NEW YORK (June 25) – Kilpatrick Stockton announced today the addition of attorneys Seth Borden and Amy Van Eepoel to the firm’s expanding New York office. Mr. Borden will be joining the firm’s Labor and Employment Team as Counsel, and Ms. Van Eepoel will be joining the firm’s Intellectual Property Department as an Associate.

“Seth and Amy bring extensive experience and knowledge to our office’s already strong, dynamic team,” said Georges Nahitchevansky, Managing Partner of Kilpatrick Stockton’s New York office. “They will be tremendous assets as we continue to grow our firm’s presence in New York. The entire firm looks forward to working with them.”

Mr. Borden has over a decade of experience representing employers exclusively in all facets of traditional labor law, labor relations, employment law and general personnel administration. He has advised employers in response to dozens of union organizing efforts with considerable success; represented employers in connection with investigations and litigation before the National Labor Relations Board and other government agencies; and served as lead counsel in numerous arbitrations involving issues of discipline, termination, contract interpretation, discrimination and harassment, in the express freight delivery, retail, food services, healthcare and movie exhibition industries.

Mr. Borden has been active on behalf of the business community during the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. He has written extensively on the proposed legislation, spoken before numerous trade groups and chambers of commerce, and met with government officials to discuss management perspectives. He has also been quoted and published in many high-profile news and trade publications and Web sites. As the author of two web blogs, Mr. Borden will be instrumental in maintaining the firm’s well-received Workplace Horizons Blog (www.workplacehorizons.com), which was created by Richard Hankins, Kilpatrick Stockton’s Labor & Employment Team Leader.

Mr. Borden received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and his law degree from Brooklyn Law School in New York. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the NY Chapter of the Brandeis University Alumni Association Lawyers Network and on the Advisory Board of the HR Alliance Meet-Up group.

Ms. Van Eepoel will focus her practice on trademark and copyright matters. She has experience representing brand leaders in the luxury goods, fashion, cosmetics, toy, sports, entertainment, food and beverage, electronics and optical industries, as well as a well-known artist Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Ms. Van Eepoel has worked with clients to select, secure, protect and enforce their intellectual property and will assist clients with developing and implementing effective worldwide brand management strategies for establishing and enforcing their intellectual property rights. Ms. Van Eepoel has extensive experience in anticounterfeiting and antipiracy matters and will work with clients, both domestically and internationally, to address the infringement and counterfeiting of their trademarks and copyrights. She is very active in the International Trademark Association and the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition, and she has attended task force meetings, brand protection summits and legislative hearings to address counterfeiting.

Ms. Van Eepoel also has experience with a variety of industry-specific agreements, as well as prior experience litigating intellectual property cases throughout the federal courts of the United States. She received her undergraduate degree from Boston College, magna cum laude, and her law degree from George Washington University Law School.

About Kilpatrick Stockton

Kilpatrick Stockton LLP is a full-service international law firm with more than 500 attorneys in nine offices across the globe: Atlanta and Augusta, GA.; Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, NC.; New York, NY; Washington, D.C.; London, England; and Stockholm, Sweden. Kilpatrick Stockton’s delivery of innovative business solutions provides results-oriented counsel for corporations, from the challenging demands of financial transactions and securities to the disciplines of intellectual property management. Collaboration among Kilpatrick Stockton’s corporate, litigation and intellectual property attorneys provides knowledgeable and proactive guidance for companies at every stage of the business life cycle. For more information, please visit www.kilpatrickstockton.com.

Washington, D.C., June 25, 2008 (LAWFUEL) – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced a Fair Fund distribution totaling more than $5.6 million to 534 investors who were victims of a fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme involving the stock of tool maker Spear & Jackson, Inc.

The Fair Fund distribution represents a 100 percent return of losses to defrauded investors who bought Spear & Jackson stock during the fraudulent touting period from February 2002 through April 2004.

“The SEC’s quick action enabled us to stop an ongoing fraud in its tracks and freeze significant funds that we were ultimately able to return to innocent investors,” said David Nelson, Director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “I am particularly gratified that the action has resulted in a 100 percent return of investors’ losses through this Fair Fund.”

Under the Fair Fund provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the SEC gained new authority to distribute directly to injured investors the financial penalties paid by securities law violators. The SEC already has distributed more than $3.9 billion in Fair Funds using this new authority, and earlier this year the agency created a new office to further expedite Fair Fund distributions to harmed investors.

Dick D’Anna, Director of the SEC’s Office of Collections and Distributions, said, “The SEC staff is working hard to successfully achieve our goal of returning the ill-gotten gains of wrongdoers back to harmed investors as quickly as possible, and we look forward to continuing this pursuit and distributing more Fair Funds in the future.”

In April 2004, the SEC charged Spear & Jackson, its then-chairman and CEO Dennis Crowley, and two stock promoters in connection with the fraudulent scheme. The complaint alleged that Crowley secretly acquired hundreds of thousands of shares of stock of Spear & Jackson and its predecessor through three nominee companies based in the British Virgin Islands that he clandestinely controlled. The complaint further alleged that Crowley then hired stock promoters to distribute false and misleading information about Spear & Jackson to the brokerage community in order to drive up the company’s share price while he dumped his shares on the market.

When the SEC filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, it obtained emergency relief against all parties, including an asset freeze over Crowley and the stock promoters, an order temporarily removing Crowley from his positions as chairman and CEO, and the appointment of a monitor over Spear & Jackson to oversee the company’s operations.

The Commission ultimately obtained significant relief against all parties by consent. Crowley paid more than $4 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and a $2 million civil penalty, and the stock promoters paid a combined total of approximately $800,000 in disgorgement and civil penalties.

In a follow-up action that arose out of this same case, the Commission last year instituted public administrative proceedings against Orlando, Fla. broker-dealer Park Financial Group, Inc., and its principal, Gordon Cantley, alleging that they aided and abetted Crowley’s violations of the securities laws by allowing him to buy and sell Spear & Jackson stock through the nominee companies’ accounts at Park Financial. Park Financial and Cantley also were charged with failing to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in connection with Crowley’s transactions, marking the first time that the Commission had brought a case against a broker-dealer for failing to file SARs.

In December 2007, the Commission issued an order by consent against Park Financial and Cantley. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Park Financial and Cantley were ordered to cease and desist committing securities law violations and to pay disgorgement and civil penalties. In addition, the Commission censured Park Financial and barred Cantley from association with a broker or dealer with the right to reapply in two years.

In addition, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida filed criminal securities fraud charges against Crowley in January 2008, to which Crowley subsequently pled guilty. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, 2008.