers on its sale of Dutch bank NIBC to Kaupthing Bank and advised the management of International Asset Management, one of the oldest funds of hedge funds managers, on the management buyout of the firm from Fortis. Sam is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, as well as the Supreme Courts of Victoria and South Australia.

Roger A. Cooper, partner, is a litigator who focuses on complex civil litigation, particularly relating to securities law, corporate governance and intellectual property. He has authored numerous articles on these topics for U.S. Law Week, White Collar Crime and Derivatives, among others. Recently, Roger has been working on securities litigation matters stemming from the financial crisis, including securing dismissals of class and institutional investor actions brought against leading investment banks and other financial institutions, and representing approximately 60 investment banks in connection with claims arising out of their underwriting of securities issued by Lehman Brothers. He is also representing BHP Billiton in connection with litigation stemming from BHP Billiton’s unsolicited $40 billion all-cash offer to acquire PotashCorp. Roger is also very active in the firm’s pro bono practice and recently obtained a favorable settlement on behalf of workers at a Long Island, New York restaurant in a wage dispute. He joined the firm’s New York office in 2003 and is a member of the Bar of New York.

Jaewoo Lee, counsel, advises on corporate and financial transactions, particularly mergers and acquisitions and capital markets. He has significant experience advising Korean companies in cross-border matters, including private and public mergers and acquisitions transactions and offerings of debt and equity securities by Korean issuers. His recent matters include advising Korea’s SK Networks in its $700 million equity investment in Brazil-based iron ore mining company, MMX Mineração e Metálicos. He has also advised Kookmin Bank, Korea’s largest commercial bank, in a number of transactions, including a $500 million investment and a $115 million follow-on investment in JSC Bank CenterCredit, one of the top commercial banks in Kazakhstan. In addition, he advised Kookmin on its conversion into a financial holding company. Jaewoo joined the firm’s New York office in 2005 and relocated to the Hong Kong office in 2006. He is a member of the Bars of New York and California.

Olivier Loizon, counsel, joined the firm’s Paris office in 2003. His practice focuses on domestic and international litigation and arbitration. He recently won, on appeal, the dismissal of €3.9 billion in claims brought by Vivendi against the firm’s client Deutsche Telekom. In the arbitration sector, Olivier successfully represented the Republic of Congo in an ICC arbitration against Groupe Antoine Tabet, a Lebanese company. In the award, the ICC Arbitral Tribunal dismissed Groupe Antoine Tabet’s claim and granted Congo’s counterclaim in the amount of €34 million. Olivier is currently representing the Russian Federation in connection with its longstanding dispute with Compagnie Noga D’Importation et D’Exportation (Noga) over arbitral awards related to loan agreements from 1991 and 1992. He is also representing the Republic of Argentina in proceedings brought before the French courts in connection with Argentina’s 2001 economic collapse and debt default, as well as Aventis Pharma (a subsidiary of sanofi-aventis) in a dispute against Pfizer concerning the termination of a license agreement. He is a member of the Paris Bar.

Michele Piergiovanni, counsel, advises on a wide range of issues under E.U. and Italian competition law, including restrictive practices, merger control, abuse of dominance and State aid. He has significant experience representing clients in cartel investigations before the European Commission, including Asahi Glass in the recent Flat Glass and Car Glass cases, as well as on appeal before the European courts. He also routinely advises clients in merger control proceedings before the European Commission and the Italian Competition Authority, including representing private equity fund PAI Partners in a number of transactions. Recently, he has focused on the technology and media sectors, including representing Hewlett-Packard in obtaining European Commission clearance for its acquisition of 3Com, and News Corporation on antitrust issues in connection with its £7.8 billion bid for the remaining shares of BSkyB. He was also counsel to Hynix Semiconductor, a producer of DRAMs (memory chips), in the European Commission’s first-ever settlement decision in a cartel case. Michele has published several articles on E.U. competition law issues and often lectures on these topics. He joined the firm’s Brussels office in 2003 and was resident in the firm’s Milan office from 2006 to 2007, after which he returned to Brussels. He is a member of the Bars of Brussels, New York and Genoa.

Mike Preston, partner, joined the firm’s London office in 2004 and has been based in the Hong Kong office since earlier this year. He advises on corporate matters relating to mergers and acquisitions and private equity. He has a wide range of experience advising on cross-border transactions, particularly in emerging markets and the energy and natural resources sectors. He recently advised Korea’s SK Networks in its $700 million equity investment in Brazil-based MMX Mineração e Metálicos and advised Tele2 in its acquisition of a controlling stake in Kazakhstan’s third-largest mobile operator, Mobile-Telecom Service (NEO). Additionally, he advised Helios Investment Partners in its acquisition of a stake in a joint venture vehicle established by Portugal Telecom to hold all of its telecommunications assets and interests in sub-Saharan Africa, and he was counsel to Mittal Investments in its investments in African oil and gas exploration company Ophir Energy. He is currently representing TPG in a number of Asia-related matters. Mike is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, where he sits on the Executive Committee of the African Chapter, and is a member of the United Kingdom Energy Lawyers’ Group. He is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, a member of the Hong Kong Bar, and a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.

Yulia A. Solomakhina, partner, focuses on corporate transactions, particularly securities and mergers and acquisitions matters involving businesses in Russia. Recognized as a leading lawyer in Russian M&A by Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, Yulia advised MTS and its Special Committee of the Board of Directors on the acquisition of a majority stake in Comstar-UTS in September 2009. She has also been counsel in a number of landmark transactions, such as the September 2007 simultaneous primary offering and secondary sale of a combined 69 percent interest in OGK-4 to E.ON for $5.7 billion, the largest non-oil and gas investment in Russian history; Mechel Steel Group’s IPO, which represented the first-ever IPO by a Russian mining company; and Gazprom’s July 2004 $1.25 billion offering of structured export notes, the first export-receivables-backed bonds sold by a Russian company secured by gas sales to Italy and the Netherlands. Yulia also represented the Federal Grid Company of Russia in its first international borrowing, provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Yulia is resident in the firm’s Moscow office. She joined the firm in 2002 and is qualified as a lawyer in Russia.

Andrew Weaver, counsel, joined the firm’s New York office in 2003. Andrew represents clients in corporate litigation and arbitration matters. He recently represented Nortel in litigation related to the sale of its wireless infrastructure assets through a bankruptcy auction to Ericsson for $1.13 billion. Additionally, he won dismissal of claims brought by Bulgartabac Holding against the new government of Iraq. Andrew has also represented Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America in securities litigation relating to a Tyco subsidiary, and has represented Deutsche Bank, UBS, LAN Airlines and Fresh Del Monte in complex commercial litigation. In addition, he has represented clients in a variety of internal and regulatory investigations. From 2002 to 2003, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Andrew is a member of the Bar of New York.

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 1,100 lawyers around the world. The firm received a number of accolades this year, including its selection as: the number one “Go-To Firm for Corporate Transactions” in Corporate Counsel’s “Who Represents America’s Biggest Companies” survey, “Securities Regulation Law Firm of the Year” by Chambers USA, “Latin American Corporate/M&A Firm of the Year” by Chambers Latin America, “Corporate Law Firm of the Year” by the Belgian Legal Awards, and “Russian Law Firm of the Year” by International Financial Law Review.

The firm has ranked in the top 10 of The American Lawyer’s A-List, a comprehensive ranking based on revenue, pro bono, associate satisfaction and diversity, since the lists’ inception in 2003. Vault Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms also named Cleary Gottlieb as one of its “Top Ten Law Firms” this year. Cleary Gottlieb has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, Brussels, London, Moscow, Frankfurt, Cologne, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong and Beijing.