Pillsbury Bolsters West Coast Insolvency & Restructuring Practice

Pillsbury today announced Cecily Dumas, a highly regarded bankruptcy lawyer who also handles commercial transactions and litigation, is joining the firm’s Insolvency & Restructuring practice as a partner in the San Francisco office.

Dumas is well known in the Bay Area and beyond for her representation of high-profile clients and bankruptcy trustees, as well as her frequent presentations on the latest developments in insolvency and restructuring. She has more than 25 years’ experience in bankruptcy and commercial law, most recently as lead name partner of her own firm, Dumas & Clark LLP. More >>

Tags:  Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP | San Francisco

Environmental, Life Sciences Authority To Rejoin Pillsbury

Pillsbury today announced the return of former partner Andrew Strong to the firm’s office in Houston, effective March 23, 2015. During Strong’s previous tenure with Pillsbury, he worked closely with many of the firm’s major energy clients on environmental issues and crisis prevention and response.

Strong left the firm in 2009, when he was selected by the Texas A&M System’s Board of Regents as its General Counsel and System Compliance Officer. As the chief legal officer, Strong was responsible for all legal matters over a $3.6 billion-per-year network that employs more than 45,000 people across more than 100 facilities, including 11 universities, seven state agencies and a health science center. More >>

Tags:  Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP | Houston

Winston & Strawn Expands its Leveraged Finance Practice in New York

Winston & Strawn LLP is pleased to announce that four finance and securities attorneys have joined the firm’s New York office from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

The latest group to join Winston includes leveraged finance attorney Mats Carlston, who will serve as Winston’s co-chair of global finance. He has more than 20 years of experience and represents lead arrangers, agents, lenders, investors, and borrowers in domestic and cross-border financings, with an emphasis on leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations of private equity-sponsored enterprises. More >>

Tags:  Winston & Strawn LLP | New York

Hogan Lovells Advises Optimal Payments Plc on €1.1 Billion Transformational Skrill Acquisition

Hogan Lovells has advised Optimal Payments Plc on the €1.1 billion acquisition of Sentinel Topco Limited and its subsidiaries (Skrill Group) from Sentinel Group Holdings S.A, which is ultimately majority owned by funds managed and advised by CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS S.A. and Investcorp Technology Partners. The transformational transaction, announced today, will in part be funded by a fully underwritten rights issue raising gross proceeds of approximately £451 million and new debt facilities of €500 million. More >>

Tags:  Hogan Lovells | London

Dentons Advises Sumitomo Chemical on the US$8 Billion Petro Rabigh and Petrochemical Complex Expansion

Dentons advised Sumitomo Chemical on its participation in the expansion of the refining and petrochemical complex owned and operated by Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh). Sumitomo Chemical is a founding shareholder of, Petro Rabigh together with Saudi Aramco. The expansion project reached financial close on 16 March 2015 and the total project cost is estimated at US$8 billion. Sumitomo Chemical’s participation will initially take the form of a US$1 billion equity bridge loan guaranteed by Sumitomo Chemical, alongside a similar loan guaranteed by Saudi Aramco. More >>

Tags:  Dentons | Dubai

Canada $3.5 Billion Global Bond Offering

Davis Polk advised the underwriters in connection with the offering of $3.5 billion aggregate principal amount of 1.125% U.S. dollar bonds due March 19, 2018, issued by Her Majesty in right of Canada. More >>

Tags:  New York

HCP Announces $849 Million Acquisition of Private Pay Senior Housing Portfolio

Paul, Weiss client HCP, Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire from Chartwell Retirement Residences a portfolio of private pay senior housing communities for $849 million. The portfolio will be acquired using a RIDEA joint venture structure formed by HCP in which Brookdale Senior Living will own a 10 percent interest. More >>

Tags:  New York

McDermott Adds One of Nation’s Top Private Client Lawyers

International law firm McDermott Will & Emery today announced that Leigh-Alexandra Basha, one of the nation’s most prominent private client lawyers, has joined the Firm as a partner based in Washington, D.C. in the Private Client Practice Group. With the addition of Ms. Basha, the Firm will establish a Private Client practice in the nation’s capital with Ms. Basha as the head of the practice in that office. Ms. Basha formerly chaired Holland & Knight’s International Private Client Practice for the past decade. She was recently elected to Council of the International Bar Association’s Legal Practice Division and is past Chair of the IBA’s Individual Tax and Private Client Committee. More >>

Tags:  McDermott Will & Emery LLP | Washington