Global law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has announced the addition of two tax experts from Gide Loyrette Nouel: Associates Tomasz Hatylak and Aneta T. Kowalska
Hatylak is highly regarded in the Polish market. Previously head of tax at Gide’s Warsaw office, he is recognised in Chambers Global 2008 as being a leader in his field and one client described working with his team as “an excellent experience…results can always be counted on.” Another client described Hatylak’s advice as “quick and efficient” and “he always does his best to find a solution that fits the client.” He is also recommended in the recently published European Legal Experts 2008.

Hatylak is experienced in all aspects of legal tax advice including VAT, CIT, financial services’ taxation and tax litigation, as well as supervising tax audits and tax planning projects. Clients that Hatylak has advised include Pirelli RE, BNP Paribas, Dalkia SA and Enterprise Investors.

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), one of Canada’s leading business law firms, has announced 3 new tax partners.

In Montreal: John Leopardi’s practice focuses on domestic and international corporate taxation, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations and financings, private equity investments, and income tax aspects of partnerships, trusts and joint ventures.

In Toronto: Paul Stepak practises primarily in the areas of corporate, partnership and personal income taxation, with a focus on domestic and cross-border income tax planning. Michael Stevenson provides corporate and commercial advice to a broad base of clients, including publicly traded companies, entrepreneurs and private corporations.

In Vancouver: Kevin Zimka practises taxation and business law. While advising on all aspects of income and commodity taxation, Kevin’s focus is on domestic and international corporate taxation and he acts for both public and private corporations.

Blakes has more than 550 lawyers and offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and China.

The Partners of Canadian Law Firm, Miller Thomson LLP, have announced that Gerald D. Courage has been elected Chairman of the firm.

Bringing more than 30 years of legal and management experience to his new role, Gerald D. Courage will lead Miller Thomson through its next stage of growth, building on the professional excellence, high service standards and collegial culture for which the firm has become known. Gerald is a Senior Tax Partner in the Toronto office and, until recently, served as the Chairman of the National Taxation Group.

Gerald has a Commerce degree from the University of Toronto. He is a graduate of Queen’sUniversity Law School and earned his LL.M at Harvard Law School. He advises clients, both domestic and international, on corporateincome tax issues and frequently writes and speaks on Canadian taxation law and tax-related matters.

Miller Thomson LLP, one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing national law firms, continues to retain and attract leading lawyers with a broad range of business, advocacy, regulatory and specialty practices.

Matheson Ormsby Prentice, the leading Irish law firm, has announced the appointment of a new tax partner.

Mark O’Sullivan has been appointed as a partner in the Tax Department and as head of Matheson Ormsby Prentice’s US offices in New York and Palo Alto, California.

Mark advises on all aspects of corporate taxation. His primary focus is advising overseas clients establishing operations and doing business in Ireland and advising on the tax aspects of inward investment and structuring. Mark also advises extensively on cross-border reorganisations and financing transactions with a particular focus on structured finance and securitisation transactions.

Hogan & Hartson LLP has announced that Xenia Legendre will join its Paris office as a partner in the firm’s tax practice group. Legendre will join the firm from the Paris office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she led the French tax practice.

Legendre has extensive experience in French and international tax matters. She focuses her practice on the taxation of French and multinational corporations, particularly on the structuring of merger and acquisition transactions and restructuring projects. In addition, she has substantial experience advising on the tax aspects of capital market transactions.

Ober|Kaler has announced that Richard F. Lindstrom has joined the firm’s Baltimore office as a principal in the Estates & Trusts Group.

Mr. Lindstrom brings over twenty years of experience in estates and trusts law. His practice spans all aspects of the estate planning process, estate and trust administration, and related tax matters. Prior to joining Ober|Kaler, Mr. Lindstrom was a member of the Trust and Estate Planning Department at Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander LLC. Previously, he served for ten years as Vice President of the Trust Department at Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Company.

He is a frequent author and lecturer and regularly presents discussions before bar associations and other professional groups on estate and trust topics.

Mr. Lindstrom serves on MICPEL’s Board of Directors and Board of Trustees and chairs the Curriculum Committee. He is a past board member of the Baltimore Estate Planning Council. He also chairs the Estates & Trusts Section and has served on the Section Council of the Tax Section of the Maryland State Bar Association, and is a member of the American Bar Association’s Sections on Tax and Real Property, Probate and Trusts Law. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and the Maryland Bar Foundation. In 2003, he received one of three Professional Legal Awards bestowed by the Maryland Bar Foundation. He has been named by his peers to be a “Maryland Super Lawyer” in the area of trusts and estates in 2006 and 2007.

A graduate of Marquette University (J.D., 1978) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (B.S., with honors, 1975), Mr. Lindstrom resides in Ellicott City.

About Ober|Kaler
Ober|Kaler is a national law firm that provides integrated regulatory, transaction and litigation services to financial, health care, construction and other business organizations. The firm has 127 attorneys in offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Fall Church, Va.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has advised Exponent Private Equity on its second fund, Exponent Private Equity Partners II, LP, which closed on 17 January with commitments of £805 million.

Exponent Private Equity is an independent investment business dedicated to UK private equity and was founded in 2004 by Richard Campin, Chris Graham, Hugh Richards and Tom Sweet-Escott.

The Debevoise team was led by partner Geoffrey Kittredge with tax partners Richard Ward in London and Peter F.G. Schuur in New York.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a leading international law firm, representing a wide range of clients around the world. Founded in 1931, the firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The firm now has over 670 lawyers.

Willkie Farr has announced that, effective 1 January 08, Hillel Jacobson has become a tax partner in the New York office.

Mr Jacobson was admitted in 2000 and educated at Columbia University School of Law.

Taj has hired Michel Aujean, former Director of Tax Analysis and Policy at European Commission. After 32 years spent at the European Commission, Michel Aujean has joined Taj, a leading French law firm and member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Aujean will create a new “tax planning and corporate strategy” practice group at Taj, responsible for steering the Firm’s research in legal and tax matters.

The law firm Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH is the latest member of Taxand, a leading international network of independent tax advisory and law firms with very strong tax capabilities.

Development of the tax side of the business will be started by the Frankfurt attorney-at-law and tax consultant Ulrich Siegemund, who will begin work as a partner at Luther on February 1, 2008, spearheading the building up of its tax advisory services. He will be accompanied by a team of eight to ten further tax specialists who will soon be starting work at Luther, covering all important aspects of tax law. The full-service law firm intends to further expand its tax services considerably in the future.

“With Ulrich Siegemund we have succeeded not only in recruiting a proven tax specialist, but also winning back an old fellow”, explains Dr. Stefan Kraus, Managing Partner at Luther. “Siegemund was with us until 2002 (when the firm was known under the name Andersen Luther), working at the same time as a partner in the tax department of Arthur Andersen, so that we know each other very well and have a good deal of respect for one another.”

Siegemund, who has been working as a partner at Deloitte & Touche since 2002, has been specialising in the field of international transactions, including real estate transactions for foreign investors (”inbound business”).

Taxand was established in 2005 as a network of premier independent tax firms from countries around the world who share a common vision of delivering seamless and responsive service to local and international clients. Only one member is allowed to join the network from each country and in Germany this is Luther. Taxand currently has member firms in 41 countries with a total of 1,800 tax experts, of whom more
than 300 are partners.

The firm Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH employs approximately 260 attorneys-at-law and tax consultants in Germany and operates in all economically relevant fields of legal and tax consulting, with its own offices at 13 German locations, as well as in Ankara, Brussels, Budapest, Istanbul, Shanghai and Singapore. Its clients include medium-sized enterprises and large corporations, as well as the public sector. Luther is part of the PMLG international group of law firms (Pinsent Masons Luther Group) and is the German member of Taxand, a worldwide network of independent tax firms.