DLA Piper announced today that Kathryn Keneally is joining the firm’s global Tax practice as chair of its Civil and Criminal Tax Litigation group. She arrives in October as partner in the New York office.

Recognized as a national leader in the tax and criminal defense bar, Keneally served as Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division of the US Department of Justice from 2012–2014, where she was responsible for the work of over 350 attorneys. During her tenure, she developed a groundbreaking program to redress past wrongdoing by foreign banks, and she worked closely with federal and state regulators on a precedent-setting prosecution of a large financial institution. She also developed and implemented a comprehensive approach to civil and criminal tax enforcement. Attorney General Eric G. Holder recognized her achievements by awarding her the Edmund J. Randolph Award for outstanding service to the Department of Justice and the nation, the highest honor that the Attorney General may award to a department employee. More >>

Hunton & Williams LLP advised RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, as joint book-running managers, on an SEC-registered offering by Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. of $250 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2034. More >>

Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that it represented Citigroup and Credit Suisse as initial purchasers in a new $150 million issuance of senior secured bonds in connection with a financing for Mexican telecommunications company Axtel, S.A.B. de C.V. The new financing of senior secured bonds was issued as a reopening of Axtel’s Senior Secured Notes due 2020, which are step-up notes that currently have a coupon of 8% that will rise to 9% on January 31, 2015. In June 2014, the company conducted a consent solicitation of the existing holders of Senior Secured Notes due 2020 to allow this new issuance and additional secured debt to be secured by the same collateral securing the existing Senior Secured Notes due 2020, and Paul Hastings represented Citigroup and Credit Suisse as solicitation agents in that successful consent solicitation. More >>

Kirkland & Ellis LLP advises The TriZetto Corporation, a provider of world-class healthcare information technology and service solutions owned by Apax Partners, which announced today that it has agreed to sell its majority ownership stake of TriZetto to Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. for $2.7 billion in cash. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2014. The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Leo Greenberg and Srinivas Kaushik and associate John Kupiec, and included tax partners Patrick Gallagher and Sara Zablotney, and tax and corporate associates Vin Thorn, Solomon Eskinazi and Laura Brockelman. More >>

Simpson Thacher is representing TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. (NYSE: TRW) in connection with its proposed sale to ZF Friedrichshafen AG (“ZF”). Under the terms of the transaction, ZF will acquire all of the outstanding shares of TRW for $105.60 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $13.5 billion on an enterprise value basis. The transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2015, is subject to stockholder and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. More >>

A Weil team led by New York partner Danek Freeman advised Citi in connection with providing committed debt financing for FMC Corp.’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Cheminova A/S, a multinational crop protection company based in Denmark, from Auriga Industries A/S. More >>

Cahill represented J.P. Morgan Securities as lead book-running manager and the other book-runners in connection with the Rule 144A offering of $600,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.7% Senior Notes due 2024 and $600,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 4.75% Senior Notes due 2044, by 21st Century Fox America, Inc., a subsidiary of Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. Proceeds were used for general corporate purposes. More >>

Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that the firm represented RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC as joint bookrunning managers in connection with the offering of $300 million principal amount of 6.125% senior notes due 2023 by Sanchez Energy Corporation, an independent exploration and production company focused on the acquisition and development of unconventional oil resources in the onshore U.S. Gulf Coast. More >>