Allen & Overy today announced the appointment of Tony Sparks as partner in the corporate practice, further strengthening its Equity Capital Markets (ECM) and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) offering in Australia.

The Federal Circuit issued a landmark patent decision yesterday, affirming the Northern District of California’s grant of Greenberg Traurig client Retail Decisions, Inc.’s (“ReD”) motion for summary judgment in its long-standing litigation with CyberSource Corp. The patent relates to processes for detecting fraud in credit card transactions. CyberSource had alleged that the innovative ReD Shield fraud detection product offered by ReD infringed the ‘154 patent.

The global partnership of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has enthusiastically approved the proposed combination with Minter Ellison Perth, placing Squire Sanders among the world’s top 20 legal practices. Partners at the firm in Western Australia voted earlier this month to join Squire Sanders’ global legal practice. The combination will take effect by October.

Time Warner Cable Inc. has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Insight Communications Co. for $3 billion in cash in its biggest acquisition since the 2009 spinoff from Time Warner Inc. The deal, reported in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, joins two of the ten largest U.S. cable operators by subscribers, and is expected to result in cost savings of about $100 million through programming expense savings and other cost reductions. Insight Communications is owned by the Carlyle Group, MidOcean Partners and Crestview Partners.

SandRidge Permian Trust recently announced the closing of its initial public offering of 34.5 million common units of beneficial interest at a price of $18 per unit.  Net proceeds of the offering, before expenses, were approximately $584 million.  The common units sold in the offering represent a 66 percent beneficial interest in the trust.  Covington & Burling served as counsel to SandRidge Energy, Inc., the trust’s sponsor, in the transaction.

SNR Denton announced today it has successfully advised Lightsource Renewable Energy Limited (Lightsource) in its acquisition and development of eleven of the largest solar PV panel installations in the UK. Lightsource was funded by Octopus Investments.

International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised private equity firm Permira on Cargill’s EUR 1.5 billion offer to acquire Provimi, a world leader in animal nutrition. Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services.

The Firm represented Goldman, Sachs & Co. as the sole underwriter in the public offering of $2 billion of debt securities of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (“Berkshire”), consisting of $750,000,000 of 2.20% Senior Notes due 2016, $500,000,000 of 3.75% Senior Notes due 2021 and $750,000,000 of Floating Rate Senior Notes due 2014.

In August of 2011, the international restructuring of the debt portfolio for Donetsksteel, a well-known Ukrainian finance and industrial group, for USD 820 million was successfully completed. More than 35 international and Ukrainian banks were among the group’s creditors.