King & Spalding LLP - The Who's Who Legal 100 2013

What is the Who's Who Legal 100?

The firm’s strongest practice sector in our research is arbitration – 12 lawyers feature in the commercial arbitration chapter from its offices in DC, Houston, New York, Paris, Frankfurt and Singapore. The Houston office is a hub of talent and fields five individuals including head of King & Spalding’s international arbitration practice Doak Bishop. Bishop has extensive experience in oil and gas, energy, construction, environmental and foreign investment disputes and is “phenomenal” according to peers. He continued to impress with his knowledge of the oil and gas sector and earns an additional listing in that chapter. Joining him in both chapters is John Bowman, who is singled out for his “superb handling” of disputes involving international oil and service companies. He represents energy companies in commercial and investment arbitration cases. Also in Houston, Craig Miles specialises in representing foreign investors in disputes with host governments primarily before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes as well as private parties in commercial disputes. He is “extremely talented” and noted for his handling of bilateral investment treaty disputes in the oil and gas sector and in Latin America. In Paris, Eric Schwartz and James Castello are highly respected for their extensive ICC and UNCITRAL experience. Head of the firm’s arbitration practice in Asia, John Savage has more than 20 years’ experience representing governments, corporations and high net worth individuals in arbitrations, particularly in the oil and gas and power sectors.

With a strong clientele in the oil and gas sector, the King & Spalding is lauded for its activity in this field. The firm is particularly renowned for its regulatory expertise and litigation practice and is represented by nine practitioners in the corresponding chapter. Houston, known for its oil and gas industry, fields four lawyers including Kenneth Culotta, head of the firm’s global transactions practice group. Culotta specialises in cross-border transactions as well as financing and represents oil and gas producers, transport and storage providers, LNG concerns, petrochemical manufacturers as well as private equity funds in the sector. Vera De Brito de Gyarfas focuses her practice on energy projects in Latin America and is particularly well known for helping clients to protect investments in Venezuela through the use of bilateral investment treaties. Singapore-based Daniel Rogers has a “sterling reputation” for project finance and oil and gas and is listed in both chapters. His practice centres on energy related infrastructure development and finance, commodities marketing and trading and transportation projects and transactions. In London, Garry Pegg is praised for his “in-depth knowledge” of the oil and gas sector while Jennifer Josefson in Moscow is noted for being “very commercially minded”.

King & Spalding excels in the life sciences and product liability sectors. Edward Basile and Mark Brown, both in the firm’s DC office, appear twice in the life sciences chapter for their regulatory knowledge and product liability defence practices. Basile represents pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies of varying sizes and provides strategic advice on obtaining Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals of new products as well on compliance issues. He is also an active litigator. Brown calls upon his experience as the associate chief counsel of the FDA to advise clients on a wide range of regulatory matters. He is a “superb litigator” and well known in the product liability field. Donald Zimmer Jr is noted for his considerable experience in product liability defence. Managing partner of the San Francisco office, he focuses on defending pharmaceuticals, medical devices and toxic substances and earns further recognition in the life sciences chapter. Chilton Davis Varner is a “distinguished” trial lawyer with 30 years of courtroom experience. Her practice earns her recognition in the product liability, commercial litigation and life sciences chapters.

The trade and customs chapter welcomes five inclusions from the firm’s Geneva and Washington, DC, offices. Stephen Orava divides his time between the two offices and is “internationally renowned” for his WTO experience. He represents clients in anti-dumping, countervailing duty and safeguard proceedings. In Geneva, Jasper Wauters specialises in WTO dispute settlement proceedings and is a “definite inclusion”. Joseph Dorn in DC is the founding partner of the firm’s international trade practice group and has a “long-standing reputation” in the field.

The firm fields impressive individuals to the real estate and construction chapters, earning four and two listings respectively. In Atlanta, Mason Stephenson has more than 40 years of experience in real estate representing banks, credit companies, life insurance companies, pension funds and other institutional lenders and investors. He recently represented GE Capital Real Estate in connection with two loans to investment funds managed by Blackstone Group LP, the first of approximately $1 billion and the second $575 million. In Paris, Pascal Schmitz focuses his practice on commercial real estate and real estate finance. He advises funds such as Deka Immobilien Investment, Blackstone group and Orion capital. Scott Chalmers in Houston is an English-qualified solicitor specialising in construction. He advises sponsors, owners and lenders from pre-contract negotiation through to contract administration and dispute resolution.

The firm’s commitment to understanding its client’s businesses and culture earns it a “leading” presence across key industries and sectors such as health care, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, energy and real estate.