White & Case's Atterbury Named IPO "Dealmaker of the Year"

New York, April 6, 2009 ... S. Ward Atterbury of global law firm White & Case LLP was recognized by The American Lawyer magazine as one of its 2008 "Dealmakers of the Year." A partner in the Firm's M&A Practice in New York, Atterbury was noted for his representation of Visa, Inc., in its $17.9 billion initial public offering, the largest in US history.

"This is a great accomplishment and we congratulate Ward and the team of lawyers around the world who contributed to the success of the deal," said Hugh Verrier, chairman of White & Case. "We are pleased to have had the opportunity to assist Visa with its historic IPO."

In its profile of Atterbury that appeared in the magazine's April 2009 issue, The American Lawyer noted that the Visa IPO was "no cookie-cutter offering." Before Visa could conduct the offering, reports the magazine, it had to undergo a change in ownership structure – "from a membership organization owned by regional financial institutions to a single entity" – a yearlong process involving 120 White & Case lawyers in 20 countries.

As further explained in the profile, the restructuring also entailed splitting the "organization's equity among all the institutions that owned a piece of the company" and creating a "retroactive responsibility plan to cover Visa USA, Inc.'s preexisting litigation exposure. (Visa Europe Ltd. was not included in the IPO.)"

In addition to his work for Visa, Atterbury represents sellers and buyers in domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and restructurings in sectors such as financial services, entertainment, telecommunications and heavy and light industrial. He also represents private equity firms in acquiring and disposing portfolio companies. Atterbury has completed transactions for clients that include sovereign wealth funds, Liberty Global, Inc.; EchoStar Corporation; Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking; The Blackstone Group and Harvest Partners.

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Contact:
Nicholas Clarke
Regional Media Relations Manager - Americas
White & Case LLP
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