Holland & Knight today announced that Stuart M. Saft, a prolific real estate attorney with over four decades of industry experience, has joined the law firm as partner and co-chair of its New York Real Estate Practice Group. He comes to Holland & Knight from Dewey & LeBoeuf, where he was partner and chair of Dewey’s Global Real Estate Practice. Mr. Saft will utilize his unparalleled experience and strong relationships to expand Holland & Knight’s real estate practice in a range of activities including major acquisitions, deal structuring, financing, leasing, development, condominium conversions and workouts.

Morgan Lewis today announced the addition of a team of lawyers, led by Marshall Stoddard—formerly the head of the bank and institutional finance practice at another AmLaw 100 firm—to its Business and Finance Practice, resident in the firm’s New York and Los Angeles offices. Mr. Stoddard will serve as a new co-chair of the firm’s Finance practice. He is a transactional lawyer and corporate advisor focusing his practice on commercial, banking, and bankruptcy law across a wide range of industries, including technology, entertainment, government contractors, media, transportation, and agriculture.

Chadbourne & Parke represented a 50-50 joint venture between Duke Energy Renewables (a unit of Duke Energy) and Sumitomo Corp. of America (the U.S. subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp.) as the developers in connection with approximately $353 million in financing for two wind farms in Kansas.

Davis Polk advised underwriters represented by CIBC World Markets Corp., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. in connection with the offering of $1.25 billion aggregate principal amount of 1.20% bonds due 2017 and $250 million aggregate principal amount of 2.65% bonds due 2021, issued by the Province of British Columbia.

Shearman & Sterling represented Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc. as representatives of the several underwriters in connection with Lowe’s Companies, Inc.’s public offering of $500 million of its 1.625% Notes due 2017, $750 million of its 3.120% Notes due 2022 and $750 million of its 4.650% Notes due 2042. Lowe’s is the second largest home improvement retailer in the world.

Shearman & Sterling represented the underwriters led by Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities, Inc. in connection with the public offering of $750,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.625% Senior Notes due 2022 of Omnicom Group Inc. and its two wholly owned finance subsidiaries, Omnicom Capital Inc. and Omnicom Finance Inc.

The Firm is representing an investment vehicle affiliated with KKR & Co, L.P. in connection with its announced sale to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. of its 50 percent interest in El Paso Midstream Investment Company L.L.C., a joint venture owning the Altamont gathering, processing, and treating assets and the Camino Real Gathering System, for $300 million in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. common units. El Paso Corporation owns the other 50 percent of the joint venture. The parties anticipate that the transaction will close subsequent to the completion of Kinder Morgan, Inc.’s acquisition of El Paso, which is expected to occur by the end of May.

Mayer Brown, a leading global law firm, announced today that Richard B. (Ricky) Spitzer has joined the firm in New York as a partner in the Insurance Finance Group and the Banking & Finance practice. Previously, he was a partner in the corporate finance practice at Dewey & LeBoeuf.

Mayer Brown, a leading global law firm, announced that Stephen G. Rooney has joined the firm in New York as a partner and co-leader of the Insurance Finance Group. He also is a member of the firm’s Banking & Finance practice. For more than 20 years, he was a partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf in their corporate insurance practice and served as the global chair of the firm’s Structured Finance Practice Group.

N. Adele Hogan has joined the New York office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP in the firm’s Corporate practice group.  Hogan joins from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York.