21 April – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Allen & Overy has announc…

21 April – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Allen & Overy has announced 14 promotions to partner for 2005. The new partners cover a wide range of practice areas across the firm’s international network, reflecting its continued commitment to global expansion. The new partners specialise in banking, corporate, international capital markets, litigation, private client and tax in the firm’s Amsterdam, Beijing and London offices, with two partners shortly relocating to the firm’s Dubai and Singapore offices. A number of others have been promoted from local to equity partner. 21 new partners were made up in 2004 and 29 were made up in 2003.

Brief biographical details of the new partners are set out below:

Global Banking

Carolyn Conner, New York
Carolyn graduated with a BA, LLB degree from Macquarie University, Sydney in 1992, and was admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court of Australia in 1993. Carolyn was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1998 and to the Bar of the State of New York in 2004. She joined A&O in London in 1997, where she stayed until her secondment to the New York office in 2003. Her current area of experience is in corporate restructuring, both domestic and cross-border. She represents banks, financial institutions, borrowers, creditors and insolvency practitioners. Carolyn has worked on a number of significant New York and London market restructurings and Chapter 11 proceedings, including Swissair, Vantico and Enron, and has most recently focussed on representing hedge funds seeking distressed investment opportunities in the European and US markets.

Nicholas Crossin, Singapore
Nicholas graduated from Bond University, Australia, with Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degrees in 1995. He completed his articles of clerkship at Blake Dawson Waldron in Melbourne in 1996. After qualification, he was awarded an Australian Banking Law Association scholarship, which he used to obtain a Bachelor of Civil Law from Magdalen College, University of Oxford in 1997. Nicholas was an associate in A&O’s Singapore office from 1998 to 2002. Following a six-month secondment to Shell in London, he joined the Projects Group in the London office in January 2003. He was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2003. Nicholas has experience in a wide variety of banking and finance matters, including syndicated lending, debt restructuring and project finance. Nicholas now becomes a partner in the Singapore office.

Sanjeev Dhuna, London
Sanjeev Dhuna graduated with a Bachelor of Law from Southampton University in 1994, followed by a diploma of Legal Practice from Guildford Law School. He qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1997, and as a New York lawyer in 2001. Sanjeev joined A&O London in 1995 and has acted on a broad range of banking transactions, including syndicated loans and leveraged and investment grade acquisition financings. He acts for both borrowers and lenders and has advised on some of the largest European syndicated loan transactions. Sanjeev was seconded to Barclays Capital, investment banking division, from November 2000 to May 2001, and also spent six months at Sherman & Sterling, New York, in 2001. Sanjeev returned to the London office in October 2001, where he now becomes a partner.

Vikki Greatorex, Paris
Vikki graduated from the University of Manchester in 1993 with an LLB, followed by a diploma in Legal Practice from Guildford Law School. She was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1996 when she joined A&O London. During her time based in the London office she represented senior and mezzanine lenders and borrowers in the context of English and cross-border leveraged financings. She was seconded to Fuji Bank (now Mizuho) in their leveraged finance department for six months in 1998, prior to moving to the Paris office in 2000. Vikki continues to specialise in leveraged and telecommunications financings, acting for banks, mezzanine lenders and borrowers.

Ian Ingram-Johnson, Dubai
Ian joined A&O as a trainee in 1996, after graduating from the University of Exeter in 1995 with an LLB. He qualified into the Global Projects Group in 1998 and has worked on international project financing in a number of countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as on a number of acquisition financings. Ian becomes a partner in the Global Banking practice, and will be relocating to Dubai (with his wife and three daughters) during the summer.

Davide Mencacci, Milan
Davide graduated from University College London with an LLB (in Law and Italian Law) in 1994. During 1992-3 he gained a distinction in Commercial and Administrative Law as an Erasmus Scholar at the University of Florence. He was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1998 and joined A&O in 1999. Davide’s area of practice is banking, and he has extensive experience, acting for finance providers in structured acquisition, property and telecoms finance transactions, as well as advising on syndicated and bi-lateral loans. Davide has been with A&O Milan since 2001, where he now becomes a partner.

Global Corporate

Justin Steer, Amsterdam
Justin graduated from the University of Cape Town, South Africa with a Commerce degree in 1990 and a Law degree in 1993, followed by a Masters in International Business Law in 1995 from the London School of Economics. He completed, both cum laude, post graduate specialist courses in Dutch Finance and Securities Law in 2002, and Dutch Corporate Law in 2004 at the Grotius Academy. Justin was admitted as an attorney in South Africa in 1998, and as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2001. He is registered as a European qualified lawyer in The Netherlands and is in the process of being admitted to the Dutch bar as a Dutch qualified lawyer. Before the merger with A&O in 2000, he worked with Loeff Claeys Verbeke, Amsterdam, and prior to that with Bowman Gilfillan (1996-1998) in South Africa. His practice area is corporate law, with a particular focus on private equity which he combines with a general M&A practice. Justin became an associate in the Amsterdam office of A&O in 2000, where he now becomes a partner.

Frédéric Mion, Paris
An alumnus of France’s Ecole Normale Supérieure, and of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, Frédéric graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris in 1992 and from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in 1996. He began his career at the Conseil d’Etat, the French administrative supreme court and spent four years working in the litigation and domestic affairs departments in both a judging and an advisory capacity. In May 2000, he became advisor to the Minister of Education (then Jacques Lang) and dealt mainly with budgetary and statutory issues. In May of the following year, he joined the Ministry in charge of Civil Service and constitutional and administrative reform, where he was appointed director. He left this position after two years in order to join the public and environmental law practice of A&O Paris as Of Counsel in 2003. Frédéric became a member of the Paris Bar that year and now becomes a partner in the Paris office.

Global Tax

Vimal Tilakapala, London
Vimal graduated from Manchester University with an LLB followed by Law Society Finals at Manchester Polytechnic. He joined A&O in London in September 2000 having worked previously at Jones Day and prior to that at Clifford Chance. He has extensive experience of all areas of finance related tax and in particular domestic and cross-border structured financing, capital markets issues, securitisation and the taxation of financial instruments. Vimal now becomes a partner in the London office.

Global ICM

Andrew Sulston, London
Andrew graduated from the University of Bristol with a BA degree in history in 1991. He completed a Common Professional Examination at City University in 1993, a Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in 1994 and an MA in Law at City University in 1996. Andrew trained at A&O London and was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1997. He joined the Tokyo office in 1997 and while there was seconded to the Capital Markets Department of IBJ Securities Co Ltd. He came back to the London office in 2000 and since then has specialised in derivative securities, particularly equity-linked, fund-linked and credit-linked products. He is increasingly involved in products for the retail markets. Andrew now becomes a ICM partner (Derivatives and Structured Finance group) in the London office.

Global Litigation

Matthew Gearing, London
Matthew graduated from Oxford University with a BA (Jurisprudence) in 1993 and then completed a Legal Practice Course at the College of Law, Chester. He was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1997, when he joined A&O London, and to the High Court of Hong Kong, SAR, in 2001. He moved to A&O Hong Kong in June 2000, before returning to London in June 2003. He specialises in international arbitration, having represented a wide variety of clients in arbitrations around the world. Matthew regularly writes and lectures on arbitration-related subjects. He also has wide experience of court-based litigation and other forms of dispute resolution. Matthew now becomes a partner in the London office.

Jacob Pultman, New York
Jacob graduated with a BA from Brooklyn College (summa cum laude) in 1987, and gained a JD from Yale Law School in 1990. In 1991, he was admitted to the Bar of the State of New York; Bar of the State of New Jersey; United States District Court-Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; United States District Court-District of New Jersey and United States Courts of Appeals for Federal Circuit and Third Circuit. In 1994, he was admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and to the United States Supreme Court and, in 1998, was admitted to the United States District Court-District of Colorado. Jacob joined the New York office of A&O in 2003 as senior counsel. He has broad-based general commercial litigation experience, representing leading investment and commercial banks, multinational corporations, insurance companies and individual directors and officers. Jacob specialises in securities, product liability, insurance coverage, class action, corporate governance, internal investigations, regulatory, and general commercial litigation. He has advised corporate and banking clients in mergers and acquisitions, financing, corporate governance, litigation due diligence, and bankruptcy proceedings. Jacob now becomes a partner in the New York office.

Peter Thorp, Beijing
Peter graduated in 1981 from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, with a BA He then spent two years in intensive Mandarin language courses in Beijing and Shanghai before working in China-related business for a number of years, including managing the Shanghai office of a large Swedish multinational. In 1992, Peter graduated from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, with an LLB. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1992, as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2003 and as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 2005. He joined as head of the Beijing office of A&O in 2004 to develop A&O’s China business, with a special focus on China-related international arbitration work. He has substantial experience of international arbitration claims under various jurisdictions and institutions, as well as in mergers and acquisitions and project-related law, both in China and in Paris. Peter now becomes a partner in the Beijing office.

Private Client

Jennifer Chambers, London
Jennifer graduated from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 1990 with a BA and attained her Law Society Finals from Guildford Law School. She joined A&O London as a trainee and spent six months in the Hong Kong office, before being admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1994. Jennifer’s areas of expertise include advising charities and not for profit organisations on finance transactions, constitutional issues, tax and compliance and advising on commercial trust arrangements and the use of trusts in finance transactions. She also advises individuals on UK taxation and estate planning matters and the creation of onshore and offshore trusts. She advises professional trustees, individuals and families on a wide variety of trust matters, and gives advice in connection with probate matters and the administration of estates. Jennifer now becomes a partner in the London office.

As of 1 May 2005, this will bring the total number of Allen & Overy partners to 444.

For further information, please contact Iain Rodger (iain.rodger@allenovery.com) in London on +44 20 7330 4947 or +44 (0)773 312 4082.

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