Milbank Elects Six Attorneys to Partnership
Election of Six New Partners to the Firm's New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and London Offices Represents a Cross-Section of the Firm's Practices Areas
NEW YORK, November 8, 2006 – The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP announced today the election of six new partners to the firm’s New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and London offices. Representing a cross-section of the firm’s practice areas, the new partners are: Sander Bak, Edward V. Kayukov, Sean Keaton, Andrew M. Leblanc, Taisa Markus, and Suhrud Mehta.
Commenting on the announcement, Milbank Chairman Mel M. Immergut stated, “We welcome these superb young lawyers to the partnership. Their election underscores the continuing growth of our practice areas and depth of talent throughout the firm. These lawyers have demonstrated their ability to continue Milbank’s tradition of developing innovative solutions for increasingly complex transactions and disputes.”
NEW YORK OFFICE:
SANDER BAK, formerly an associate, has been named a partner in Milbank’s Litigation Group. His practice encompasses a range of complex commercial disputes involving international law, human rights issues, securities law, and internal corporate investigations. Mr. Bak’s recent representations include the successful defense of numerous domestic and international financial institutions in a lawsuit asserting claims under the anti-terrorism act based on the banks’ dealings with Iraq; the representation of several German financial institutions in litigations involving claims arising under international law; the representation of a foreign head of state in a suit by an opposition leader involving human rights issues; and the representation of a specialist firm in a NYSE enforcement action. Mr. Bak has represented one of the country’s largest glass manufacturers in state and federal courts in the defense of a price-fixing class action. Mr. Bak currently represents JP Morgan Chase in its capacity as administrative agent for the senior secured lenders to Global Crossing.
Mr. Bak has represented hedge funds in connection with SEC investigations and private claims involving short-selling activities and insider trading allegations. In addition, Mr. Bak has worked on several high-profile trust and estate matters.
Mr. Bak received his B.A. in political science, magna cum laude, from Yeshiva University. He earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar each year. Mr. Bak joined Milbank in 2002. He is admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey.
TAISA MARKUS, formerly counsel, has been named a partner in Milbank’s Capital Markets Group. Her practice focuses primarily on cross-border securities offerings, cross-border bank finance and structured finance and general securities law matters. Ms. Markus has significant experience representing both financial institutions and issuer clients particularly in Latin American and other emerging/potential financial markets. Most recently Ms. Markus has been involved in more than $23 billion of Scandinavian bank financing programs for Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki Islands hf., and DnB NOR Bank ASA. Recent representations in Latin America include offerings by clients such as Su Casita, Mexico’s largest mortgage bank (“sofol”); Mexican homebuilders Consorcio ARA and Urbi, Desarrollos Urbanos; the AES El Salvador Trust; Mexican consumer goods company Controladora Mabe; and Mexican waste management company Promotora Ambiental. In 2005 Ms. Markus worked on the first three “Tier I” perpetual securities offerings sold by financial institutions in Brazil.
After graduating from law school, Ms. Markus served as an intern at the Cardenas law firm in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is fluent in Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Ukrainian. Ms. Markus received her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Illinois and her B.S., cum laude, from Loyola University
LOS ANGELES:
EDWARD V. KAYUKOV, formerly an associate, has been named a partner in Milbank’s Project Finance Group. Mr. Kayukov has extensive experience in infrastructure and energy project financings, representing lenders, developers and private equity investors in the domestic and international energy, renewable energy, oil and gas, telecommunications industries. Mr. Kayukov has particular expertise in the development and financing of wind power projects, and has represented developers and lenders throughout the United States. Examples of Mr. Kayukov’s recent wind power projects include Buffalo Gap 2 and Sweetwater 4 in Texas; Blue Canyon 2/Maple Ridge Portfolio in Oklahoma and New York; GSG Project in Illinois; Buena Vista Project in California; Aragonne Mesa Wind Project in New Mexico; Noble Environmental Power in New York and Michigan; and the Top Deer Portfolio in Texas and Iowa.
Mr. Kayukov received his J.D. from Stanford University and his B.A. from Moscow State, Linguistic University, Moscow, Russia. He is admitted to practice law in California.
WASHINGTON, D.C.:
ANDREW M. LEBLANC, formerly an associate, has been named a partner in Milbank’s Litigation Group. Mr. Leblanc’s practice encompasses a broad range of litigation and arbitration matters, including litigation of class actions, breach of contract claims, bankruptcy-related disputes, securities fraud claims, insurance and tort claims. He has argued before state and federal trial and appellate courts and domestic and international tribunals. Mr. Leblanc also counsels clients with respect to disputes and provides litigation analyses.
Mr. Leblanc represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Refco in litigation arising from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case and in related adversary proceedings, including a preference action brought against hedge fund company SPhinX Managed Futures Fund and an adversary proceeding brought against Austrian bank BAWAG. Other recent representations include the senior secured lender in the OCA, Inc. bankruptcy; Astoria Federal Savings Bank (formerly the Long Island Savings Bank) in connection with a breach of contract suit arising from the government bailout of the savings and loan industry; JPMorgan Chase in its capacity as administrative agent for the senior secured lenders to Global Crossing; and a sovereign nation in a dispute before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Mr. Leblanc received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his B.S. in aeronautical engineering, magna cum laude, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is admitted to practice law in Maine and the District of Columbia.
LONDON:
SEAN KEATON, formerly an associate, has been named a partner in Milbank’s Strategic Sourcing and Technology Group. Mr. Keaton has been advising leading corporations in relation to outsourcing and technology projects in Europe and in Asia and the Pacific throughout his career. Most recently, he was the lead attorney on the Sainsbury’s (one of the UK’s largest supermarkets) – Accenture insourcing, the largest insourcing project of its kind in Europe. He is currently advising one of world’s largest pharmaceutical companies on its global outsourcing programme
In addition, he has represented ABN AMRO Bank, Barclays Bank and Swiss manufacturer Firmenich in relation to large scale outsourcing projects and continues to represent longtime clients Northern Trust, RBC-Dexia and JP Morgan in relation to investment management outsourcing transactions. Mr. Keaton also works regularly with clients T-Systems (a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary) in relation to large scale government procurements and Genpact in relation to BPO transactions.
Mr. Keaton is recognized as one of the UK’s leading outsourcing and IT practitioners in the 2006 and 2007 edition of Chambers and was listed in The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” list for 2005. Mr. Keaton is part of Milbank’s Global Strategic Sourcing and Technology Group that is uniquely positioned as the #1 ranked outsourcing practice in both New York and London (Chambers 2007).
Prior to joining Milbank Mr. Keaton was an associate at Clifford Chance. Mr. Keaton received his LLB (Hons) and BComm from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. He is admitted to practice law in England and in Australia.
SUHRUD MEHTA, formerly an associate, has been named a partner in Milbank’s Leveraged Finance Group. Mr. Mehta specialises in leveraged and acquisition finance, representing arrangers and sponsors on the financing of acquisitions involving senior, second lien, mezzanine, PIK, bridge and high yield instruments. His experience includes advising on some of the leading public to private transactions in the UK and Europe.
Mr. Mehta’s recent representations include advising: the arrangers on the financing for the €1.1 billion bid by Macquarie for Techem AG; the arranger on the €1 billion recapitalization of the Sport5 Group; the arrangers on the financing for the £10 billion bid by the Goldman Sachs consortium for BAA plc; and Macquarie on the financing for the acquisition of the London bus transport business of Stagecoach plc.
He read law at Downing College, Cambridge University and received a BA in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University . Mr. Mehta is a solicitor, admitted to practice law in England and Wales.
About Milbank
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a preeminent global law firm that for more than 140 years has provided innovative legal solutions in many of the world’s largest, most complex, “first-ever” corporate transactions and litigation. Our transactional expertise includes capital markets, corporate finance and transactions, project finance, acquisition finance, and other major fields of law practice. Milbank litigation teams resolve disputes involving mergers and acquisitions, proxy battles, financings and securities offerings, intellectual property, white collar crime, and corporate restructurings, among others. Our clients range from prominent multinational financial, industrial and commercial enterprises to governments, institutions and individuals. The Firm is headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing.