The Legal 500

Within Bank lending (including other sources of financing), Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a second tier firm,

Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s team is regarded by clients as a ‘cut above the competition’ and has an enviable reputation in the high yield bond sector. Mandates of note included representing Banc of America Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding as lead arrangers in a $3bn senior secured term loan facility for CIT Group; and acting for the joint bookrunners and initial lenders (Citibank and others) in the $5.5bn bridge credit facility to part finance Kraft’s acquisition of Cadbury. The firm also represented the financing sources, in transactions totalling nearly a billion dollars, to fund the $1.42bn buyout of Associated Materials, by affiliates of Hellman & Friedman; JPMorgan Chase as administrative agent on a new $1.13bn senior credit facility for Lamar Media Corp, including two loans and a revolving credit facility; and the debt financing sources in a $5bn (with assumed debt) acquisition of Tomkins, one of the most substantial LBOs of 2010. William Hartnett is ‘among the most accomplished and experienced lawyers on Wall Street’, and the wider team has a ‘a good sense of what clients want to achieve’. Adam Dworkin is recommended in the high yield sector, and William Miller in securities and syndicated loans. James Clark, in debt restructuring, and Jonathan Schaffzin, in mezzanine and leveraged financings, both have a wealth of experience which they bring to bear on many of the major deals in the market.

Within Capital markets: debt offerings, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a second tier firm,

The ‘top-notch’ securities practice at Cahill Gordon & Reindel has an excellent reputation as the ‘firm of choice for underwriter advice’, and has a wealth of experience in the debt arena. Coupled with outstanding high-yield debt market knowledge, the team advises a host of leading investment banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS Securities. Jonathan Schaffzin and Daniel Zubkoff advised the initial purchasers in a $775m Rule 144A/Reg. S senior notes offering by dialysis service provider DaVita. Zubkoff and Corey Wright also assisted the underwriters in three senior notes offerings totalling $3bn by DIRECTV. The highly recommended James Clark, together with Michael Ohler, represented Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas Securities and RBS Securities as dealer manager in the cash tender offers by homebuilder PulteGroup to repurchase $500m of debt for six note series. Clark and others also represented Banc of America Securities, JPMorgan Securities and Wells Fargo Securities in the $1bn senior notes offering by NASDAQ OMX. William Hartnett and Stuart Downing represented Banc of America Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies & Company and UBS Securities as joint bookrunning managers, and Credit Agricole Securities (USA), RBS Securities and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company as co-managers in the $225m Rule 144A/Reg. S offering of senior notes by Omega Healthcare Investors. The firm’s formidable track record is well recognised by clients.

Within Capital markets: equity offerings, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a third tier firm,

Cahill Gordon & Reindel has a steady equity capital markets practice, with particular strength advising underwriters, although the firm continues to be best known for its debt and high-yield debt work. Jonathan Schaffzin advised Piper Jaffray, Jefferies & Company, William Blair & Company and Wells Fargo Securities in DynaVox’s $140.6m IPO listed on NASDAQ. Schaffzin also assisted Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Stephens in a $42.5m secondary stock offering by Libbey. William Hartnett and Stuart Downing advised a group of managers, including JPMorgan Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities, in FelCor Lodging Trust’s $167m common stock offering in December 2010. Luis Penalver led in advising Raymond James as sole underwriter of a $41m public offering by StoneMor Partners. The firm also represented the managers in Consol Energy’s $1.83bn common stock offering in early 2010, a deal led by Susanna Suh and Stuart Downing. Highly recommended within the capital markets team are James Clark and John Tripodoro.

Within Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a first tier firm,

Well known for its dominance in the high-yield debt arena, Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s heavyweight practice has an ‘enormous deal flow’ and particular expertise in advising manager-side clients. As one of the major advisors of both US market and Euromarket high-yield bond underwriters, the team has an outstanding level of experience. The firm advised Citibank, Citigroup Global Markets, Banc of America Securities, Barclays Capital and RBC Capital Markets as joint lead arrangers and bookrunnners in part of the debt financing through secured and revolving credit facilities of the $5bn acquisition of Tomkins. It also assisted in a second debt financing in this deal, advising a further group of banks in a $1.15bn Rule 144A/Reg. S 9% senior secured second lien notes offering by Pinafore. Both elements of this transaction formed the largest leveraged buyout of 2010. Other highlights included advising the financing sources to fund the $1.42bn buyout of Associated Material by Hellman & Friedman, a transaction which included advising Deutsche Bank Securities, UBS Investment Bank and Barclays Capital as joint bookrunning managers in the $730m Rule 144A/Reg. S 9.125% senior secured notes offering of Associated Materials and Carey New Finance. The ‘excellent’ William Hartnett, John Tripodoro and Douglas Horowitz also represented Citigroup Global Markets and Deutsche Bank Securities as joint bookrunning managers in the $250m Rule 144A/Reg. S 8.25% senior notes offering by Graham Packaging and GPC Capital. Horowitz and others also advised the initial purchasers on the $1bn Rule 144A 12.5% senior notes offering related to the acquisition of IMS Health. Daniel Zubkoff and Corey Wright represented JPMorgan Securities, Banc of America Securities, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) and Lazard Capital Markets as initial purchasers in a $875m Rule 144A 11.5% senior secured notes offering by The McClatchy Company. The ‘superb’ James Clark led a team in advising Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse Securities and JPMorgan Securities in the €1.1bn Rule 144A/Reg. S high-yield notes issuance by Ardagh Packaging Finance in order to acquire Impress Coöperatieve. All recommended partners are based in New York.

Within Insurance: advice to insurers, tier 4

Cahill Gordon & Reindel has a strong presence on the East Coast, with offices in Washington DC and New York, but also has national reach having represented clients in a number of state and federal courts. The practice leverages the firm’s strength in antitrust matters, and recently represented Global Reinsurance in its antitrust suit against Equitas, alleging the latter’s violation of New York antitrust laws by conspiring to suppress and delay claims payouts on retrocessional coverage. It is also acting as principal outside counsel to a division of Chartis, Chartis Environmental, in relation to a number of coverage issues arising under environmental cleanup and liability policies. Co-chair of the insurance practice Edward Krugman is recognized by peers for his reinsurance expertise, and Thorn Rosenthal is also highly recommended. Representative clients include Ironshore, Kemper Insurance, Swiss Re, XL, Zurich, Citibank and JPMorgan.

Within Securities: shareholder litigation, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a third tier firm,

Testament to Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s standing in the market is the fact that it is regularly instructed by law firms when they themselves face securities-related actions. The firm has over 16 partners well-versed in major bet-the-company securities-related disputes, including Thomas Kavaler, Floyd Abrams, Charles Gilman and Peter Sloane. One of the biggest instructions that the firm has received was from The McGraw Hill Company and its Standard & Poor’s subsidiary in all matters relating to its rating of securities backed by subprime mortgages across the country, as well as coordinating with counsel in foreign jurisdictions on such matters. This has included over 50 domestic and foreign jurisdictions, and involves private and class actions, as well as pending government and congressional investigations. Ten of these, involving claims for more than $311bn, were dismissed in 2010. The firm is also defending Household International and some of its former officers in one of the largest securities fraud class actions to reach the trial stage. Following a five-week jury trial, a mixed jury verdict exonerated the defendants on the majority of the 40 allegedly false statements and adopted a controversial measure of loss causation, which is currently the focus of post-verdict motions. Other major clients include HSBC, Deutsche Bank and XL Capital.

Within White-collar criminal defense , tier 8

Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s New York-based nine-partner team is gaining increased prominence in the market since its inception over ten years ago. Instructed by a broad swathe of clients including financial institutions, major corporates, individuals and quasi-governmental institutions, the team particularly excels at high-stakes matters where there is an existential threat to the defendant and on matters at the intersection with public policy concerns. Bart Friedman spearheads the firm’s work in this area and has a raft of experience advising clients in matters affecting corporate policy and strategy. As well as his corporate governance and advisory strength, Friedman is also regularly sought out by clients who are the subject of criminal investigations. David Kelley is also a pivotal member of the team, and along with David Januszewski, is representing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in connection with the investigation by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program into several matters relating to its acquisition of an interest in AIG.

Within Telecoms and broadcast: regulatory, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a third tier firm,

Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s Chérie Kiser undertakes regulatory, litigation and transactional support work. In 2010, she successfully represented Intrado Communications in a series of arbitrations against Verizon, AT&T, Embarq and other regional telecommunications carriers in disputes arising from interconnection agreements. She represented Intrado before the FCC, state agencies and courts in connection with its deployment of a nationwide 911 services IP network. Other highlights included representing the firm’s roster of leading investment and commercial banks as regulatory counsel in various financings and other transactional support. Clients include Cable One and RNK.

Within M&A: middle-market (sub-$500m), Cahill Gordon & Reindel is a first tier firm,

A ‘cut above the rest’, Cahill Gordon & Reindel is ‘extremely responsive, experienced and knowledgeable, providing a wide range of lawyers in various practice areas to help with various aspects of a project. It provides good value for money through its efficiency, and I am made to feel as if I am its most important client’. The practice represented JPMorgan Asset Management and its global alternative asset manager, Highbridge Capital Management, in its acquisition of a majority stake in Gávea Investimentos, a leading asset management company in Brazil with approximately $6bn in assets under management, and acted as M&A counsel to Broadridge Financial Solutions in connection with the sale of Broadridge’s correspondent clearing business to Penson Worldwide, a provider of technology products and services to the financial services industry. In the upper mid-market space, the group advised Elan Corporation in connection with Johnson & Johnson’s headline $885m equity investment in Elan, and the sale to J&J of Elan’s Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy Program. The team also represented Coca-Cola Enterprises in its approximately $13bn transaction with The Coca Cola Company, in which it sold its North American operations to The Coca Cola Company, split off its European operation into a new public company and acquired the Norway and Sweden bottling operations of The Coca Cola Company. Hill Street Capital, an investment banking boutique firm, was advised in connection with the acquisition of all of its outstanding membership interests by BNP Paribas North America. Kenneth Orce is ‘one of the best and trusted advisors to senior executives and boards of directors for a variety of corporate transactions’. John Schuster is ‘a brilliant, corporate transactions lawyer. Schuster is also very practical and responsive’. Clients also report that the firm ‘lives to serve and that it shows in its attorneys’ business and legal acumen, the response times, the camaraderie and the results achieved’.