Profile: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP - Who's Who Legal '70'

What is the Who's Who Legal '70'?

The firm’s prestige grew in the following years; in 1963 partner Irving Goldberg advised Vice President Lyndon Johnson on his transition to president following the assassination of John F Kennedy, and in 1966 the firm, now with 20 lawyers, changed its name to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. It increased its Texan presence through a merger with Schenker, Rosenheim & Schenker to open a San Antonio office in 1984, and in 1989 the firm expanded overseas with an office in Belgium. A New York branch followed in 1993, with an office in Moscow a year later, and when the firm came to its 50th anniversary in 1995 it had housed over 500 lawyers. Today Akin Gump has 1,050 professionals in 14 offices worldwide, including ten branches in the US (four in Texas alone). The firm performed well in our research, 25 nominees feature in 14 chapters.

OIL & GAS AND ENVIRONMENT
Unsurprisingly the Texas firm put in a very strong showing in the oil & gas chapter and boasts three entries from offices in the US, Europe and the Middle East. John Cogan won considerable acclaim from our sources, who mentioned “vast experience, technical knowledge” and “expertise in handling and making projects actually happen”. Cogan represented Husky Energy as lead US counsel in its acquisition of a refinery in Lima, Ohio, from Valero Energy Corporation. The purchase was valued at US$1.9 billion. Cogan can also be found in the project finance section. James Langdon appears in Washington, DC (he splits his time between the US capital, Texas and Moscow). Described to researchers “an excellent practitioner” Langdon highlights the strength of the group at Akin Gump, which proves its international credentials, thanks to the nomination of the “highly professional” Douglas Glass in London. Glass has an excellent reputation, and represented an international energy company in relation to its US$500 million acquisition of upstream assets in the Russian Federation. The firm also finds itself included in the environment chapter, thanks to the “exceptional work” of Diana Dutton and Paul Seals, who are in the Dallas and Austin offices, respectively. Dutton is head of the firm’s environmental practice group; one respondent noted that she “has a good head on her shoulders for policy”.

TRADE & CUSTOMS
The Washington, DC, office is the focal point of the firm’s accomplished trade practice. Valerie Slater heads the international trade practice and her trade remedy work was brought to our attention. Slater has had a busy 12 months during which she has represented COFANT in the first sunset review of the anti-dumping measures against ammonium nitrate from Russia and Ukraine and been advising the US farm-raised catfish industry with respect to imports of catfish from China. The “excellent” Spencer Griffith is highly regarded according to our findings and his work on lumber disputes was noted. In the past year he has represented Teck Cominco, a multinational natural resources and mining corporation, in a dumping case brought by the US sulphur dioxide industry against imports of sulphur dioxide from Canada. Warren Connelly is “an excellent lawyer from an excellent firm”, according to one rival. His work to achieve the revocation of the US anti-dumping order on warm-water shrimp from Ecuador was noted and among other matters he also obtained the withdrawal of an anti-dumping petition brought in Korea against exports of soya bean oil from the US by Archer Daniels Midland. Hal Shapiro was a prominent lateral hire for the firm in 2007.

Before joining Akin Gump he served as senior adviser for international economic affairs and senior counsellor to the director of the National Economic Council at the White House.

FINANCE
Akin Gump can be proud of its credentials in the financial sector, with a number of highly regarded individuals making the grade in a variety of practice areas. Bruce Mendelsohn and Samuel Wolff feature in the capital markets chapter, where their experience with the Securities and Exchange Commission no doubt contributes to their “great reputation” in the area. Stuart Leblang is included in the corporate tax chapter.

CORPORATE
The insolvency and restructuring chapter is home to three top-tier Akin Gump practitioners, led by “captain of the ship” Daniel Golden, who is the partner in charge of the firm’s New York office and heads the financial restructuring practice group there. He has acted as lead counsel in some of America’s largest and highest-profile restructurings and chapter 11 cases, including WorldCom and Delta Air Lines. Fred Hodara is a “hedge fund expert” and is currently representing the joint official liquidators of two Bear Stearns-managed sub-prime hedge funds. Stanley Samorajczyk in Washington has, like Hodara, a national and cross-border practice that has seen him serving as reorganisation counsel to a subsidiary of a major Japanese trading company in its chapter 11 proceeding.

The firm can also boast two entries in the private funds section of this publication. The “very capable” Stephen Vine leads the firm’s investment funds practice group and was one of the founding partners of the New York office. David Billings heads the investment funds practice group on the other side of the pond, in London.

WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINAL DEFENCE
The firm finds multiple entries in the business crime chapter. Michael Madigan is a former federal prosecutor and is “very highly regarded” by his peers. Madigan was lead counsel in United States v Stein et al achieving the dismissal of criminal charges against his client, former vice chairman of tax at KPMG, in the largest criminal tax case in US history on grounds that the government violated the client’s constitutional rights. Madigan is joined on the following pages by John Dowd who heads the firm’s criminal litigation group and is a former trial attorney in the tax division of the US Department of Justice and chief of the organised crime strike force in the criminal division. Dowd represented Monica Goodling, a Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, in connection with the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings into the matter.

ANTITRUST
Janet Jie Tang is based in Beijing and represents the firm in the competition chapter. Tang is a prominent lateral hire from DLA Piper and is well known for advising major American and European companies on cross-border business transactions in mainland China.

FURTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Paul Killian in Washington was praised in the construction research for his “excellent work”, while Dallas-based Carl Lee stood out in the real estate chapter. Co-leader of Akin Gump’s labour and employment practice group Donald Livingston is included in the management labour and employment section and is a former general counsel of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lester Hewitt in Trademarks rounds off the firm’s showing in the publication.