The American Lawyer Chooses 2014 Global Legal Award Winners

Transcription

1 NOT FOR REPRINT Click to Print or Select 'Print' in your browser menu to print this document. Page printed from: The American Lawyer The American Lawyer Chooses 2014 Global Legal Award Winners Michael D. Goldhaber, The Am Law Daily July 10, 2014 The American Lawyer on Thursday unveiled the 36 winners of its second annual Global Legal Awards. Four grand prizewinners in Global M&A, Global Finance, Global Disputes and Global Citizenship will be announced at the awards dinner on Sept. 15 at Gotham Hall in New York City. The 2014 Global Legal Awards aim to honor all law offices including in-house departments that played a substantial role in the most distinguished cross-border work performed between Jan. 1, 2013, and April 14, 2014, across a wide range of disciplines. Among the winning matters are five disputes, eight pro bono or corporate social responsibility projects, 10 financial transactions, and 13 corporate deals with targets ranging from Thai convenience stores to Mexican satellites in outer space. The honored disputes include a pair of influential victories over Argentina in U.S. court. In BG Group v. Argentina, the BG Group plc, counseled by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, reinstated a large investment arbitration award, and broadly reaffirmed the principle of deference to arbitrators by U.S. judges. In NML v. Argentina, a coalition of distressed debt funds led by Elliott Management and its longtime counsel Dechert, has upended sovereign restructuring through a bold reinterpretation of a standard bond clause. However for lack of worthy nominees the judges skipped the awards for internal investigations and supranational disputes. Alert law firms may wish to step into the breach next year. Among the highlights of the Global Citizenship category are Sullivan & Cromwell's revival of the U.S. right to counsel for immigrants with mental disabilities, and Orrick, Sutcliffe & Herrington's advice on the rule of law to Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. This year's "lifetime achievement" pro bono award goes to Hogan Lovells and the International Senior Lawyers Project for their long-term collaboration to promote equitable economic development in West Africa. The Finance category is anchored by a quartet of insolvency matters from around the world. These include the first Chapter 11 restructuring of a shari'ah compliant entity, with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher advising Arcapita Bank; and the first Chapter 15 recognition of a Japanese reorganization plan, with Davis Polk & Wardwell counseling the trustee for Elpida Memory Inc. Also 1/6

2 honored under the rubric of Finance are the world's two largest IPOs of 2013: the $5.7 billion offering of Brazil's BB Seguridade Participações and the $4.5 billion offering of China Merchant Bank. Seven of the 13 corporate winners have an Asian connection (if one counts outbound deals sometimes categorized elsewhere). The recent tastes of Chinese buyers have ranged from Viriginian pork to Peruvian copper. Meanwhile, private equity deals garnered three global M&A awards, up from one last year. The $3.7 billion buyout of Focus Media Holding Ltd. combined both trends, as private equity investors and the CEO took private a company that displays advertising in elevator banks, supermarkets and other Chinese public spaces. The Global Legal Awards were again hotly contested, with 66 law firms submitting more than 270 nominations, including more than 170 transactions. Linklaters led the pack with a hand in six winning matters, followed by a dozen law firms with three or four matters on the honor roll published below. Here is the list of winners. The American Lawyer Global Legal Awards, 2014 FINANCE Global Finance Deal of the Year: Project Finance (Europe) Winner: Intercity Express Programme Honorees: DLA Piper; Shoosmiths; Ashurst; Brodies; Clifford Chance; Addleshaw Goddard; Maclay Murray & Spens; Hogan Lovells; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Global Finance Deal of the Year: Project Finance (Asia) Winner: Surgil Project Financing Honorees: Vinson & Elkins; Leges Advokat; Cheong Kee Fong & Co.; Shin & Kim; Norton Rose Fulbright; Colibri Law; Zaid Ibrahim & Co.; Kim & Chang; Uz-Kor Gas Chemical Global Finance Deal of the Year: Capital Markets (worldwide) Winner: Trade MAPS program Honorees: Linklaters; Allen & Gledhill; Matheson; Lennox Paton; Maples & Calder; Hassan Radhi & Associates; Mayer Brown; Citigroup Inc.; Banco Santander S.A. Global Finance Deal of the Year: Capital Markets (Latin America) Winner: BB Seguridade IPO Honorees: Lefosse Advogados; Bocater, Camargo, Costa e Silva Advogados; Clifford Chance; Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados; Davis Polk & Wardwell; BB Seguridade Global Finance Deal of the Year: Capital Markets (Asia) Winner: China Merchants Bank rights issue Honorees: Sullivan & Cromwell; Herbert Smith Freehills; Jun He Law Offices; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Commerce & Finance Law Offices; China Merchants Bank 2/6

3 Global Finance Deal of the Year: Acquisition Finance Winner: Numericable s acquisition of SFR Honorees: Ropes & Gray; Franklin Law Firm; Latham & Watkins; Altice S.A.; Allen & Overy Global Finance Deal of the Year: Restructuring and Insolvency (Europe) Winner: Restructuring of Central European Distribution Corporation Honorees: Latham & Watkins; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; White & Case; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; A1 Investment Company Global Finance Deal of the Year: Restructuring and Insolvency (Middle East) Winner: Restructuring of Arcapita Bank Honorees: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Arcapita Bank; Mourant Ozannes; Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, Attorneys at Law & Legal Consultants; Dechert; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Latham & Watkins; Kirkland & Ellis; Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Global Finance Deal of the Year: Restructuring and Insolvency (Asia) Winner: Reorganization of Elpida Memory Honorees: Davis Polk & Wardwell; Richards Layton & Finger; Elpida Memory Inc.; Nobuaki Kobayashi; Oh-Ebashi LPC & Partners; Nagashima Ohno & Tsnunematsu; Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; Mori Hamada & Matsumoto; Landis Rath & Cobb Global Finance Deal of the Year: Restructuring and Insolvency (U.K.) Winner: Restructuring of hibu Honorees: Linklaters; Herbert Smith; The Alcentra Group; Kirkland & Ellis Global Finance Deal of the Year: Grand Prize DISPUTES Global Dispute of the Year: Commercial Arbitration Winner: Swatch v. Tiffany Honorees: The Swatch Group S.A.; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Global Dispute of the Year: Investment Arbitration Winner: BG v. Argentina Honorees: BG Group plc; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Goldstein & Russell Global Dispute of the Year: U.K. Litigation Winner: The Ablayazov Fraud Honorees: Hogan Lovells; BTA Bank; Erskine Chambers Global Dispute of the Year: U.S. Fraud Litigation Winner: Chevron v. Donziger Honorees: Chevron Corporation; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Covington & Burling; Rivero Mestre 3/6

4 Global Dispute of the Year: U.S. Financial Litigation Winner: Argentine Bonds Honorees: Elliott Management; Dechert; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Aurelius Capital Management; Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman; Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber; Olifant Financial Group; Goodwin Procter; Milberg Global Dispute of the Year: Grand Prize MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Global M&A Deal of the Year: U.S. Winner: Verizon Wireless Deal Honorees: Verizon Communications Inc.; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Debevoise & Plimpton; Macfarlanes; Jones Day; Vodafone Group plc; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Slaughter and May; De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek; Hogan Lovells Global M&A Deal of the Year: Canada Winner: Acquisition of Neiman Marcus Honorees: Ares Management; Canada Pension Plan Investment Board; Proskauer Rose; Latham & Watkins; Torys; TPG Capital; Warburg Pincus; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Global M&A Deal of the Year: Europe/Ireland Winner: Perrigo/Elan Honorees: Perrigo Co.; Sullivan & Cromwell; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Dillon Eustace; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; A&L Goodbody Global M&A Deal of the Year: Europe/Germany Winner: Acquisition of Grohe A.G. Honorees: LIXIL Corp.; Development Bank of Japan; Linklaters; TPG Capital; Credit Suisse Private Equity; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Clifford Chance; Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Global M&A Deal of the Year: Europe/Finland Winner: Microsoft/Nokia Honorees: Microsoft Corp.; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; Covington & Burling; Hannes Snellman; Linklaters; Nokia Oyj; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Roschier; Cooley Global M&A Deal of the Year: Africa Winner: OVL/Rovuma Honorees: ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL); Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shrof & Co.; SCAN Advogados e Consultores; Maples and Calder; Appleby; Harneys; Simmons & Simmons; PLMJ Sociedade de Advogados; Gabinete Legal Moçambique Advogados; Conyers Dill & Pearman Global M&A Deal of the Year: Japan Inbound Winner: Applied Materials/Tokyo Electron Honorees: Applied Materials Inc.; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Mori, Hamada & Matsumoto; De 4/6

5 Brauw Blackstone Westbroek; Tokyo Electron Ltd.; Jones Day; Nishimura & Asahi Global M&A Deal of the Year: Japan Outbound Winner: Suntory/Beam Honorees: Suntory Holdings Ltd.; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Jim Beam Inc.; Sidley Austin Global M&A Deal of the Year: China Outbound Winner: Shuanghui/Smithfield Honorees: Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.; Paul Hastings; Troutman Sanders; Smithfield Foods Inc.; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; McGuireWoods; Fangda Partners Global M&A Deal of the Year: China Private Equity Winner: Focus Media Buyout Honorees: The Carlyle Group; CITIC Capital Partners; CDH Investments; China Everbright Limited; FountainVest Partners; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Sullivan & Cromwell; Zhong Lun Law Firm; Conyers Dill & Pearman; Jason Nanchun; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Focus Media Holding Ltd.; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; Kirkland & Ellis; Maples and Calder; Fangda Partners; Morrison & Foerster; Ropes & Gray Global M&A Deal of the Year: Asia/Thailand Winner: Acquisition of Siam Makro Honorees: CP All PC; Baker & McKenzie; Allen & Overy; SHV Netherland BV; Clifford Chance; Hunton & Williams Global M&A Deal of the Year: Latin America/Mexico Winner: Eutelsat/Satelites Mexicanos Honorees: Eutelsat Communications; Debevoise & Plimpton; Mijares, Angoitia, Cortes y Fuentes; Ropes & Gray; Greenberg Traurig; Cervantes Sainz Global M&A Deal of the Year: Latin America/Peru Winner: The Las Bambas Copper Deal Honorees: China Minmetals Corp.; White & Case; Dentons; Rodrigo Elias & Medrano; Glencore plc; Grau Abogados; Linklaters Global M&A Deal of the Year: Grand prize GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP Global CSR Initiative of the Year Winner: The K&L Gates Global Day of Service Honoree: K&L Gates Global Pro Bono Dispute of the Year Winner: Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder Honoree: Sullivan & Cromwell 5/6

6 Global Pro Bono Project of the Year (Asia) Winner: Rule of Law Advice to Aung San Suu Kyi Honoree: Orrick, Sutcliffe & Herrington Global Pro Bono Project of the Year (Africa) Winner: The Liberia Case Index Project Honoree: Linklaters Global Pro Bono Deal Program of the Year (Social Enterprise) Winner: Funding Startups through The Eleos Foundation Honoree: Dechert Global Pro Bono Deals of the Year (Environmental) Cowinner: Cambodian Carbon Credits Honoree: Dentons Cowinner: Climate Adaptation Swaps in Small Island Nations Honoree: Ropes & Gray The American Lawyer Global Citizenship Award: Lifetime Achievement Winners: Hogan Lovells and the International Senior Lawyers Project The American Lawyer Global Citizenship Award (Grand Prize) Note: In some cases, honorees may be added after further reporting. Copyright ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. 6/6