Akerman  LLP, a leading law firm serving clients across the Americas, today announced that it has expanded its Litigation Practice Group with the addition of white collar defense lawyer and former Associate White House Counsel, Christopher Oprison. He joins the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C. and Miami, Florida offices from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Katten Muchin Rosenman UK LLP announced today that corporate and commercial law attorney Philip Watkins will join Katten’s Corporate practice together with a team of associates. The group follows the recent hires of hospitality and leisure specialist Robert Asher, and leading hedge fund and private equity attorney Barry Breen, who both joined Katten late last year.

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Dentons Kyiv acted as Ukrainian legal counsel to Black Sea Trade and Development Bank in connection with the committed trade finance facility to Public Joint-Stock Company “Bank Vostok”.

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Simpson Thacher represented the underwriters, led by Barclays, J.P. Morgan and RBS, in connection with a registered public offering by Mondelez International, Inc. (f/k/a Kraft Foods Inc.) of $400 million of its Floating Rate Notes due 2019, $850 million of its 2.250% Notes due 2019 and $1.75 billion of its 4.000% Notes due 2024, amounting to $3 billion of new notes. The offering closed on January 16, 2014.

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On January 15, it was announced that Brown & Brown, Inc. has entered into a merger agreement to acquire Willkie client The Wright Insurance Group, LLC for $602.5 million. Wright’s principal owner is Aquiline Capital Partners. The deal is expected to bring to Brown & Brown a substantial presence in the national flood insurance program (NFIP) and a premier service provider for government-sponsored insurance programs and proprietary national and regional programs.

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International law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, acted as counsel to Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley in connection with their respective senior secured financing commitments and the subsequent definitive bank financing documentation for the acquisition by Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic of a 50 percent stake in a holding company that integrated Santander’s Asset Management businesses.  The remaining 50 percent continues to be owned by Banco Santander.

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O’Melveny & Myers LLP represented Exar Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance analog mixed-signal and data management solutions, in its acquisition of Stretch, Inc., which provides software configurable processors supporting the video surveillance market. The transaction closed on January 14, 2014. More >>