News & Announcements

Weil Elects 9 New Partners and 9 New Counsel

November 21, 2013

International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP announced today that it has elected nine new partners and nine new counsel, effective January 1, 2014.

“I am very excited to introduce this diverse group of exceptional lawyers,” said Firm Executive Partner Barry Wolf. “These individuals are based in nine of the Firm’s 21 worldwide offices, and about half of our partner class is made up of women. They have wide-ranging experience across our four main departments of Corporate, Litigation, Business Finance and Restructuring, and Tax, Benefits, and Executive Compensation and will provide our clients with the legal excellence and top service that are a hallmark of Weil.”

The new partners and counsel are based in Boston, Houston, London, Miami, New York, Paris, Silicon Valley, Warsaw and Washington DC. Biographical information for them is below.

Partners

Hannah Field-Lowes joined Weil as a trainee solicitor and is part of Weil’s Litigation Department. She is based in the London office. Her practice includes a wide range of complex commercial cross border and general commercial disputes giving rise to issues such as: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties and misrepresentation; shareholder disputes (including minority shareholder issues); cross border insolvency issues; and jurisdiction matters (and resulting conflicts of laws issues). She also advises clients on contentious intellectual property issues and major regulatory enquiries. She has most recently advised Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay on the Maybourne Hotels case, Lehman Brothers, Facebook, Telegraph Media Group, Littlewoods/Shop Direct, Kaupthing Bank and Investec.

Lukasz Gasinski is part of the Corporate Department of the Warsaw office and is the head of the office’s regulatory practice. He specializes in corporate and securities law, and has represented investment banks and issuers of securities in various public offerings. He has also participated in large privatization projects and corporate restructurings. Most recently, he advised Poland’s largest chemical holding, Grupa Azoty, on the takeover of its WSE-listed Polish peer, ZA Pulawy. This included defense against the hostile takeover of Grupa Azoty by Russian chemical group Acron, a public tender for the sale of ZA Pulawy’s shares, and an exchange offer for the remaining shares in ZA Pulawy for newly-issued shares in Grupa Azoty. He also advised Bank Zachodni WBK, Poland’s third-largest bank, on its recent merger with its WSE-listed Polish peer Kredyt Bank, Poland’s largest-ever bank merger.

Iwona Her is part of the Corporate Department of the Warsaw office and she is the head of the office's Competition practice group. She is a specialist in antitrust, M&A and corporate law. She has significant experience in Polish and European Union competition law matters, including those related to merger control, cartels or abuses of dominance and state aid. Most recently, she advised Poland’s largest chemical holding, Grupa Azoty, in connection with the consent of the European Commission for the takeover of its WSE-listed Polish peer, ZA Pulawy. She also recently advised Poland’s leading private media holding, the ITI Group, on merger control issues regarding a strategic partnership in Poland with French multinational mass media and telecommunication holding Vivendi, the first-ever transaction referred to Poland by the European Commission as a result of a submission by the parties of a referral request.

Todd Larson is part of Weil’s Litigation Department and IP & Media practice group, and is based in the New York office. He focuses on a wide array of intellectual property issues faced by traditional media and new media clients, with particular expertise in copyright counseling and infringement litigation, as well as cutting edge music licensing matters, including rate-setting litigation before the ASCAP and BMI rate courts and the Copyright Royalty Board. He has tried numerous cases in his fields of expertise. Notable examples include securing major victories for clients satellite service Sirius XM and commercial music service DMX in precedent-setting music industry litigation. He is among the nation's leading experts in addressing issues posed by the advent of digital media for, among others, broadcasters, webcasters and social media.

Mark Lawford is part of Weil’s Business Finance & Restructuring Department and is based in the London office. His practice expertise includes advising insolvency office holders, insolvency litigation, debtor representations, creditor representations, cross-border insolvencies and restructurings, and out-of-court restructurings. He is currently part of the team advising the Special Administrators of MF Global UK Limited with respect to the global insolvency of MF Global, including playing a significant role with respect to a number of recent landmark milestones of the mandate, including the RTM Application, the Hindsight Application, the Shortfall Application and the Client Money Distribution Procedure. He has also been advising Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on the most significant outstanding Lehman matter in the UK market – the subordinated debt issues in the Waterfall Application.

Stacy Nettleton is part of Weil’s Securities Litigation Group and is based in the New York office. She focuses on litigation of securities, derivative, M&A, and complex business matters at the trial and appellate levels in both federal and state courts, and before arbitration panels. She has extensive experience representing clients in connection with internal investigations as well as federal, state, and foreign governmental and regulatory investigations, including investigations by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and the New York Attorney General’s Office. She represents AIG in shareholder class and derivative litigation arising from the recent financial crises.

Mark Schwed is part of Weil’s Tax, Benefits, and Executive Compensation Department and is based in the New York office. His tax practice covers a broad range of international and domestic transactions, including the structuring and negotiation of complex acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and financings on behalf of private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies as well as for public companies. He regularly advises sponsors on tax matters involved in the structuring and negotiating of complex real estate transactions, including the formation of REITs. He advised General Electric on the tax aspects of its investment in Mubadala GE Capital PJSC, a multi-billion dollar global partnership with the UAE’s Mubadala Development Company. He also provided tax advice to Thomas H. Lee Partners on its multi-billion dollar bid to recapitalize and take control of Party City from a group of private investors, and was a member of the team that represented Lehman Brothers in its acquisition, restructuring and disposition of Archstone.

Sarah Stasny is part of Weil’s Corporate Department and is based in the New York office. Her practice focuses on representing private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies in connection with acquisitions and investments, divestitures, joint ventures, financings, and restructurings. She also advises clients on general corporate and commercial matters, including securities laws, corporate governance issues and other strategic considerations. She has worked on transactions with several of the Firm’s private equity sponsor clients, including Altas Partners, American Securities, Avista Capital Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners, Snow Phipps and The Jordan Company.

Jeff White is part of Weil’s Antitrust/Competition practice group and is based in the Washington, DC office. His practice focuses on all aspects of antitrust law, including securing antitrust clearances for large M&A transactions, government investigations, antitrust litigation and general antitrust counseling. He has advised clients across a wide range of industries, including information technology and software, telecommunications, internet, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, medical devices, oil and gas, energy and power, chemicals, financial services, automotive, and retail. He is an active member of the antitrust bar. Recently, his matters have included representations of Providence Equity Partners, Applied Materials and CBS/Simon & Schuster.

Counsel

Jason Comer is part of Weil’s Corporate Department and its Real Estate practice group, and is based in the Miami office. His practice encompasses a wide range of transactional matters of all types, including general corporate matters, commercial lending transactions, company and portfolio acquisitions, private equity transactions and various real estate matters (acquisitions, development, financing, hotel and hospitality, joint ventures, and commercial leasing). Some of his recent transactions include representation of an institutional client in connection with a mortgage loan and related joint venture transactions for the renovation and redevelopment of a luxury hotel located in Miami Beach. He also recently represented a real estate private equity firm in a series of joint venture transactions throughout the United States related to portfolios of office, industrial, retail and multifamily assets.

Edouard de Lamy is part of Weil’s Tax, Benefits, and Executive Compensation Department and is based in the Paris office. His practice focuses on international and domestic taxation, in particular tax structuring of M&A and private equity transactions, as well as tax aspects of restructuring and reorganization matters. He also advises clients on personal estate and income matters. In 2012, he advised Ardian (previously AXA Private Equity) on the acquisition of the Fives Group, as well as the Paprec Group on one of the largest MBO transactions in France that year.

Elliot Ganchrow is part of Weil’s Corporate Department and its Real Estate practice group, and is based in the New York office. His practice encompasses a wide range of transactional matters of all types, including commercial lending transactions, company and portfolio acquisitions, private equity transactions, and various real estate matters (acquisitions, development, financing, hotel and hospitality, joint ventures and commercial leasing). Some of his recent transactions include representation of a leading special servicer in connection with the restructuring of a loan that was secured by multiple office buildings in Virginia, and representation of two of the largest financial institutions in connection with the origination, workout and eventual sale of a mortgage and mezzanine loan which was secured by over 100 commercial properties.

Jason Lang is part of Weil’s Litigation Department and is based in the Silicon Valley office. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and works in Weil’s Patent Litigation group, where he is involved both in patent litigation and IP counseling. His practice covers a wide spectrum of technologies, including semiconductors, networks, set-top boxes and DVRs, home automation, and telecommunication technologies. His work includes representations for such clients as Micron Technology and Cisco Systems. He routinely is involved in proceedings before district courts across the country and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Chris Lopez is part of Weil’s Business Finance & Restructuring Department and is based in the Houston office. His practice focuses on business reorganization and insolvency, and he has been involved in a number of significant chapter 11 cases, including American Airlines, WorldCom, Enron, Global Crossing, SemGroup, General Growth Properties, Express Energy Services, and International Aluminum. In addition to representing chapter 11 debtors, he has represented creditor-defendants in substantial preference/fraudulent conveyance matters and in connection with numerous contested matters and adversary proceedings.

Matthew Morton is part of Weil’s Corporate Department and is based in the Washington, DC office. His practice focuses primarily on environmental aspects of complex business transactions, including corporate mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions. He is responsible for coordinating environmental due diligence, managing environmental consultants, counseling clients regarding environmental liability and risk allocation issues, drafting and negotiating environmental contract language, obtaining environmental insurance, coordinating permit transfers, and pursuing post-closing resolution of compliance and liability issues. He also works on emerging compliance and business issues associated with climate change and environmental, social and governance principles. He currently is advising American Securities on its pending acquisition of Tekni-Plex and has just wrapped up EQT Infrastructure II’s acquisition of Synagro Technologies, a biosolids and waste management company.

Ramona Nee is part of Weil’s Corporate Department and is based in the Boston office. Her practice focuses on transactional work, including leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures, across a broad range of industries, including software, telecommunications, services and retail. She regularly represents some of the most preeminent buyout firms, including Advent International, Providence Equity Partners, Summit Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners, as well as their portfolio companies. Her recent experience also includes representing Sanofi in its acquisition of Pluromed, and previously advising Sanofi in both its joint venture with Warp Drive and its acquisition of Genzyme, as well as representing Guggenheim in its acquisition of Dick Clark Productions and representing North Bridge Growth Equity in the sale of one of its portfolio companies to Summit Partners.

David Singh is part of the Complex Commercial Litigation group and will be relocating to the Silicon Valley office. His practice focuses on various forms of complex litigation, including breach of contract, consumer fraud class actions, and product liability cases, and also on transactional risk assessment. He has represented clients in a broad range of industries, including investment banking, energy, high-performance fiber, health care, insurance and long-term care, media and entertainment, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, commercial real estate, and transportation. He has significant experience defending major US and foreign corporations in federal and state courts throughout the United States, at both the trial court and appellate levels, with a particular emphasis on complex class actions and multidistrict litigation. His significant client relationships include Exxon, Nuance, Toyobo, and he has worked for many other significant clients of the Firm, including General Electric and Lehman Brothers.

Oliver Walker is part of Weil’s Tax, Benefits, and Executive Compensation Department and is based in the London office. His practice focuses on providing tax and structuring advice in relation to private equity and M&A transactions, corporate reorganizations and syndicated debt. Oliver frequently advises a variety of key clients, including Advent International, Providence Equity, Ellerman Investments and Lion Capital. Recently, he has also advised Edwards Group plc on its IPO and subsequent takeover, the AAR Consortium (Access Industries, Alfa Group and Renova) on the sale of their stake in the Russian oil joint venture, TNK-BP, to state-owned oil company Rosneft, and eBay on its acquisition of Shutl Ltd. He is also involved in a number of cases before the English Courts, including the on-going Littlewoods case relating to compound interest on VAT claims.

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