For 2020 Olympics, I.O.C. Picks Tokyo, Considered Safe Choice

After Japan’s prime minister gave an emphatic assurance of safety regarding the country’s 2011 nuclear disaster and continuing concerns about radioactivity, Tokyo easily defeated Istanbul and Madrid to be named host of the Summer Games for a second time.

“When I heard the name Tokyo, I was so touched, overwhelmed,” said Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister. “The joy was even greater than when I won my own election.”

The decision was met with elation in Japan, where it was seen as a vote of international support for the nation’s efforts to pull itself out of a long economic and political decline and to overcome the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident two years ago.

Winning the Games also appeared to affirm Abe’s efforts to restore Japan’s confidence at a time when it has appeared increasingly eclipsed by neighboring China.

“Japan has seemed to be overshadowed by the rise of China and other developing nations,” said Harumi Arima, an independent political analyst. “These Olympics will give Japanese a chance to feel reborn, to feel for themselves that Japan can still be vibrant.”

For the International Olympic Committee, environmental concerns in Japan appeared less urgent than the Syrian war on Turkey’s border, a harsh crackdown against antigovernment protesters recently in Istanbul and Spain’s economic recession and high unemployment.

The Olympic movement has also been buffeted by protests in Brazil over heavy government spending for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, to be held in Rio de Janeiro. And there has been criticism of what the West considers antigay legislation passed in Russia ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort city Sochi, a Games that will come with a $50 billion price tag.

Amid such economic, political and human rights maelstroms, Tokyo was seen as a calm harbor. It won handily over Istanbul in the second round of voting, 60-36, in a secret ballot of Olympic delegates.

Tokyo presented its bid as a “safe pair of hands,” an appeal that clearly resonated with Olympic officials.

“This is something that appeals to me as a surgeon,” said Jacques Rogge, the president of the Olympic committee and a retired orthopedist from Belgium, who did not vote Saturday, as is tradition.

Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, and Japan has twice hosted the Winter Games, in Sapporo in 1972 and in Nagano in 1998. Japan also hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea and has repeatedly shown it can organize the world’s largest sporting events. It has a reserve fund worth $4.5 billion to build stadiums for the 2020 Games.

“The members wanted to have a choice between a bid addressing tradition and stability and another bid that was addressing new projects,” said Thomas Bach, an I.O.C. delegate from Germany who is expected to succeed Rogge as president. “In today’s political and economic situation, the clear tendency was toward tradition and stability.”

Kevan Gosper, an I.O.C. delegate from Australia, said Tokyo represented “a pretty secure option and demonstrates a shift in world activity and economics and sport toward Asia,” a reference to the 2008 Summer Games, held in Beijing, and the 2018 Winter Games, which will take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Prince Albert, an I.O.C. delegate from Monaco, said Saturday’s result also might have represented a strategy by the Olympic committee, which is Eurocentric, to vote for an Asian host with an eye toward returning the Summer Games to Europe in 2024.

Richard W. Pound, an I.O.C. member from Montreal, said he would not rule out the chances of the United States, which is expected to bid on the 2024 Games and has not hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 Games in Atlanta. The United States Olympic Committee and the I.O.C. recently settled a feud over sharing rights to television and sponsorship fees.

“If we are in kiss-and-make-up with the U.S., then why not?” Pound said of the potential American chances.

Jeré Longman reported from Buenos Aires and Martin Fackler from Tokyo. Reporting was contributed by Hiroko Tabuchi and Joshua Hunt from Tokyo, Raphael Minder from Madrid and Ceylan Yeginsu from Istanbul.

DealBook: Buffett Picks Douglas Kass as His 'Bear' for Annual Meeting

John Van Beekum for The New York TimesDouglas Kass, the founder of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management.

Warren E. Buffett has found his bear.

In his annual letter to shareholders, published on Friday, Mr. Buffett said that he wanted to “spice things up” by finding a money manager with an unfavorable view of Berkshire Hathaway to participate in the company’s annual meeting.

“The only requirement is that you be an investment professional and negative on Berkshire,” he wrote.

On Monday, Mr. Buffett said Douglas A. Kass, a hedge fund manager who has shorted Berkshire stock and thus bet that its price will fall, would be added to the panel of analysts at the company’s yearly gathering on May 4. He will be among those who question Mr. Buffett and Berkshire’s vice chairman, Charles T. Munger, on stage, when more than 18,000 devotees are expected to descend on Omaha for the three-day meeting, often described as the Woodstock for capitalists.

Mr. Kass, the owner of Seabreeze Partners Management in Palm Beach, Fla., is a well-known stock picker by virtue of his writings for a financial Web site, TheStreet.com, and frequent appearances on CNBC.

“I am going to Disneyland — I mean, Omaha!” Mr. Kass, 63, wrote on TheStreet.com. “I will be Daniel in the Lion’s Den, wading in a sea of Warren Buffett’s strongest admirers.”

Mr. Buffett, famous for his swift decision-making when it comes to closing deals and buying stocks, wasted no time in picking his “Berkshire bear.” But also credit Mr. Kass for taking the bull by the horns, so to speak.

Mr. Kass said he had read the Berkshire letter as soon as it came out on Friday, just as he had done each of the last 40 years. After seeing Mr. Buffett’s solicitation, he began preparing a proposal. Mr. Kass has credentials as a Berkshire bear, having written a piece in March 2008 for TheStreet.com, “Kass Katch: 11 Reasons to Short Berkshire” that laid out his rationale for betting against the company. (Berkshire’s stock is up about 16 percent since Mr. Kass wrote the column, but it did have down years in 2008 and 2011).

“I have worshiped at the altar of Warren Buffett since the late 1970s,” Mr. Kass wrote. “Indeed my writings over the last seven years have often been punctuated with Buffett-isms.”

Yet Mr. Kass said that despite his idolatry of Mr. Buffett, 82, the Berkshire business faced a number of headwinds. He cited Mr. Buffett’s advanced age, explaining that “there will never be another Warren Buffett.” He also said that Berkshire’s large size could impede returns, pointing out that even Mr. Buffett had written that the company’s asset base was too large to make outsize gains in the future. Both criticisms are even more potent today than they were a half-decade ago.

While Berkshire’s book value — Mr. Buffett’s preferred performance metric — has soundly outperformed the broader stock market over its 48-year history, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has outperformed Berkshire in three of the last four years and five of the last 10.

So on Saturday, while watching the Kansas-West Virginia college basketball game, Mr. Kass completed his application. He included his bearish article on Berkshire from The Street, as well as a presentation he gave last year at a value-investing conference, in which he advocated shorting the United States bond market.

He also included his résumé, which highlighted that he began his career as a housing analyst at the investment bank Kidder Peabody and later worked for the billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, who runs the hedge fund Omega Advisors.

Mr. Kass, who said he had never met Mr. Buffett, also supplied him with a list of references of other prominent investors who know Mr. Buffett, including Howard Marks, the chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, and Mario Gabelli, the chief of Gamco Investors.

On Monday morning, in a live CNBC interview, Mr. Buffett made the surprise announcement that he had selected Mr. Kass.

“Think of tough questions,” Mr. Buffett challenged Mr. Kass on the air. “See if you can drive the stock down 10 percent.”

Mr. Kass was in his Palm Beach office, preparing for the trading day with CNBC playing in the background, and he heard Mr. Buffett make the announcement.

“I was as shocked as everyone else,” said Mr. Kass, who grew up in Rockville Centre, N.Y., on Long Island. “I am flattered, honored and surprised.”

He will join two Berkshire bulls, the insurance analyst Cliff Gallant of Nomura Securities and Jonathan Brandt of the money management firm Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, on stage at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha in two months.

And even though Mr. Kass will be the stick in the mud at the celebratory weekend event, he acknowledges that deep down, he remains an unabashed fan of Mr. Buffett.

“I can’t wait to take a picture with him,” Mr. Kass said.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 4, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated Doug Kass's investment position in Berkshire Hathaway. He is shorting the stock; it is not the case that he was "not currently" short the company's shares.

Sedgwick Picks Up Toxic Tort Boutique

Eugene Brown Jr., Sedgwick partner
Image: courtesy photo

After turning away many Big Law suitors, the partners at trial and litigation defense firm Brown Eassa & McLeod are joining Sedgwick.

The Oakland, Calif.-based civil defense firm's eight partners will move into Sedgwick's offices on March 1, bringing a practice that centers on complex mass tort and product liability cases with them. Sedgwick is still determining how many of Brown Eassa's 11 associates will stay on board, a firm spokesman said. Brown Eassa will dissolve later this year.

Having practiced together for more than 20 years, the core partners at Brown Eassa felt that they could have survived on their own, but they were looking for the geographic reach of a larger firm, managing partner Eugene Brown Jr. said. Brown Eassa lawyers are heavily involved in toxic torts litigation in the Gulf Coast, he noted. And the firms' shared roots in the San Francisco Bay Area and emphases on litigation also make for a good match, he added.

"We really liked the idea of having Sedgwick here in San Francisco," he said. "And having known many of their lawyers over time, it just seemed comfortable."

This is not the first time that Brown Eassa's lawyers have jumped to Big Law. In 2011, 14 of the firm's attorneys -- including former name partner Gennaro "Gus" Filice III -- joined King & Spalding, doubling the firm's presence in San Francisco. King & Spalding offered to hire select partners, but Brown and fellow name partner Robert Eassa stayed put because the Am Law 100 player was not willing to take on all of Brown Eassa's talent, Brown told The Recorder in 2011.

This time, more are welcome. Brown and Eassa will practice at Sedgwick's San Francisco office with partners Bruce McLeod, Delia Isvoranu, Troy McMahan, Amee Mikacich and Susan Ogdie, along with a number of associates. Partner Philip Cosgrove and an associate will be based in Sedgwick's Los Angeles office. Retired partner Raymond Bergez will continue to be involved in an informal capacity, Brown said.

Sedgwick first approached Brown Eassa three or four years ago, Brown said, but conversations between the two firms began in earnest about six months ago. In late 2012, Brown Eassa partners voted unanimously to join forces with the firm, Brown said. The associates have responded positively to the decision, he added.

"They're sad to see us move but anxious to join the new firm," Brown said.

Lawyers from Brown Eassa will deepen Sedgwick's work in products liability, class actions, mass torts, environmental law, commercial litigation and labor and employment, Sedgwick chairman Michael Tanenbaum said. The firm has absorbed small shops before, moving into Washington, D.C., in 2011 with 14 lawyers from local firm Wallace Partners and carving out a presence in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2009 with lawyers from Gordon, Hargrove & James.

"The joinder of these lawyers is consistent with our strategic plan, which calls for the deepening of bench strength in our core areas," Tanenbaum said.

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Haiwen Picks Up Veteran Expat Partner

By Jessica Seah All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

January 9, 2013

Michael Hickman, the former Shanghai office head for both Simmons & Simmons and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, has joined Chinese law firm Haiwen & Partners.

Most recently a senior counsel in Simmons & Simmons' Beijing office, Hickman will work as an international partner in Beijing-based Haiwen's Shanghai office. He advises on joint ventures, foreign direct investment deals, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Hickman has had senior roles in the China practices of several international law firms. He began his legal career at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York and was a partner in that firm's Hong Kong office before moving to the Shanghai office of U.K.-based Simmons & Simmons in 2002.

He served as head of that firm's Shanghai office until 2006, when he and a number of other partners left to join Fried Frank. In 2008, Hickman moved to Dechert, where he was a partner in the firm's Beijing office. He rejoined Simmons & Simmons in 2010.

Haiwen is a corporate boutique firm with around 100 lawyers working in Beijing and Shanghai.

Reed Smith Picks Up Dechert Life Sciences Partner

Reed Smith has hired former Dechert partner Stephen J. McConnell to the firm?s life sciences and health industry group in Philadelphia.

Reed Smith Picks Up Dechert Life Sciences Partner

Reed Smith has hired former Dechert partner Stephen J. McConnell to the firm?s life sciences and health industry group in Philadelphia.

Reed Smith Picks Up Dechert Life Sciences Partner

Reed Smith has hired former Dechert partner Stephen J. McConnell to the firm?s life sciences and health industry group in Philadelphia.