Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

K&L Gates Boosts Hong Kong Office With Two New Partners

K&L Gates has added two new partners to its Hong Kong office.

David Johnson and Samuel Ngo are joining the U.S. firm from the local offices of Allen & Overy and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, respectively.

Johnson advises Asian companies, sovereigns, issuers and underwriters on variety of capital markets and mergers and acquisitions transactions. In 2010, he was one of the partners that led the representation of the underwriters in the $19 billion initial public offering of Agricultural Bank of China. He joined Allen & Overy in 2001 from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Ngo is a litigator who typically represents China- and Hong Kong-listed companies on disputes relating to insolvency, insurance, and construction. He joined Orrick as an of counsel in 2010 and became a partner the following year. Previously, he worked in Hong Kong for Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Simmons & Simmons; and Deacons.

Including Johnson and Ngo, K&L Gates has 22 lawyers in Hong Kong. The Pittsburgh-based firm has more than 1,700 lawyers working across 47 offices.

K&L Gates Adds Brisbane Partner

Flag of Australia/clipart.com 2012

K&L Gates has hired a new partner for its banking and finance practice in Brisbane.

Deborah Bean joins from Australian firm Gadens Lawyers, where she was also a partner in Brisbane. She mainly advises banks and other financial institutions on financing for construction projects in the agribusiness, elder care, pharmaceutical, and energy and resources sectors.

Bean joined Gadens in 2006 after spending more than a decade working at Brisbane firm McCullough Robertson.

Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates entered the Australian market at the beginning of the year via its merger with 300-lawyer Middletons, which adopted the U.S. firm's name.

With Bean on board, K&L Gates has 24 lawyers based in Brisbane. The firm also has Australian offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. K&L Gates has around 1,800 lawyers worldwide.

Mandatory Retirement Policy Prompts Weil Partner to Move to K&L Gates

Mary Korby, a longtime partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Dallas, joined K&L Gates' Dallas office as a partner on January 1.

Korby says she moved to K&L Gates because she had reached Weil Gotshal's mandatory retirement age and wanted to continue to practice law.

"Their philosophy is: If you don't push more mature partners out the door, you don't have room for the younger to come up. I was not at all ready to quit, so I ended up at K&L," says Korby, a transactional lawyer who chaired Weil Gotshal's associate compensation committee until August 2012.

Korby says she considered several firms for the next chapter of her practice, but K&L Gates has a "really incredible" network of offices overseas, which fits with her cross-border work.

"It was the international scope and also just the depth of expertise across the various practice areas. There are, what, 2,000-plus attorneys here," Korby says.

Korby joined K&L Gates' Dallas office with commercial litigator T. Gregory Jackson, who came from Geary, Porter & Donovan in Dallas.

Jackson says it is a good move for his practice because he has clients that "have needs on a national basis."

"I see it as a way to expand my practice and be able to retain matters that my clients have on a more national basis," he says.

Neither Jackson nor Korby would identify clients they brought with them to K&L Gates, which has 46 offices.

Craig Budner, administrative partner in Dallas for K&L Gates, says the firm is thrilled to have Korby and Jackson in its partner ranks. He says Korby adds international transactional expertise, and Jackson has done a lot of oil and gas litigation, which is an area K&L Gates wants to strengthen.

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Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

K&L Gates Takes On Bankrupt Calif. City for CalPERS

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest public pension, makes frequent appearances in Legal affiliate The Am Law Litigation Daily as a lead plaintiff in securities class actions. But late Tuesday, CalPERS made an unprecedented move in a very different venue: the municipal bankruptcy of San Bernardino, Calif. In an 11-page filing, CalPERS' lawyers at K&L Gates asked a federal bankruptcy judge in Riverside, Calif., for permission to sue San Bernardino for falling behind its contributions for municipal employee benefits.

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

K&L Gates to Open South Korea Office

By Gina Passarella All Articles 

The Legal Intelligencer

November 19, 2012

Namdaemun Gate, Seoul. Photo: Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images

U.S. firms are continuing to eye the recently relaxed foreign law firm market in South Korea, with K&L Gates becoming the latest firm to announce it received the appropriate licensing for an office in Seoul.

The Korean Ministry of Justice granted final approval last week of K&L Gates' application to operate a foreign legal service office in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea.

K&L Gates will officially open its office in the country in January 2013 after registering with the Korean Bar Association in the coming weeks.

The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement went into effect in March, opening South Korea's legal market to U.S. firms for the first time. Since then, a number of Am Law 200 firms have expressed their intention to enter the market, continuing their Asian expansion beyond just China to include places like Singapore, Vietnam and now South Korea.

"We very much appreciate the expeditious processing of our application by the Ministry of Justice," said Peter J. Kalis, K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner, in a statement. "Korea's economy is one of the largest both in Asia and throughout the world. The country's export-fueled growth of the past decades has led to the more recent, and increasingly robust, trend of foreign investments overseas by its companies and financial institutions.

"We believe that our Seoul office will provide these outward-looking Korean business enterprises, wherever their destinations may be, with ready access to the resources of a single law firm that is both global and local at the same time."

Current K&L Gates New York partner Eric Yoon will serve as the Seoul office's chief representative. Yoon has practiced law for more than 20 years in the areas of financial services regulation, mergers and acquisitions, financing and private equity investments.

David K.Y. Tang, K&L Gates' managing partner of operations in Asia, noted in a statement that South Korea is one of the few countries in the world that has both widely distributed wealth and a large, well-educated population base.

The Seoul location will make for K&L Gates' 42nd office worldwide. K&L Gates has been expansion-minded in recent months.

In August, the firm announced it was in talks to merge with Australian law firm Middletons. If approved, K&L Gates would have more than 400 lawyers across 11 offices in the Asia-Pacific region, the firm said. The merger would result in K&L Gates having offices in: Beijing; Brisbane, Australia; Hong Kong; Melbourne, Australia; Perth, Australia; Seoul; Shanghai; Singapore; Sydney; Taipei; and Tokyo.

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Reed Smith, K&L Gates Double Down on Veteran Leaders

For two very different guys, Reed Smith's Greg Jordan and K&L Gates' Pete Kalis have a lot in common. The two West Virginia natives rose to lead their respective Pittsburgh-based law firms well more than a decade ago and both have recently won unopposed elections to additional terms for the next three and five years, respectively.

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

K&L Gates Adds Sidley Austin Partner Trio to London Finance Practice

By Alex NewmanAll Articles

The National Law Journal

September 25, 2012

K&L Gates has completed the hire of a three-partner London team from Sidley Austin, in a major boost for the U.S. firm's City finance practice.

The arrival of Theresa Kradjian this month sees her reunited with Matthew Duncan and Paul Matthews, both of whom joined K&L Gates earlier this summer.

The trio worked together at Sidley and were hired as a team. Duncan was made up to partner at the U.S. firm in 2004, while Kradjian and Matthews were promoted in 2007.

London chief Tony Griffiths cited particular expertise in the group that K&L Gates had been keen to add to its City finance capabilities, pointing to Kradjian's trans-Atlantic experience in capital markets and securities, Duncan's knowledge of residential mortgage-backed securities, and Matthews' work in derivatives.

Griffiths said: "The growth of our London commercial mortgage-backed securities structured finance capability has made a significant contribution to the office's 18 percent revenue growth over the past two years."

K&L Gates' structured finance practice was one of the top performing sectors for the firm during 2011, and a main driver behind the London office's 10 percent revenue growth to £33 million. The firm also opened bases in Brussels, Doha and Sao Paulo over the course of the year.

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

Trustee Comments on Reinstatement of His Malpractice Suit Against K&L Gates

Mark Kirschner, the trustee of bankrupt bottled-water producer Le-Nature?s, called a Superior Court?s decision to reinstate his $500 million malpractice suit against K&L Gates a ?major victory for the Le Natures Liquidating Trust.?

K&L Gates Adds Sidley Austin Partner Trio to London Finance Practice

By Alex NewmanAll Articles

The National Law Journal

September 25, 2012

K&L Gates has completed the hire of a three-partner London team from Sidley Austin, in a major boost for the U.S. firm's City finance practice.

The arrival of Theresa Kradjian this month sees her reunited with Matthew Duncan and Paul Matthews, both of whom joined K&L Gates earlier this summer.

The trio worked together at Sidley and were hired as a team. Duncan was made up to partner at the U.S. firm in 2004, while Kradjian and Matthews were promoted in 2007.

London chief Tony Griffiths cited particular expertise in the group that K&L Gates had been keen to add to its City finance capabilities, pointing to Kradjian's trans-Atlantic experience in capital markets and securities, Duncan's knowledge of residential mortgage-backed securities, and Matthews' work in derivatives.

Griffiths said: "The growth of our London commercial mortgage-backed securities structured finance capability has made a significant contribution to the office's 18 percent revenue growth over the past two years."

K&L Gates' structured finance practice was one of the top performing sectors for the firm during 2011, and a main driver behind the London office's 10 percent revenue growth to £33 million. The firm also opened bases in Brussels, Doha and Sao Paulo over the course of the year.