Chadbourne & Parke

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Chadbourne & Parke LLP

Headquarters	New York City, New York
No. of Offices	13
No. of Attorneys	400+
Major Practice Areas	General practice, Project Finance, Insurance & Reinsurance, Products Liability, Latin America
Key People	Charles O'Neill (Managing Partner)
Revenue	$300 million (2006)
Date Founded	1902
Company Type	Limited liability partnership
Website	www.chadbourne.com

Chadbourne & Parke LLP, founded in 1902 by Thomas L. Chadbourne, presently has some 400 lawyers and tax advisors in 13 offices in nine countries. Chadbourne is probably best known for its global practice in project finance and energy, international insurance and reinsurance practice, multi-jurisdictional litigation in courts from Rhode Island to Russia, and corporate transactions.

1 Overview
2 Practices
3 Notable Mandates
4 Pro Bono
5 Offices
6 External links

[edit] Overview

In recent years the firm has pursued all of the foregoing disciplines, and more, in a variety of emerging markets. It is active throughout Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey and the Middle East.

In 1973 the firm moved from its original Wall Street home to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where it now occupies eight floors, to become more accessible to its national and international clients. An even earlier “move” occurred in 1935 when it formed one of the first branch offices of a New York law firm in Washington, DC. Beginning in 1990 in Moscow, Chadbourne established offices in England, Poland, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, receiving a significant boost in its Eastern Europe network from the dissolving firms Altheimer & Gray and Coudert Brothers. Its newest offices opened in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico City, Mexico respectively. The firm also has a small satellite office in China.

On 14 November 2007 the firm announced that talks had collapsed with the U.K. law firm Watson, Farley & Williams about a possible merger.[1] In March 2008, the firm acquired the Mexico City office of the New York firm Thacher Proffitt & Wood as well as an associated team of lawyers in New York focusing on Latin America-related arbitration and transactions.

The firm has numbered among its individual clients Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, James Joyce and the Wright brothers. In 1924, Tom Chadbourne orchestrated the consolidation of New York City’s subway system. The firm’s success in two landmark cases before the United States Supreme Court in the 1980s created the legal framework for development of the cogeneration and independent power production industries. In its successful representation of French and U.S. clients in the De Lorean sports car fiasco in Northern Ireland, the disclosure of Cabinet minutes was compelled for the first time in British history.

Ed Muskie, Secretary of State and a Vice Presidential candidate in 1968, was for many years senior partner of the Washington office. In December 2006, George Bundy Smith joined Chadbourne as a partner in the litigation practice in New York, after retiring as an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York state). In March 2007, former New York Governor George Pataki and his Chief of Staff, John Cahill, joined Chadbourne's New York office as counsel, with a practice focused on energy, environmental and corporate matters. In April 2008, Chadbourne launched a firm-wide "Green Initiative" to implement more environmentally-sustainable practices in the firm's daily practices.

[edit] Practices

Practices include mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, private funds, corporate finance, energy, communications and technology, commercial and products liability litigation, securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, special investigations and litigation, intellectual property, antitrust, domestic and international tax, insurance and reinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, employment law and ERISA, trusts and estates and government contract matters.

In 2006, two Chadbourne transactions were named “deals of the year” in The Americas by Project Finance International. Chadbourne’s project finance practice is regularly recognized by legal guides such as Chambers Global - The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business. The firm’s primary projects focus is on energy, telecommunications and toll roads.

The firm's general corporate and antitrust practices have a substantial presence in Latin American corporate and private funds transactions. The firm’s bankruptcy and financial restructuring practice has represented financial institutions, creditors, receivers and other parties in prominent cases involving companies such Enron, Refco, Spiegel, Inc./Eddie Bauer Inc., Parmalat USA Corp. and Yukos Oil.

In February 2008, Chadbourne formed a climate change practice, led by Gov. Pataki and Mr. Cahill. The practice draws on the experience of Chadbourne’s transactional, insurance, regulatory, energy, environmental, litigation and public policy attorneys, and includes expertise in market-based carbon cap and trade programs.

In April 2008, Chadbourne formed a nanotechnologies practice, drawing on the firm's existing practices in energy, insurance, private equity, intellectual property, litigation and products liability.

The firm’s European offices are predominantly staffed by nationals of those countries who provide quality legal services and advice on local law and foreign direct investment on a par with standards in the United States. Chambers Global - The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business for 2007 ranked 19 attorneys from Chadbourne’s Russian, Central Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) offices as leaders in their field, including partners in the Moscow, Warsaw, Kyiv and Almaty offices.

[edit] Notable Mandates

PepsiCo in its acquisition of JSC Lebedyansky, a Russian juice manufacturer.
Counsel to Gazprom in the $20 billion project finance to develop the Shtokman field.
Advised the Asian Development Bank in the $412 million project finance for an electrical generating plant in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam.
Antitrust counsel in Brazilian mining company Companhia Vale do Rio Dolce's tender offer for Canadian nickel company Inco, now called CVRD Inco.
Products liability counsel for British American Tobacco in the $280 billion government RICO action against cigarette manufacturers.
Arbitration on behalf of Lloyd's of London related to the Enron and Worldcom losses.

[edit] Pro Bono

In 1999, Chadbourne was one of the first law firms to name a Pro Bono Partner entirely devoted to structuring and developing a pro bono program.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Chadbourne housed more than 100 attorneys and staff of the City of New York’s Law Department for almost eight months, after their offices near Ground Zero could not be used.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg later officially proclaimed May 17, 2002 "Chadbourne & Parke Day" in New York.
In 2005, Chadbourne established a fellowship program to place attorneys at the Legal Services Center of The Door, a youth development agency in New York.