Cleary Gottlieb Elects Thirteen New Partners and Counsel

International law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP announced today that it has elected seven partners and six counsel, effective January 1, 2012. Today’s elections will bring the firm’s total worldwide partners to 196 and counsel to 52.

“I am very pleased to introduce our new partners and counsel,” said Mark Leddy, the firm’s Managing Partner. “These five women and eight men truly reflect Cleary Gottlieb’s values of legal excellence, internationalism, and diversity. Their practices span the regulatory, transactional, and litigation realms in major financial centers and emerging markets. Collectively, they speak Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.”

The new partners and counsel offer particular expertise in bank regulatory matters (including regulatory reform, compliance, and investigations and enforcement); bankruptcy and restructuring; capital markets; competition law (including merger control, investigations, regulatory actions, and related litigation); corporate and financial transactions; international arbitration; leveraged and acquisition finance; litigation; mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures; private equity; project finance; public international law; structured finance; tax; and white collar defense, securities enforcement, and internal investigations. Based in New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, Brussels, London, Cologne, and Milan, they have experience working on transformative cross-border matters affecting the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Biographical information for the new partners and counsel is below.

David J. Billington, partner, joined the firm’s London office in 2006. His practice focuses on international financing and restructuring transactions. He has experience in bank lending, high yield bonds, restructurings, structured and real estate finance, and securitization. His private equity experience includes transactions for sponsors such as TPG Capital, Hellman & Friedman, and First Reserve, and for lenders such as Citi and Goldman Sachs. He has worked on a number of high profile restructuring transactions, including advising on Truvo’s plan of reorganization, enabling the cross-border restructuring of €1.5 billion of debt. He was also involved in advising The Vita Group and its controlling shareholder TPG Capital in a financial restructuring effected by way of a UK scheme of arrangement, as a result of which debt in excess of €600 million was written down to approximately €100 million. Energy and natural resources sector matters include advising Consolidated Minerals Limited in its $405 million notes offering, and representing African Minerals Limited in the $417.7 million secured debt financing and $800 million fundraising for the Tonkolili Iron Ore Project in Sierra Leone. David is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.

Grant M. Binder, counsel, joined the firm’s New York office in 2003. His practice focuses primarily on matters in Latin America, particularly mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and capital markets transactions. In the capital markets area, he has advised the Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) on more than $10 billion of debt offerings and the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (the Mexican Stock Exchange) in its landmark $385 million initial public offering. With respect to joint venture and M&A transactions, he is currently advising Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco), a Chilean state-owned company, in the arrangement of $6.75 billion in financing for the purpose of a possible acquisition and has worked on other transactions in Latin America for Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI), Codelco, Enfoca Inversiones, HSBC, McDonald’s, TPG Capital, and Vale. Additional experience includes advising Morgan Stanley in its joint venture with Citigroup to combine both parties’ retail brokerage operations. Grant is a member of the Bar of New York.

Katherine Mooney Carroll, partner, focuses on U.S. bank regulatory matters, particularly acquisitions and investments by and of financial institutions, regulatory reform legislation, and compliance with U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering laws. She also advises financial institutions on investigations and enforcement matters domestically and internationally. She has been advising financial institutions on issues related to Dodd-Frank, including the preparation of recovery and resolution plans, as well as issues related to the Volcker Rule. She is counseling domestic and foreign banking organizations on the structure, restructuring, and disposition of their private equity and hedge fund operations, and on alliances with, acquisitions of, and investments in asset managers, investment advisors, and financial consultants. She advises private equity consortia and investor groups on stake-out and other acquisitions of, and investments in, depository institutions and related banking entities. Katherine speaks and writes frequently on developments relating to the conduct of commercial and investment banking businesses in the United States and globally. A member of the Bars of the District of Columbia and New York, Katherine, who joined the firm in 2001, worked in the firm’s Hong Kong office from 2001 to 2002 and in the New York office from 2002 to 2003 before transferring to the Washington, D.C. office, where she is now based.

Amélie Champsaur, partner, joined the firm in 2003 and is based in the Paris office. Her practice focuses on corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and bank regulatory matters. Recent mergers and acquisitions highlights include advising Airbus and its parent company EADS in Airbus’ $500 million tender offer for Satair; Faurecia in its $400 million acquisition of EMCON Technologies; BNP Paribas in its €14.5 billion acquisition of Fortis’ operations in Belgium and Luxembourg as well as its international banking franchises; and BNP Paribas in the merger of its two Turkish bank subsidiaries, Fortis A.S., a subsidiary of Fortis Bank, and TEB, a subsidiary of TEB Holding, itself a 50/50 joint venture between BNP Paribas and the Çolakoğlu Group. Amélie has also worked on numerous capital markets transactions, including rights offerings by BNP Paribas and Société Générale, and convertible bond offerings by Gecina and Faurecia. Amélie is a member of the Bar of Paris.

Frédéric de Bure, counsel, is based in the Paris office and joined the firm in 2003. From 2003 to 2008, he was resident in the Brussels office. His practice focuses on EU and French competition law, and he advises clients on merger control cases as well as on investigations, regulatory actions, and related litigation matters. His experience includes advising EADS and its subsidiary Airbus in a number of complex merger control cases, including in the recent public offer of Airbus over Satair. He also represented Total in several acquisitions before the European Commission, including the acquisition of its Mapa Spontex Baby Care and Home Care businesses by Jarden Corporation, and has advised Danone on various competition EU law issues. Frédéric has recently worked on a series of competition cases for 3M before the French Competition Authority, and works regularly for large French clients such as the Lagardère Group and its subsidiary Hachette, including in litigation before the European Courts in Luxembourg, and JCDecaux, the outdoor advertising company. He is currently representing Google before the French Competition Authority and before the French commercial courts in a series of litigations. Frédéric is a member of the Bar of Paris.

Meyer H. Fedida, counsel, is a U.S. tax lawyer who has spent significant time in both the firm’s New York and London offices. He joined the firm in 2003 and is currently based in London. Meyer’s practice focuses on the tax aspects of public and private M&A and restructuring transactions, tax planning for financial services and private equity businesses, and the tax aspects of other sophisticated international and domestic transactions. Meyer has advised on headline-making transactions including GlaxoSmithKline’s acquisition of Stiefel Laboratories, Medtronic’s acquisition of Ardian, Warburg Pincus’ and Vestar Capital Partners’ purchase of a controlling interest in Triton Container, J.C. Flowers’ €3 billion sale of Dutch bank NIBC to Kaupthing Bank, 3M’s $943 million acquisition of Cogent, EVRAZ Group’s $4.03 billion acquisition (and simultaneous divestiture) of Sweden’s Stål AB’s North American plate and pipe business and tube operations, and a long series of significant fund formation transactions and cross-border acquisitions for TPG Capital. Meyer is a member of the Bar of New York.

Helena K. Grannis, counsel, is based in the New York office and focuses on capital markets transactions, including issuer-side work on behalf of private equity portfolio companies and underwriter-side work on equity, debt, convertible, and equity-linked securities offerings, as well as liability management transactions, such as debt tender offers, exchange offers, and consent solicitations. Her work spans numerous industries, including airlines, aviation and aerospace; automotive; consumer products and retail; banking and financial institutions; and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. She recently advised the underwriters in Spirit Airlines’ initial public offering and has advised the initial purchasers on a number of notes offerings by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, totaling more than $4 billion dollars. Helena has also represented The Hartford Financial Services Group on multiple high-profile matters, including the $2.5 billion capital investment in The Hartford by Allianz and The Hartford’s $3.3 billion capital raise to repay TARP funds. Helena joined the firm in 2000 and is a member of the Bar of New York.

Tilman Kuhn, counsel, joined the firm in 2004 and is based in the Cologne office. From 2009 to 2010, he was resident in the Brussels office. His practice focuses on European and German competition law, including merger control. He has worked on numerous high level merger cases such as The Dow Chemical Company’s $18.8 billion acquisition of Rohm and Haas, Abbott Laboratories’ €4.5 billion acquisition of Solvay’s pharmaceuticals business, EADS’ and ThyssenKrupp’s joint acquisition of Atlas Elektronik, and Henkel’s merger control proceedings before the European Commission relating to the €4 billion acquisition of National Starch’s Adhesives and Electronic Materials business units from Akzo Nobel. Merger cases before the German Federal Cartel Office include The Coca-Cola Company’s takeover of 18 independent Coca-Cola distribution companies and in their merger with several independent German bottlers into one company, United Technologies Corporation/Marioff, and American Express/Loyalty Partner (Payback). He also has significant experience advising clients in cartel and other antitrust investigations, and was involved in the recent European investigation into the polyurethane foam sector. Tilman publishes regularly on antitrust topics. He is a member of the Bar of Cologne.

J. Cameron Murphy, counsel, joined the firm’s New York office in 2003 and relocated to the Paris office in 2007. His practice focuses on domestic and international litigation and arbitration, as well as public international law. Recently, Cameron has been advising on several significant arbitration matters, particularly involving clients in Eastern Europe. Recent victories include winning an arbitral award in favor of the Russian Federation and OJSC Sudoimport, a formerly Russian-state owned company, in an arbitration brought by EM Investments over breach of contract claims. Cameron is currently representing OJSC Tatneft in an arbitration against the Ukraine concerning an oil refinery. He is part of the team defending the Russian Federation in an investment treaty arbitration proceeding commenced by the majority shareholders of Yukos, who claim that Russia expropriated their holdings in violation of international law as the result of tax evasion assessments related to the Khodorkovsky prosecution. Cameron is a member of the Bar of New York.

Jennifer Kennedy Park, partner, focuses on litigation, particularly litigation related to capital markets transactions and mergers and acquisitions, and white-collar defense and corporate investigations. She is currently representing Bank of America in federal and state complex litigations relating to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup in a Securities Act class action involving mortgage pass-through certificates, in which she won last year the dismissal of claims against 16 of the 18 offerings at issue. She is also defending Citigroup against trade secret misappropriation claims, relating to the bank’s Yield Book analytical software. She also represented Doral Financial, a Puerto Rico-based bank, in SEC and U.S. Attorney investigations surrounding its need to restate its financial statements and its recapitalization. Jennifer, who joined the firm in 2003, is also very active in the firm’s pro bono practice. Before joining the firm, she served as law clerk for the Honorable Linda Kay Davis of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Jennifer is based in the New York office and is a member of the Bar of New York.

Laurent A. Ruzette, partner, joined the firm’s Brussels office in 1996 and became counsel in 2004. He has a broad corporate and finance practice. Laurent has worked on a number of high profile transactions in Belgium, including advising BNP Paribas in its acquisition of a 75 percent stake in Fortis Bank SA/NV from Belgium and a 67 percent stake in Fortis Banque Luxembourg. He has also represented Infrabel, the infrastructure manager of the Belgian railway network (SNCB/NMBS), in the landmark project financing of a high-speed railway link to Brussels Airport. He has also represented the Belgian State and a group of Belgian institutional shareholders in the partial privatization of Brussels International Airport Company (now The Brussels Airport Company). He is currently advising the Dexia Group in connection with its restructuring and related divestiture transactions. Laurent is a member of the Bar of Brussels and the International Fiscal Association.

Carlo Santoro, partner, is based in the Milan office and joined the firm in 2003. His practice focuses on civil and commercial litigation, as well as domestic and international arbitration. He is advising ENI in an international arbitration involving a dispute under the price revisions of a natural gas contract. He is also advising the Republic of Argentina, together with the Procuración del Tesoro de Argentina, in claims brought at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) by bondholders under the Argentina-Italy bilateral investment treaty. He has recently been involved in successfully defending Del Monte International in commercial and intellectual property disputes brought by or against Italian companies before various Tribunals. Carlo has also been involved in representing SKY Italia in a case against Publitalia ‘80 Concessionaria Pubblicità (part of the Mediaset group) for refusal to accept SKY Italia’s advertisements. From 2003 to 2009, Carlo was resident in the Rome office. He is a member of the Milan Bar.

Amy R. Shapiro, partner, is based in New York and focuses on corporate and financial transactions, with a particular emphasis on representation of private equity clients and their portfolio companies in financing matters. She also specializes in Latin American matters. She recently represented ACON Investments and TPG Capital in the financing of their acquisition of the downstream assets comprising Northern Tier Energy from Marathon Oil and Neiman Marcus in its recent refinancing transactions. She regularly represents Deutsche Bank in financings in Latin America, including in an export prepayment loan facility for Marfrig Alimentos, Latin America’s second-largest beef producer, and in its loans to Angélica Agroenergia, a Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer. Most recently, she advised Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua in the sale of its interest in Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento to Consorcio Cemetero del Sur. She had previously represented Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua in its $740 million restructuring, and her other significant restructuring experience includes the landmark restructuring of Aracruz Celulose, and the recapitalization of Doral Financial, a Puerto Rico-based bank. She joined the firm in 2003 and is a member of the Bar of New York.