Holland & Knight is currently representing the Jicarilla Apache Nation before the U.S. Supreme Court in a high-profile breach of trust case against the United States. The main issue is whether the federal government can claim “attorney-client privilege” to withhold from an Indian tribe information regarding the government’s administration of money that it holds in trust for the tribe.

Herbert Smith has advised a new FTSE-listed client, Cineworld Group plc (Cineworld) on its recently concluded £170 million sterling term and multicurrency revolving facilities agreement.

International law firm Clifford Chance advised Sanoma on the acquisition of the SBS free-to-air TV assets in the Netherlands and Belgium from ProSiebenSat.1 together with a strong consortium of local partners.

The merger announced today, will see Yorkshire Building Society, the UK’s second largest building society with assets exceeding £30bn join forces with N&P, the UK’s ninth largest society with assets of £3.7bn. The proposed merger will create an enlarged Society with three million members and 224 branches and is expected to complete on 1 November 2011.

Davis Polk advised two DLJ South American Partners investment funds in connection with the sale of a total of 16,561,498 Class A shares of Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc., for approximately US$281 million, in an SEC-registered initial public offering. The selling shareholders also included Capital International Private Equity Fund V, L.P. and Gavea Investment AD, L.P.

Baker & McKenzie recently advised eBay, the world’s leading e-commerce company and the world’s largest online marketplace, on its acquisition of an approximately 20 percent stake in PeaceSoft, a Vietnamese e-commerce company.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP advised Sumitomo Corporation of America (SCOA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corporation, in its approximately $200 million investment in Caithness Shepherds Flat, LLC, announced today. Caithness Shepherds Flat is the owner of the 845 megawatt Shepherds Flat wind project, which when completed in 2012 will be the largest wind project in the world.

Law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has advised long-standing client Balfour Beatty on the disposal of its UK  rail manufacturing business to Progress Rail Services UK Limited, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. The deal is due to complete in early May 2011.

Davis Polk advised Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. in connection with its SEC-registered initial public offering of 84,506,788 Class A shares for an aggregate price to the public of approximately US$1.4 billion. Arcos Dorados sold 9,529,412 Class A shares and certain selling shareholders sold 74,977,376 Class A shares, including 11,022,624 Class A shares sold to the underwriters pursuant to an over-allotment option. BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Itau BBA and Citi acted as joint bookrunners for the offering. Arcos Dorados’ Class A shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ARCO.” 

The Firm represented PPL Corporation (“PPL”) in its concurrent offerings of an aggregate of $3.3 billion consisting of 92 million shares of common stock and 19.55 million equity units, each including the full exercise of the underwriters’ over-allotment option.