Sean C. Denvir

Barclays Bank is asking a New Jersey bankruptcy judge to dismiss a suit challenging liens against Multi-Color Corp., saying the suit is unnecessary since the bankrupt global label-maker's reorganization plan will be before the court by the end of the month. Barclays on Monday asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael B. Kaplan to stay or dismiss the challenge, saying the lien and valuation issues it raises will be resolved in the Chapter 11 plan confirmation process and that the challenging parties are only trying to delay the case. "This tactic is not new, but it needlessly depletes estate funds and jeopardizes the debtors' reorganization," the bank said. Atlanta-based Multi-Color and affiliates hit Chapter 11 in January with an agreement to trim $3.9 billion of the company's $5.9 billion in debt. Last month, a group of cross-holders of unsecured Multi-Color notes filed an adversary action against Barclays, the agent for the secured debt holders, seeking a declaration that the bank holds liens only on some assets, as stated previously in the Chapter 11 case. In its motion, Barclays argued that a hearing on Multi-Color's Chapter 11 plan is scheduled for no later than March 31, and will necessarily involve discovery and a ruling on the validity of the liens and the value of the collateral. The bank argued that the cross-holder group was pursuing the suit to delay the confirmation process "for the sole purpose of extracting value for the [cross-holder ad hoc group's] substantially underwater debt positions." At a hearing before Judge Kaplan on Tuesday, counsel for an ad hoc group of secured lenders, who were seeking to intervene in the adversary action, made similar arguments. "It will be resolved before we even get to the first or second step of the lawsuit," secured noteholder counsel Alexander Lees said. The motions to intervene by the secured noteholder group and an affiliate of private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice were opposed by the cross-holder group, which argued that the affiliate and noteholder group had not filed a pleading explaining their arguments and which side they were taking in the case as required by federal rules of procedure. "The rule says 'must.' This language is not discretionary," cross-holder counsel Andrew Butler said. Lees said this argument elevates "form over substance." "It's no secret we're going to defend the liens," he said. Judge Kaplan granted the lenders permission to intervene, on the condition they file their own pleading or a joinder to the dismissal motion within 14 days. Barclays is represented by Alan J. Brody of Greenberg Traurig LLP, and Joel Moss, David G. Januszewski, Jordan Wishnew and Jason M. Hall of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. The cross-holder ad hoc group is represented by Paul R. DeFilippo, James N. Lawlor and Joseph F. Pacelli of Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch LLP, and Bruce Bennett, Benjamin Rosenblum, Genna L. Ghaul, Andrew Butler and Benjamin C. Sandberg of Jones Day. The secured ad hoc group is represented by Thomas M. Walsh, Matthew E. Beck and Sam Della Fera Jr. of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, and Evan R. Fleck, Matthew Brod, Alexander Lees, Justin Cunningham, Melanie Westover Yanez and Hannah A. Blazek of Milbank LLP. The Clayton Dubilier affiliate is represented by Jeffrey Cohen, Eric S. Chafetz, Colleen M. Restel and Philip Gross of Lowenstein Sandler LLP, Erica Weisgerber, Zach Saltzman, Nick S. Kaluk III and Mitchell Carlson of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and Ray C. Schrock, Candace M. Arthur, Ryan Preston Dahl and Deniz Irgi of Latham & Watkins LLP. The adversary action is BTG Pactual Asset Management US LLC et al. v. Barclays Bank PLC, case number 3:26-ap-1041, and the bankruptcy is In re: Multi-Color Corp., case number 3:26-bk-10910, both in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Mar 3

3 min

Matthew Huppert A Justice Department trial attorney who helped represent the government in its ad technology monopolization fight against Google has joined Winston & Strawn LLP's Washington, D.C., team. Matthew Huppert joined Winston & Strawn's litigation department and its antitrust and competition practice as a partner, the firm announced Monday. Huppert helped answer U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema's questions related to how quickly Google could sell its advertisement exchange, AdX, to have a meaningful impact on competition. A Columbia Law School graduate, Huppert started his legal career at what is now Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC. He spent seven years there, and then joined the Justice Department in 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2023, he served as a counsel to the assistant attorney general and head of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, Gail Slater, who stepped down from her role last month. A number of former Justice Department attorneys who helped challenge alleged monopolization practices by Google have left the government for private practice. Diana Aguilar, who was a first-chair trial team member of the government antimonopoly litigation case against Google, joined O'Melveny & Myers LLP just this week. Huppert told Law360 Pulse in an interview Tuesday that he served as a counsel to Slater for a few months, before moving back to work on the Google ad tech case. And while some attorneys have told Law360 Pulse they feel there's currently a lack of respect for career, public servant prosecutors at the DOJ, Huppert said that hadn't played into his decision to leave. Huppert wanted to join the DOJ to get more trial experience, something he "very much did," he said. But his plan had always been to stay working for the government no longer than five years. "Certainly, the work experience for the folks at DOJ has changed a lot in the last year. Policies have changed, enforcement priorities have changed, but the Antitrust Division is still the Antitrust Division," Huppert said. "There's a lot of great lawyers there who I hope to maybe be across the table from at some point soon, but there's a core of dedicated public servants at the Antitrust Division who I very much respect, and I hope that that stays as it is today." Reflecting on his work at the Justice Department, Huppert noted he recused on the Google ad matter late last year, and he declined to comment specifically on the challenges associated with that litigation. Huppert said that he joined the Justice Department as a litigator, but that he learned how to be a trial lawyer, throughout his public service experience. For example, he helped represent the government in its challenge of Assa Abloy's purchase of Spectrum Brands' hardware and home improvement business, and helped oversee trial teams in the government's challenge to JetBlue's purchase of Spirit Airways. "I think that litigating those cases was very formative for me, but I think what I learned at the government was how to use what you have available to you, efficiently," Huppert said. "We don't always have the biggest team, we often have a much smaller team than the teams we're litigating against at the government — obviously that's different in private practice." Huppert said his move to private practice, and specifically Winston & Strawn, was motivated by joining a platform full of "litigators' litigators," meaning that work is a core focus of the firm and its culture. Huppert was impressed by the depth of trial expertise at the firm, which includes several of his former colleagues from the DOJ's Antitrust Division, like Benjamin L. Rudofsky and Joshua Hafenbrack, who also worked with him at Kellogg Hansen, he said. "They're friends of mine and longtime colleagues, so it's fun to get to work with them and have that personal connection," he said. Several members of the firm's leadership said in statements Monday that they were looking forward to Huppert's contributions to the team, including Winston & Strawn's litigation department co-chairs, Linda Coberly and Brett Johnson. They said in a joint statement his enforcement insight and litigation experience "add a valuable dimension to the firm's client counseling and business development aptitude." David Rogers, managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office, said in a statement, "Matt's recent experience with the DOJ adds to our market leadership in core practices and aligns seamlessly with our growth objectives."

Mar 3

3 min

Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EDR), a global sports and entertainment company, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its subsidiary IMG Academy, a leading global sports education institution, to BPEA EQT, part of the leading global private equity group, EQT, in partnership with Nord Anglia Education. The all-cash deal reflects an enterprise value of US$1.25 billion. The two companies anticipate the deal will close in the third quarter of this year. Latham & Watkins LLP represents Endeavor in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by New York partners Justin Hamill and Michael Anastasio and Century City partner Sean Denvir. Advice was also provided on real estate matters by New York partner Michelle Kelban; on tax matters by New York partner Alan Kimball; on employment matters by New York partner Austin Ozawa; on intellectual property matters by Washington, D.C. partner Morgan Brubaker and Los Angeles/Century City partner Ghaith Mahmood; on capital markets matters by New York partner Benjamin Cohen; and on data privacy matters by Bay Area partner Robert Blamires.~~

Apr 25

1 min

Emergent Cold Latin America, a leading provider of end-to-end temperature-controlled logistics solutions in Latin America, announced the closing of its acquisition of Qualianz, a storage and logistics platform with operations across Mexico. Latham & Watkins advised Emergent Cold Latin America in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by partners Jason Silvera and Sean Denvir, with associates Joseph Porter and Avery Brust. Advice was also provided on tax matters by partner Pardis Zomorodi.~~

Feb 8

1 min

Nearly 50 partners across six Big Law firms helped steer the $110 billion deal confirmed on Friday between Paramount Skydance Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery, according to lists of firm lawyers on the deal. Warner Bros., which accepted the offer from Paramount, initially indicated it would accept an offer from Netflix for the business that came in between $72 billion and $83 billion, but a campaign (and substantial financial investment) by the Ellison family eventually won out. Larry Ellison, the father of Skydance/Paramount head David Ellison, personally backed $40.4 billion of the offer. Bank of America and Citigroup are providing around $54 billion in debt financing, while several Middle East sovereign wealth funds (reportedly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi) also kicked in cash to reach the $110 billion mark. Cravath, Swaine and Moore was the lead counsel for Paramount, while Debevoise & Plimpton and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as co-counsel for Warner Bros. Latham & Watkins worked with the investment consortium on finance, and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton advised the special committee to the board of directors for Paramount. Covington & Burling was regulatory counsel for Warner Bros. Several Big Law leaders and M&A rainmakers jumped in to see it through. That included Faiza Saeed, presiding partner at Cravath, working for Paramount, and Andrew Nussbaum, co-chair of Wachtell Lipton, working for Warner Bros. Top M&A partners and dealmakers at Latham, Debevoise and Covington also worked the deal. The Cravath team was comprised of partners Saeed, Daniel Cerqueira, Claudia Ricciardi, Alexander Greenberg and Minh Van Ngo on M&A matters; partners Andrew Pitts and C. Daniel Haaren on capital markets matters; partner George Zobitz on banking matters; partner Lauren Angelilli on tax matters; partner Jonathan Katz on executive compensation and benefits matters; partners Andrew Finch and Noah Joshua Phillips on antitrust matters; partners Kevin Orsini and Justin Clarke on litigation matters; and partner John W. White on corporate governance matters. Debevoise & Plimpton and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz were co-counsel for Warner Bros. The Debevoise team was led by M&A partners Jonathan Levitsky, Erik Andrén, Gordon Moodie and Katherine Durnan Taylor, employee benefits and executive compensation partner Simone Hicks, IP and technology transactions partner Henry Lebowitz, capital markets partners Benjamin Pedersen and Matthew Kaplan, finance partners Ryan Rafferty and Ramya Tiller and tax partners Peter Schuur and Erin Cleary and includes M&A partners John Love and William Regner The Wachtell team was led by corporate partner and firm co-chair Andrew Nussbaum and corporate partners Karessa Cain, Hannah Clark and Jacob Pearlman. Deborah Paul handled tax, while firm co-chair William Savitt and partner Ryan McLeod handled litigation matters. Finance partner Gregory Pessin rounded out the partners working the deal. Latham worked with Paramount and an investor consortium on equity finance. The team was led by New York partner Ian Nussbaum, Chicago partner Max Schleusener, and Los Angeles partners Rick Offsay and Liliana Ranger. Cleary was led by partners Paul Shim and Kelsey Nussenfeld. The Covington team, as regulatory counsel for Warner Brothers, included Derek Ludwin (DC); Johan Ysewyn (Brussels); Ross Demain (DC); Melissa Van Schoorisse (Brussels); James Marshall (London); Nathan Wilkins (Brussels); Romain Girard (Brussels); Silvia Wu (DC); and Jaina Patel (DC). In all, there were at least six announced deals valued at more than $1 billion in the last week. Two of those were over the $5 billion range. There was at least one new SPAC merger and one new IPO tracked by Radar. There were at least nine debt offerings over $500 million tracked last week. Deals on the Radar The information regarding the deals below was derived exclusively from Law.com Radar. Engie SA has acquired UK Power Networks Holdings Ltd. (UKPN), an electricity distribution operator in the UK, from CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. for an equity value of approximately 10.5 billion pounds ($14.2 billion). The transaction, announced Feb. 25, is expected to close in mid-2026. France-based Engie was advised by a Herbert Smith Freehills team led by partners Caroline Rae, Silke Goldberg and Frédéric Bouvet. Counsel information for UKPN was not immediately available. The Brink’s Co., the security and armored truck company, has agreed to acquire ATM network NCR Atleos Corp. in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $6.6 billion. The transaction, announced Feb. 26, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. Richmond, Virginia-based Brink’s was advised by Sidley Austin New York-based partners Adam Cromie, David Grubman and George Hunter. NCR Atleos, which is based in Atlanta, was counseled by King & Spalding partners Robert J. Leclerc, Rahul Patel, Michelle Stewart and Keith M. Townsend. Latham & Watkins represented J.P. Morgan, acting as the financial advisor to NCR. The Latham & Watkins corporate team was led by partners Charles Ruck and Brian Umanoff. An investor consortium led by Affinius Capital, in partnership with Vista Hill Partners, has agreed to acquire Veris Residential, a Class A multifamily REIT, for an all-cash consideration of Veris common stock valued at an enterprise value of $3.4 billion. Affinius Capital and Vista Hill Partners were advised by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Greenberg Traurig; and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Veris Residential, which is based in Jersey City, New Jersey, was counseled by Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Seyfarth Shaw. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson guided J.P. Morgan, acting as financial advisor to Veris. The Fried Frank team was led by M&A and private equity partners Philip Richter and Roy Tannenbaum. Goldman Sachs & Co., the lead arranger and underwriter on the bridge loan, was represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Citigroup has agreed to sell 24 percent of its Mexico retail-banking unit to General Atlantic, Brazilian bank BTG Pactual and insurance giant Chubb, among others, for roughly $2.5 billion. The transaction, announced Feb. 24, is expected to close by the end of 2026. Sao Paulo-based BTG Pactual Bank was advised by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Grenfel Calheiros. Counsel information for Citigroup, which is based in New York, was not immediately available. CECO Environmental Corp. and Thermon Group Holdings have agreed to merge for a stock and cash consideration valued at approximately $2.2 billion. The transaction, announced Feb. 24, is expected to close in mid-2026. Dallas-based CECO Environmental was advised by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Thermon Group, which is based in San Marcos, Texas, was counseled by Sidley Austin. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has guided Citi, acting as lead financial advisor to CECO. The Fried Frank team was led by M&A and private equity partners Philip Richter and Roy Tannenbaum. SPAC Mergers: IQM Finland Oy, a super conducting quantum computers designer and manufacturer, is going public via SPAC merger with Real Asset Acquisition Corp. As a result of the merger, IQM will be listed on one of the two leading U.S. stock exchanges with a post-transaction equity value of $450 million. Espoo, Finland-based IQM Finland was advised by Borenius and Cooley partners Eric Blanchard, Peter Byrne and Rita Sobral. Real Asset Acquisition Corp., which is based in Princeton, New Jersey, was counseled by Perkins Coie; Krogerus; and Conyers. IPOs: Guardian Metal Resources plc, an exploration-stage critical minerals company, announced that it has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with its proposed initial public offering of its American Depositary Shares. Guardian Metal was advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell partners Michael Kaplan and Connie Milonakis. BMO Capital Markets, which acted as the underwriter, was counseled by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Ryan Dzierniejko. Debt Offerings: OpenAI Group PBC has secured $110 billion after announcing the close of its funding round led by Amazon ($50 billion), NVIDIA ($30 billion) and SoftBank ($30 billion). San Francisco-based OpenAI was advised by a Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz team led by corporate partners Andrew J. Nussbaum and Mark F. Veblen. Counsel information for the lead investors was not immediately available. Bank of America announced a $7 billion aggregate principal senior notes offering. The lead manager, sole bookrunner and representative of the several underwriters were advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell partners Lucy Farr and Christopher Schell. Counsel information for Bank of America, which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was not immediately available. Infineon Technologies AG announced an aggregate 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in unsubordinated unsecured notes. Neubiberg, Germany-based Infineon Technologies was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Christoph Gleske. The Republic of Paraguay announced an aggregate $1.3 billion principal bond offering. The Republic of Paraguay was advised by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton partners Matthew Brigham and Ignacio Lagos. Sunoco LP has announced an aggregate principal $1.2 billion senior notes offering. Philadelphia-based Sunoco LP was advised by a Vinson & Elkins team led by partners Jackson O'Maley, Ben Heriaud and David Stone. MetLife announced a $1 billion aggregate principal subordinated debenture. New York-based MetLife was advised by a Willkie Farr & Gallagher team led by partners John Schwolsky, Benjamin Nixon and Anne Barrett. The debentures come due in 2056. Matador Resources Co. announced a $750 million senior unsecured notes offering. Dallas-based Matador Resources Co. was advised by Baker Botts partners Preston Bernhisel, Stephen Marcus and Luke Weedon. The notes come due 2034. TPG Operating Group II LP, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of TPG Inc., announced a $500 million senior notes offering. TPG Operating Group II was advised by Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Wells Fargo Securities, BofA Securities, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group, which acted as the underwriters, were counseled by a Davis Polk & Wardwell team including partners Stephen Byeff, Derek Dostal, Jack Orford, David Schnabel and Aliza Slansky. The senior notes come due 2031. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has guided an ad hoc group of term loan lenders and bondholders in connection with Advantage Solutions Inc.'s $590 million aggregate principal senior secured notes offering. The Paul Weiss team included partners Lauren Bilzin, Joseph Glatt and Sung Pak.

Mar 2

7 min