The Legal 500

Within Bankruptcy: West,

Holland & Hart LLP

PRACTICE: Holland & Hart LLP’s bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors’ rights practice is the largest in the Mountain West Region - which covers Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. The practice represents many financial institutions, commercial lenders, landlords and equipment lessors as well as business owners of all types.

Lawyers represented a coal mining company in the Cajun Electric case, a major utility bankruptcy, and succeeded in preserving the client’s coal supply contract. The practice also assisted the largest bicycle manufacturer and distributor in the US in the successful purchase of the bicycle business unit and assets from the Schwinn bankruptcy.

CLIENTS: The practice represented parties in the Western Integrated Networks, Western Pacific Airlines, Kaiser Steel and Handy & Harman Refining bankruptcies.

INDIVIDUALS: Risa Wolf-Smith, the practice chair, has handled some of the largest bankruptcy sales in Colorado - she has niche expertise in technology-related bankruptcy. In Salt Lake City, Mona Burton has participated in the larger Utah bankruptcies and brings expertise in the health and retirement care sector to a wide-ranging practice.

Within M&A - West Mountain,

Holland & Hart LLP

PRACTICE: With 24 M&A partners spread between offices in Denver, Boise, Salt Lake City, Reno, Boulder, Cheyenne and Las Vegas, Holland & Hart LLP provides ‘an excellent level of service’. Clients note that ‘most impressive is their
ability to act as a business partner - they give the best advice you can get, and deliver it in a way that gives you a chance to challenge and review it prior to having to make those final decisions’.

The practice is broad-based, though technology and natural resources M&A are specialties. Notable deals of 2008 included representing IQ Navigator in its $100m disposition to GTCR Fund IX. The team also advised AAI Acquisition in its $20m acquisition from bankruptcy of Adam Aircraft. Additional representations include that of Spyder Active Sports in its acquisition of Cloudveil Mountain Works, and CH2M Hill in its acquisition of stock of Goldston Engineering. Another highlight was representing Incline Lake in the largest single purchase of an ‘in holding’ of private property by the US Forest Service.

CLIENTS: Clients include IQ Navigator, AAI Acquisition, Spyder Active Sports, CH2M Hill, Incline Lake, Inside Communications, Solidware Technologies, Target Seed, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Sierra Nevada Solar.

INDIVIDUALS: Frederick Mack in Boise is praised as ‘very responsive - he goes the extra mile’. In Reno, David Garcia is singled out by one client as ‘the best corporate attorney I have ever worked with. His attention to the needs of the company mean I worry less about the legal aspects of the business and more about running the business’. Practice co-chair Christina Groll in Denver is commended for her ‘broad experience’.

Within Construction: West Coast,

Holland & Hart LLP

PRACTICE: The construction lawyers at Rocky Mountain law firm Holland & Hart LLP benefit from close alignment with the practice’s ‘talented and deeply experienced’ real estate group. Broad-ranging litigation is also core to the practice, with key matters including representing a paving contractor in a complex payment and materials fraud claim in relation to the construction of runways at Denver International Airport, and advising a major school district in connection with design and construction problems that required the demolition and rebuilding of a Denver area high school.

CLIENTS: Aside from contractors and owners, the practice also acts for major oil and gas producers, construction managers, a gas gathering company and government entities.

INDIVIDUALS: Rebecca Dow has extensive experience representing owners in commercial construction contracts and architect agreements, and advised on one of the largest master-planned projects in the State of Colorado. Of-counsel Robert Benson is famed for his participation in alternative dispute resolutions, and has served as an arbitrator in more than 60 cases, while Daniel Frost has significant experience in state and federal contracting issues, and was appointed by the State of Colorado as a Special Assistant Attorney General to assist with construction litigation. Kevin Bridston is noted for his representation of both plaintiffs and defendants in construction cases.

Within Nevada, Holland & Hart LLP is a second tier firm,

With their client bases in such trouble, it is the diversely structured law firms that are weathering the storm best, namely those practices not restricted to purely transactional work or property financings, and that can pick up real estate litigation, property company restructurings and bankruptcy-related real estate work. A period of consolidation amongst surviving law firms is expected, with Rocky Mountain law firm Holland & Hart LLP already having absorbed Reno law practice Hale Lane Peek Dennison & Howard.

Within Nevada,

Holland & Hart LLP

PRACTICE: Rocky Mountain law firm Holland & Hart LLP has merged with Reno law firm Hale Lane Peek Dennison & Howard, with the Reno office now benefiting from access to an extended group of construction and property litigation attorneys. The newly-merged entity gets involved in almost every type of real estate transaction, including leasing, sales, acquisitions, financing and development work, multi-family homes, the development of hospitals, and property litigation. The practice prepares and enforces covenants for property owners’ associations, acts for one of the nation’s largest real estate investment trusts, and was lead counsel to the developer of a Strip high-rise, mixed-use condominium project in its acquisition of construction financing.

CLIENTS: The list includes land developers, pension funds, institutional clients, homebuilding companies, resort developers, mixed-use project owners, and commercial landlords. Shea Homes, the country’s largest privately-owned homebuilder, is a client.

INDIVIDUALS: Chair Marcus Painter has worked extensively on real estate brokerage industry issues, and is noted for his work in golf course community development work. The ‘simply amazing’ Reno lawyer Karen Dennison has represented owners and lenders in time share developments, shopping centers, office buildings and power plant facilities, and has worked closely with the Nevada Real Estate Division and other governmental and administrative agencies. Craig Howard is especially well-regarded for his experience in water projects, including large water rights transfers and water rights acquisitions and sales. In Las Vegas, Bradley Boodt acts in commercial real estate acquisitions, financing and development, and advised the purchaser in the acquisition and financing of the highest priced land acquisition in Las Vegas history.