New York (April 20, 2010) – Six partners from Sidley Austin LLP have been recognized as Rising Stars Under 40 by Law360 in their respective areas of practice. The lawyers are Chris Abbinante (Chicago), Theodore Chandler (Los Angeles), Sharon Flanagan (San Francisco), Robert Hochman (Chicago), Sean Keyvan (Chicago) and Roger Martella (Washington, D.C.).
“Each of these six partners has demonstrated legal skill, innovation and leadership within their area of practice,” said Thomas A. Cole, Chair of the firm’s Executive Committee. “I am pleased to congratulate Chris, Ted, Sharon, Rob, Sean and Roger on this recognition, and I look forward to what I know will be many future successes.”
Chris Abbinante is a partner in the firm’s corporate group. He advises clients on leveraged buy-outs, private equity and venture capital investments, and strategic mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Mr. Abbinante also has significant experience representing clients in restructuring transactions, IPOs and other corporate finance offerings, and corporate governance matters.
Theodore Chandler is a partner in firm’s intellectual property litigation practice. He concentrates on patent litigation and has handled significant cases in federal court and before the International Trade Commission.
Sharon Flanagan is a partner in the firm’s corporate practice. Ms. Flanagan regularly represents buyers and sellers in a broad range of merger and acquisition transactions. Her experience includes public company mergers, tender offers, spin-offs, restructurings, and acquisitions of stock and assets of private and public companies. Ms. Flanagan has extensive experience representing issuers and underwriters in a variety of securities offerings, including initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, public debt offerings and 144A debt offerings. Ms. Flanagan also regularly advises public companies on their corporate governance and SEC compliance matters.
Robert Hochman is a partner in the firm’s appellate practice. His practice focuses on general commercial appellate litigation, and covers a broad range of substantive areas of the law, including patent, federal preemption, class actions and antitrust. Mr. Hochman regularly briefs cases and has argued before the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Hochman represents amici in the Supreme Court on issues of broad concern to industry groups or other interested parties. He also regularly briefs and appears for argument in various state and federal appellate courts.
Sean Keyvan is a partner in the firm’s insurance practice. Mr. Keyvan’s practice is focused on a variety of corporate and regulatory matters relating to the insurance and financial services industry, including the representation of insurance companies and other insurance and financial service entities in connection with domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and corporate reorganizations, including acquisitions and divestitures of books of insurance business through reinsurance, renewal rights and other alternative transaction structures; the formation, capitalization and corporate financing of insurance companies and related ventures; insurance company holding company system regulation; insurance company investment activities; the regulation of insurance producers, agencies and other distribution systems; the structure and regulation of alternative and novel risk financing mechanisms and complex reinsurance arrangements.
Roger Martella is a partner in the firm’s environmental practice. Mr. Martella’s practice focuses on a range of areas, including advising companies on developing strategic approaches to achieve their goals in light of rapidly developing demands to address climate change, promote sustainability and utilize clean energy; a broad range of environmental and natural resource litigation and mediation; and advising multinational companies on compliance with environmental laws in the United States, China, the European Union and other nations. Mr. Martella rejoined Sidley after serving as the General Counsel of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and as a trial lawyer at the Department of Justice.
Law360 distributes daily legal news in e-mail newsletters focused on a range of practice areas, including Appellate, Bankruptcy, Competition, Contract, Corporate Finance, Employment, Energy, Environmental, Financial Services, Health, IP, Insurance, International Trade, Product Liability, Securities and Technology.
Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world’s largest full-service law firms, with approximately 1700 lawyers practicing in 17 U.S. and international cities, including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Every year since 2003, Sidley has been named to Legal Business’ Global Elite, its designation for the 18 firms “that define the pinnacle of the legal profession.” Sidley is recognized for service and responsiveness—BTI, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only two firms to have been in the top ten of the BTI Client Service rankings every year since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and was number one in three of those years.
