ISN'T IT RICH? - American Business Media

You’ve met ourProduct Liability Practice.BIGDEALS…33Zynga goespublic, UnitedRentals makes apurchase, and EastmanChemical buys Solutia.To find out which law firms are landing new matters, go to The Work at americanlawyer.comNow, let us introduce you to ourIntellectual PropertyLawyersClass ActionExpertsEnvironmentalTeamEmploymentLitigationGuruseDiscoveryExpertsGovernmentEnforcementPracticeBIGSUITS…39The FDIC mustreimburse shareholdersof a bankseized in 1992, and DaiichiSankyo settles with the feds.BIGCANADIANDEALS…47Chinese, Polish,and U.S. buyersmake deals foroil sands, copper,and natural gas processing.$5.9 millionPrepetition bankruptcyfees and expenses billed toHostess Brands, Inc., byJones Day, March 31, 2011–January 10, 2012Data: U.S. bankrupcty court filing“We did facesome headwind.”—Davis Polk & Wardwell’sLawrence Portnoy, on how afederal district court judge at firstprovisionally denied his summaryjudgment motion in a class actionagainst client Credit SuisseGroup AG.AntitrustTeamPublic PolicyGroupReal EstateLawyers475 lawyers, 40 practices, 9 offices, one mission:Bringing innovation to litigation strategies and legal budgets.Meet them all at www.shb.com.The American Lawyer has named Shook, Hardy & Bacon its 2012 Product LiabilityLitigation Department of the Year, marking the third consecutive time the firm hasbeen recognized in this biennial competition.www.shb.comDEALMAKERIN THE SPOTLIGHTWhen aconsortiumled bySumi tomo Mitsui BankingCorporation bid $7.3 billionfor the airplane-leasing unit ofThe Royal Bank of ScotlandGroup plc, it turned to airlinefinance lawyers at Milbank,Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.So did three other bidders.“In this space, there justaren’t that many [firms],” saysMilbank’s Roland Hlawaty,who handled Sumitomo’ssuccessful bid. (Because ofinternal “walls,” he does notknow who the other bidderswere.) Sumitomo is a longtimefirm client, but this isHlawaty’s first time representingthe bank: “I guess Iwas lucky enough to get onthe winning team.”—TOM HUDDLESTON JR.LITIGATORIN THE SPOTLIGHTFor Credit Suisse Group AGcounsel Lawrence Portnoyof Davis Polk & Wardwell,it was the end of a long campaign. Ten yearsago, Credit Suisse was hit with 14 class actions,after e-mails and other evidence suggestedthat the bank’s analysts had produced overlyrosy reports to land business from the companiesthey tracked. But the last of those casesdisappeared in January, when a federal districtcourt in Boston granted summary judgmentto Credit Suisse and four individuals, endinga shareholder fraud suit by AOL-Time Warner,Inc., investors. The crux of the successfulCredit Suisse defense: loss causation. “Even ifyou put aside the content of the e-mails andreports, we thought we could prove there wasno market impact,” Portnoy says. Of the other13 cases, 11 were dismissed or won by thecompany on summary judgment; the other twosettled for small amounts.—SUSAN BECKGENEVA | HOUSTON | KANSAS CITY | LONDON | MIAMI | ORANGE COUNTY | SAN FRANCISCO | TAMPA | WASHINGTON, D.C.The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHEW FURMANThe American Lawyer | March 2012 31