Brown Rudnick LLP, an Am Law 200 law firm with offices in the US and Europe, announced today that leading antitrust attorneys Helene D. Jaffe and Alan R. Kusinitz have joined the Firm’s New York office as partners. Both Ms. Jaffe and Mr. Kusinitz join the Firm from Proskauer Rose where Ms. Jaffe was head of the Antitrust practice group. Prior to that, Ms. Jaffe served as co-head of the Antitrust Group at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

With the addition of Ms. Jaffe and Mr. Kusinitz, Brown Rudnick will be introducing its new Antitrust practice. The Antitrust practice will be led by Ms. Jaffe and will be an important complement to the Firm’s existing corporate, healthcare, life sciences and white collar practices. More >>

Signet Jewelers Limited, the largest specialty retail jeweler in the U.S. and the UK, and Zale Corporation, a leading specialty retailer of fine jewelry in North America, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Signet to acquire all of the issued and outstanding stock of Zale for $21.00 per share in cash consideration, representing an enterprise value of approximately US$1.4 billion. Cravath represented Zale in connection with this transaction, which is subject to Zale stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. More >>

International law firm McDermott Will & Emery today announced that prominent trial attorney Andrew E. Tomback has joined the Firm as a partner in its White-Collar & Securities Defense Practice Group, based in New York. More >>

On April 30, 2015, Crown Castle International Corp. (“Crown Castle”) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Quanta Fiber Networks Inc. (“Sunesys”) for approximately $1 billion in cash, subject to certain limited adjustments. Cravath represented Crown Castle in connection with this transaction, which is expected to close by the end of 2015, subject to customary closing conditions. More >>

Reed Smith LLP today announced that Sahra Dalfen has joined the firm’s Corporate Transactional Advisory Group (CTAG) and Jody Saltzman has joined its Real Estate Group. The two have worked together for many years and are joining Reed Smith from Crowell & Moring in New York.

“Sahra brings to Reed Smith strong experience representing companies in complex domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, as well as strategic joint ventures,” said John Martini, Practice Group Leader of CTAG. “We expect that Sahra’s practice will be a welcome complement to our already substantial flow of transactional work to and from Europe and Asia.” More >>

Sidley Austin LLP announced today that Ellen M. Dunn has joined its Insurance practice as a partner in the firm’s New York office. She brings to this role more than 20 years of experience serving clients in the insurance industry in litigation, regulatory investigations and counseling, administrative hearings, and compliance. More >>