Jan Hückel and Uwe Goetker advised the Leipzig Internet Group insolvency administrator on selling two of the company’s core travel portals to Czech investment group Rockaway Capital SE.

Brooks Gruemmer, Samuel Wales, John Hammond, Daniel Zucker, Joel Rush, Thomas Ward and Daniel Goldstein were the M&A, corporate, tax and health lawyers from the Chicago and DC offices who advised Professional Physical Therapy on its acquisition by Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Stephen Kranz raised questions about the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA) and advised states considering it to “be on the lookout for a number of issues that are not adequately addressed by the proposed statutory language or the comments,” such as gift card exemptions. Diann Smith added that comments made to RUUPA “are useful in many respects,” but can also add complexities that perhaps weren’t anticipated.

Heather Cooper (tax), Travis Harrison (private client), Britt Haxton (tax), Dawn Helak (health), Justin Jesse (tax), Kate McDonald (health), Alexander Ott (intellectual property) and Martha Pugh (tax) all have been promoted to the partnership in McDermott’s Washington office effective January 1, 2017.

CHICAGO AND NEW YORK (November 15, 2016) — International law firm McDermott Will & Emery is pleased to announce the appointment of 34 new partners from across its offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. With these new appointments, which are effective January 1, 2017, McDermott will have more than 600 partners in its 20 offices globally.

Of the new partners, 47% are women.

McDermott’s co-chair Jeffrey E. Stone commented: “We are extremely proud of the fact that female attorneys comprise almost exactly half of our newly promoted partners. This reflects our ongoing commitment to advancing diversity and ensuring that great talent can flourish regardless of gender.”

The partner promotions also align with the Firm’s strategic plan, McDermott 2020, which focuses on strengthening capabilities in Corporate & Transactional while continuing to capitalize on the Firm’s market-leading presence in core areas such as Health, Tax, and Private Client. In line with this, the Firm promoted twelve lawyers in the Corporate & Transactional Practice, ten in Private Client, four in Health, and three in Tax.

Co-chair Peter J. Sacripanti added: “We are delighted to welcome this outstanding group of lawyers to the Firm’s partnership. This year’s promotion round reflects both the quality of our lawyers and the breadth and depth of our capabilities as we continue to execute McDermott 2020, achieving excellence for our clients and our people.”

McDermott’s new partners are:

Darren Azman, New York, Corporate & Transactional
Thomas Beisken, Düsseldorf, Corporate & Transactional
Heather Bethancourt, Dallas, Corporate & Transactional
Sarah Bro, Orange County, Intellectual Property
Robert Clagg, Chicago, Corporate & Transactional
Nicole Clouse, Boston, Intellectual Property
Heather Cooper, Washington, Corporate & Transactional
Diego Gómez-Cornejo, Dallas, Corporate & Transactional
Travis Harrison, Washington, Private Client
Britt Haxton, Washington, Tax
Patrick Healy, Boston, Health
Dawn Helak, Washington, Health
Joshua Hill, Los Angeles, Health
George Houhanisin, Chicago, Corporate & Transactional
Diana Hund, Paris, Corporate & Transactional
Justin Jesse, Washington, Tax
Matthew Knowles, Boston, Litigation
Ling Kong, New York, Corporate & Transactional
May Lu, Shanghai, Labor, Employment & Benefits
Kate McDonald, Washington, Health
Paul McGrath, London, Labor, Employment & Benefits
Melissa Moszkowski, New York, Private Client
Jonathan Motto, Chicago, Private Client
Jared Nelson, Shanghai, McDermott Discovery
Kristina Novak, Dallas, Tax
Alexander Ott, Washington, Intellectual Property
Evan Panich, Boston, White Collar
Martha Pugh, Washington, Corporate & Transactional
Lindsey Reighard, Dallas, Corporate & Transactional
Sarah Robinson, Chicago, Private Client
Margaret Sanne, Chicago, Private Client
Wilson Wan, Shanghai, White Collar
Kristina Gordon White, Chicago, Private Client
Stephen Ye, Shanghai, Corporate & Transactional

About McDermott Will & Emery
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,000 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.

Stephen Kranz said, “We’ve seen over the past few years a whittling away of the protection offered the states” by the Tax Injunction Act, creating “an opening now for taxpayers to bring … disputes to federal court that don’t involve the assessment levy or collection.” Diann Smith questioned “to what extent are penalties on a tax prohibited by the Act,” asking if, “by defining penalties, can a state successfully include them in the prohibition on jurisdiction on the Act?”

Ten McDermott partners were noted in this roundup of the Firm’s recent “hiring spree:”
– Robert Cordy, (trial, Boston)
– Robert Goldstein and Frank Steinherr (private equity) and Daniel Martin (real estate finance), New York
– Rebecca Martin (trial, New York)
– Steven Eckhaus, and Evan Belosa (compensation and benefits, New York)
– Mark Schreiber (privacy and cybersecurity, Boston)
– En-Jiun Enrica Ma (tax, Washington DC)
– Hamid Yunis (health, London)

Matthias Kampshoff led McDermott’s work with Barnet Europe on the sale of its polymer business to Albis Plastic GmbH, as part of establishing a joint venture. Other lawyers involved from the Düsseldorf office were Marc Oberhardt, Thiemo Schäfer, Nina Siewert and Sandra Urban-Crell. Read the full article.

Stephen Kranz, Diann Smith, and Mark Yopp were cited as authors of a blog post which contended that a new congressional bill on hybrid origin-sourcing for remote sales taxes “is sure to generate additional discussion on the issue.” The authors also noted that “it will be interesting to see what progress is made on this issue before the presidential election in November.”