Proskauer announced the expansion of its Bankruptcy & Restructuring Group and global Corporate Department with the addition of Geoffrey T. Raicht as a Partner in the New York office.

McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP (MLA) announced today that Peter A. Cross, a commercial litigator with more than 35 years of experience, has joined the firm as a partner in its New York office.  Cross’ practice encompasses business arbitration and mediation and entertainment and media law.

The Firm is representing ITT Corporation in connection with its spin-off of Exelis Inc., ITT’s Defense and Information Solutions business, and Xylem Inc., ITT’s Water Technology and Services business. On October 5, 2011 the ITT Board of Directors approved the distribution to its shareholders of all the outstanding shares of Exelis and Xylem. Under the approved plan, each ITT shareholder of record will receive one share of Exelis common stock and one share of Xylem common stock for each share of ITT common stock held as of the close of business on October 17, 2011. The Board also approved a 1:2 reverse stock split for ITT, which will become effective after market close on October 31, 2011, the distribution date for the spin-offs. Following the spin-offs, all three companies will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Davis Polk advised Bank of America, N.A., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners and Bank of America, N.A. as administrative agent in connection with a $780 million first lien term loan facility, a $100 million first lien revolving credit facility and a $350 million second lien credit facility provided to Providence Equity Partners in connection with its acquisition of Blackboard Inc., valued at approximately $1.64 billion in enterprise value.

Hogan Lovells announced today that it acted as legal counsel for NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the competitive energy subsidiary of long-time client NextEra Energy, Inc., on its purchase of one of the world’s largest photovoltaic solar power projects, the 550 MW Desert Sunlight Solar Farm near Desert Center, CA.

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP is pleased to announce that Andrew E. Tomback is joining the firm as a partner in its New York office. An accomplished attorney with more than 25 years of experience drawn from business, private practice, and government service, Mr. Tomback handles a full range of civil and criminal litigation before the ‎courts, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and various ‎other regulators. He focuses on litigations and investigations involving federal securities ‎laws, complex litigation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and international arbitrations. This news builds on last month’s announcement that Steven M. Cohen, who was most recently Secretary to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, joined the firm to lead the expansion and development of its New York office. Respected litigator and appellate lawyer Paul Shechtman also joined the firm earlier this week.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP today announced the addition of five bank finance and high yield partners to its existing New York acquisition finance practice.  Joining the firm will be: Ronan M. Wicks and Patrick J. Flanagan, formerly partners at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York; Bruce Czachor, formerly a partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP in New York: Julian S.H. Chung, formerly a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP in New York; and Jason D. White, head of the leveraged and high grade finance and credit restructuring practices in the Americas for the legal department of Barclays Capital.  The new partners will join Orrick’s acquisition finance practice group of which Ronan Wicks will now serve as global co-head.

The New York office of Haynes and Boone, LLP has added two partners, George Wang and Nir Yarden, as part of its strategic expansion of its corporate and capital markets practices. The combined practices of Mr. Wang and Mr. Yarden are focused on servicing the corporate and financing needs of private equity and hedge funds, prime brokers and other institutional capital market clients.

Simpson Thacher represents Almacenes Exito, the largest retailer in Colombia, with its global offering of 114,270,684 common shares, which is expected to raise approximately US$1.4 billion in gross proceeds.  The common shares were offered on the Colombian Stock Exchange on a fixed share price basis during a three week subscription period.  The common shares were registered with the Colombian Financial Superintendency and offered to the public in Colombia, and offered internationally to qualified institutional buyers in the United States as defined in Rule 144A in reliance on exemptions from registration provided by the Securities Act and to non-U.S. persons outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S.

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP is pleased to announce that Paul Shechtman is joining the firm as a partner in its New York office. Among New York’s most respected and sought-after litigators, Mr. Shechtman comes to Zuckerman Spaeder with more than 30 years of experience drawn ‎from private practice and government service, which included serving as the Director of Criminal Justice under New York Gov. George E. Pataki. He has been recognized for his appellate and white collar work, and he will continue to build those practices at Zuckerman Spaeder. Mr. Shechtman’s arrival follows last month’s announcement that Steven M. Cohen, who was most recently Secretary to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, joined the firm to lead the expansion and development of its New York office.