Biography: Environment

Ms Flesher is senior counsel in Davis Polk's corporate department and environmental practice group. She has represented US and international companies, boards of directors, financial institutions, private equity and venture capital groups and other entities on environmental matters in the context of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, real estate investments, bankruptcies and restructurings and securities offerings. Ms Flesher has provided advice on a wide range of environmental matters, varying from liability analysis in the context of structuring and valuing a transaction to risk allocation among private parties to specific advice on air, water, superfund and carbon trading laws.

She has regularly advised many of the firm's clients, including Western Refining, Westar Energy, Patriot Coal, Repsol YPF, Emerson Electric and VF Corporation, as well as Metalmark Capital, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, Stockbridge Real Estate Funds, Avista Capital Partners, Crestview Partners and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and a large number of major investment banks.

Ms Flesher's recent representations include: advising Comcast in connection with its $37 billion NBC Universal joint venture with General Electric; advising Metalmark Capital Partners and its portfolio company Monarch Natural Gas in connection with Monarch's $23 million acquisition of substantially all of the Riverbend midstream assets and the salt water evaporative facilities of Gasco Energy; advising the lead managers on the $459 million SEC-registered initial public offering of common stock of Cloud Peak Energy, the third-largest producer of coal in the US; advising ExxonMobil on its $41 billion all-stock acquisition of XTO Energy; and advising Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Veolia Energy North America in connection with the formation of a joint venture and the $320 million cash acquisition by that joint venture of the Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP) from NSTAR.

Ms Flesher was named 2011 "Environmental Lawyer of the Year" by Best Lawyers. She is also listed as a leading environmental lawyer in several legal industry publications, including: Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (from its inception in 2003-2004 through and including the most recent issue (2010), where she is one of only three lawyers listed in New York in the first tier for environmental transactions); Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and Who's Who Legal: USA - Environment; Incisivemedia's (formerly American Lawyer Media) Corporate Counsel: Best Lawyers in America in Environmental Law; and Practical Law Company's Cross-border Environment Handbook. She is a member of the Hastings Law Journal.

Ms Flesher is currently a member of the American Bar Association and the New York City Bar. She is a member and secretary on the board of trustees of 1066 Foundation, University of California Hastings College of the Law, and a member and co-chair of the softball board, University of Pennsylvania. She is a past member of NALP Foundation board of trustees, 1998-2003; the membership committee of the New York City Bar, 1998-2001; and the environmental law committee of the New York City Bar, 1995-1998.

Ms Flesher was made an associate of the firm in 1988, partner in 1996 and senior counsel in 2010. She received her BS in 1983 from University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, and her JD in 1988 from UC Hastings College of the Law. She is admitted in the states of New York and Connecticut.