Hogan Lovells is strengthening its disputes practice in Paris with the hire of financial litigation partner, Julien Martinet, who joins from leading French firm Jeantet with a team of five lawyers.

Julien is a financial services litigation specialist and has worked with the major French banks over several years with a focus on defending financial institutions from claims relating to their various activities including enforcement and collective and criminal proceedings.

Michael Davison, Head of the Litigation, Arbitration and Employment Practice Group, said:

Reed Smith LLP today announced a significant addition to its Financial Industry Group (FIG) in Paris with the appointment of project, asset and export finance partner Victoria Westcott. Victoria joins the firm from White & Case, where she was a partner in the project finance team for more than ten years and the head of asset finance practice in Paris. She will be joined shortly by a team of three attorneys: Florent Rigaud (counsel), Elaine Porter (senior associate) and Abdullahi Mohammed (mid-level associate).

International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP announced today that Matthew Stewart has joined the Firm as a partner. He is part of Weil’s global Private Equity practice and is based in the Firm’s Silicon Valley office.

Matthew has an exceptional reputation in the private equity space, said Weil Executive Partner Barry Wolf. He executes complex, high-stakes transactions across diverse sectors, and he will be an invaluable addition to our premier global Private Equity platform and to our strong team in Silicon Valley. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Firm.

Winston & Strawn LLP is pleased to announce Jeffrey Dobosh has returned to the firm as a partner in the Chicago office. Jeff is a corporate lawyer focusing on private equity, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, incentive equity matters, and general corporate counseling. He was previously with Winston for more than 10 years, most recently serving as Executive Vice President & General Counsel for Winston client MacLean-Fogg Company.

Corporate lawyer Kevin Friedmann has joined the Los Angeles office of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP as a shareholder in the firm’s Corporate Practice, which comprises more than 450 lawyers over the firm’s 38 offices.

Clifford Chance has strengthened its Global Corporate practice, with the appointment of Jaime Almenar as a partner in the Public Law team in the firm's Madrid office, led by Juan José Lavilla.

Jaime Almenar brings significant public law experience.  Prior joining Clifford Chance, Jaime led the Public Law and Regulated Sectors department at CMS Albiñana Suarez de Lezo, having previously been at Uría Menendez in Valencia.

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Nordea Bank AB, Citibank, N.A., London Branch and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, as Original Lenders, on the SEK 11 billion (US$1.3 billion) term facility agreement to Tele2 AB.

Tele2 is a NASDAQ Stockholm-listed telecoms operator and the transaction will finance part of its merger with NASDAQ Stockholm-listed TV cable company Com Hem Holding AB, which values Com Hem at around SEK 26.6 billion (US$3.2 billion).

With a team led by Dr. Pär Johansson, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advised Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH (Haniel) on the acquisition of Optimar, a leading provider of automated fish processing systems. Norwegian financial investors Credo Partners and the company's management are the sellers. The current management team led by CEO Håvard Sætre will continue to run Optimar as part of Haniel group. With this acquisition, Haniel is further expanding its portfolio in an innovative business area.
 

Paris office represents Schmolz + Bickenbach in its successful bid to take over Asco Industries.

On January 29, the Strasbourg regional court (Tribunal de Grande Instance) announced that Schmolz + Bickenbach had been selected as buyer of a substantial part of the assets of Asco Industries as part of reorganization proceedings opened on November 22, 2017.

Schulte advised Endicott Management Company, a leading New York City investment firm primarily focused on equity investments in banks, in the strategic investment in Bank Leumi le-Israel Corporation, a U.S. bank holding company. The investment, which involves Bank Leumi le-Israel B.M.'s  sale of the shares it holds in Bank Leumi le-Israel, is being led by Endicott and includes MSD Capital LP, and totals a 15 percent stake in Bank Leumi le-Israel. The 15 percent is valued at approximately $141 million.