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Ben Maiden reports on the increasing number of private practitioners in the US going to work for clients, and not always as lawyers

Paul Hastings promoted real-estate specialist Mark Brooks to of counsel in the firm's Hong Kong office. Brooks, a New York qualified lawyer, is part of a team of over 20 real estate lawyers in Asia. He has practised in Tokyo, representing foreign-backed lenders and borrowers in connection with securitized financings of commercial projects.

David Wilson, OSC David Brown, Davies Ward David Wilson took office as the new head of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), the most influential financial regulator in Canada. Wilson began work on November 1 at the start of a five-year term. Before chairing the OSC, Wilson was vice chairman of the Bank of Nova Scotia and chairman and chief executive of Scotia Capital. He took over from David Brown, who had led the OSC since 1998. Brown rejoined Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg this month as counsel, having been a senior partner with the firm before moving to the OSC. His experience as a lawyer includes corporate finance, restructurings and mergers and acquisitions. During his time at the OSC, Brown took a leading role in pushing for greater uniformity of securities rules and for the creation of a national regulator to replace the 13 existing provincial and territorial authorities.

Frankfurt-headquartered DVB Bank acted as arranger on the €180 million financing of a new deepwater container terminal in Gdansk, Poland. DVB Bank agreed to arrange and provide up to €100 million of debt finance to DCT Gdansk. DCT Gdansk is majority owned by Macquarie Global Infrastructure Fund II. The Norton Rose team advising DVB Bank was led by Tomas Gärdfors in Frankfurt, Chris Brown in London and Piotr Strawa in Warsaw. Wildgen & Partners advised DVB on Luxembourg law and McCann FitzGerald advised DVB on Irish law. Lovells advised the borrower.

Shearman & Sterling and Latham & Watkins were the lead transaction counsel as private company Koch Industries agreed to buy Georgia-Pacific for $13.2 billion. The deal will take place through Koch Forest Products, a wholly owned Koch subsidiary, and will have a total transaction value of $21 billion, including debt. Citigroup will provide debt financing to Koch for the acquisition. Partner Creighton Condon led the Shearman team advising Koch on the deal. King & Spalding partners William Baxley and William Holby in Atlanta and Anthony Rothermel in New York advised Koch on corporate governance, due diligence and Georgia law issues. Mark Gerstein and John Sorkin of Latham & Watkins represented Georgia-Pacific.

A new OSC rule has tried to resolve confusion over what conditions can be attached to the financing of takeover bids for Canadian companies. Graham Gow explains

Hong Kong's accountants are following their US counterparts' attempts to withdraw from due diligence in the offering process. This is putting investor protection at risk, writes John Moore

CSFB acted as sole bookrunner and global coordinator on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's inaugural sovereign bond issue. The global offering consisted of $700 million in unsecured fixed-rate notes due 2016. Shearman & Sterling, led by Matthew Bersani in Hong Kong, was retained by CSFB as US counsel. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted as US counsel to the issuer with Joe Sevack leading the team. Vietnamese legal advisers included Phillips Fox acting for CSFB and the Ministry of Justice on the issuer's side.

Calyon took on the roles of arranger, security trustee, agent and account bank on a $2 billion, seven-year secured financing for Sonangol, Angola's oil and gas company. The deal marked Sonangol's first non-Export Credit Agency-supported facility to extend beyond five years. Philip Badge led the Linklaters team advising Calyon, with Global Law Office providing the PRC law advice. Calyon was also advised by Fernando Oliveira and Manuela Cueha as to Angolan law. Li & Partners acted as Hong Kong counsel to Sonangol.

China Construction Bank became the first of the big four state-owned Chinese banks to successfully list overseas. Besides being the largest ever in Hong Kong, the $8 billion initial public offering (IPO) was at the time the largest in the world for four years. Herbert Smith acted for the issuer on Hong Kong law and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom acted as US counsel. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, led by China securities head Teresa Ko, advised joint bookrunners Morgan Stanley, China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and CSFB as well as joint sponsors CICC, Morgan Stanley and CCB International Capital. The joint sponsors and underwriters were also advised by Davis Polk Wardwell on US law and Haiwen & Partners on PRC law. Commerce & Finance Law Offices provided PRC legal advice to the issuer.