Mayer Brown, a leading global law firm, announced today that G. Richard Dodge, Jr., has joined the firm as a partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice and Insurance Industry Group in Washington, DC. Previously, he was a partner with Dewey & LeBoeuf.

Littler Mendelson, P.C. (Littler), the nation’s largest employment and labor law firm representing management, has added two new shareholders to its Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. offices.  Michael McIntosh joins in Tysons Corner and William Allen will reside in the Washington, D.C. office. The addition of McIntosh and Allen follows the recent arrival of Joshua Waxman, who joined as a shareholder in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.  All three are former attorneys at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. They bring extensive class action litigation experience to the firm.

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised the State of Qatar (SOQ) on the largest deal of its kind in the Gulf region this year, a US$5 billion sovereign bond offering, including five, 10 and 30 year tranches. This was the State’s first bond offering in two years.

Global law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges advised ITI Media Group Limited and TVN S.A. on their agreement with French entertainment company Vivendi to combine their pay-TV operations in Poland. The joint venture, to be called “n/C+”, will be made up of TVN’s subsidiary Platforma “n” and Vivendi’s Canal Plus Cyfrowy Sp Zoo. Vivendi’s pay-TV subsidiary Canal Plus (Canal+) will hold a 51% stake in n/C+, which has been valued at 5.94 billion zlotys ($1.7 billion). As part of the transaction, Canal+ also agreed to acquire a minority stake in TVN from ITI with the option to gain control commencing three years after the closing of the transaction.

International law firm Eversheds has welcomed Mayer Brown’s Andrew Legg as a partner in its London Financial Service Dispute Resolution (FSDR) team.

Mallesons Stephen Jaques, a leading law firm in the Asia Pacific region, has acted on behalf of Merlin Entertainments Group, the world’s second largest visitor attraction operator, on its takeover bid for Living and Leisure Australia Group (LLA).