Nine Partners Earn 2015 MVP Honors

Nine Latham & Watkins partners have been named MVPs by Law360 in its annual recognition of leading lawyers across practice and industry areas. More than 850 individual submissions were reviewed by Law360 in 31 categories to select lawyers who advised on “high-stakes litigation, record-breaking deals and complex global matters” during the past year, according to Law360. The Latham honorees include: 

• Gary Axelrod, a Chicago corporate partner, was honored in the Hospitality category for advising leading hotel, gaming and leisure clients on notable M&A and spinoff transactions during the past year, including “some of the biggest ticket deals in the industry.” 
• Christopher Brearton, a Century City corporate partner named in the Sports category, was cited for “being one of the go-to legal advisers for sports organizations and their content providers," which has “placed him at the forefront of some of the industry’s biggest deals.”
• Matthew Brill, a Washington, D.C. corporate partner selected in the Telecommunications category, was recognized for advising on high-profile transactions in the sector and for representing the cable industry during important net neutrality rulemaking proceedings. 
• Kirk Davenport, a New York corporate partner honored in the Capital Markets category, was cited for being “instrumental in spearheading innovative deals and investment vehicles such as the one used in the energy sector known as the yieldco.” 
• Bill Finnegan, a Houston corporate partner named in the Energy category, was noted for representing “some of the largest energy companies in the world and over the past year had a hand in some of the industry’s highest-value, highest-profile transactions.”
• Jennifer Perkins, a New York corporate partner selected in the Private Equity category, was cited as “a private equity pro who put her deep knowledge to work on a wide range of transactions this year.”
• Charles Ruck, an Orange County/New York corporate partner, was honored in the Life Sciences category for “his vast experience in high-level corporate transactions, including several multi-billion dollar life sciences mergers during the past year." 
• Peter Wald, a San Francisco litigation partner was named in the Securities category for successfully leading high-profile securities litigation matters, including the defense of a hostile takeover of client Allergan, Inc. that “captivated Wall Street and shaped the course of mergers and acquisitions.”
• John Wilson, a San Diego environmental/litigation partner selected in the Insurance category, argued and won a landmark insurance coverage case in California Supreme Court that applied “an obscure late-1800s state insurance statute to allow policyholders to freely assign their coverage rights after a loss.”