NEW YORK (Nov. 7, 2005) – The international law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced today that Theodore N. Farris, formerly a partner at Coudert Brothers, and Steven Khadavi, formerly a counsel at O’Melveny & Myers, have joined the firm’s New York office as partners in the Corporate practice group. Farris, who will be engaged primarily in securities and corporate finance work, also has broad commercial experience.Khadavi brings to the firm transactional corporate and securities experience, including representation of domestic and foreign issuers and investment banks in public and private Rule 144A offerings.
Farris had been a partner at Coudert Brothers since 1995, where he had a transaction-oriented corporate finance practice that included domestic and international public and private offerings of a wide variety of debt and equity securities. He also advised on troubled high yield debt restructurings, representing investment funds, corporate bondholders, bondholder committees, trustees and collateral agents. In addition, Farris handled domestic and international private equity and strategic investments and merger, acquisition and disposition transactions. He also engaged in investment management work for private and registered investment funds.
Farris’ work at Coudert included representing the Russian government‘s Federal Property Fund in the initial public offering of LUKoil on the London Stock Exchange; high yield debt restructuring work involving subsidiaries of Asia Pulp & Paper; and restructuring and private equity investments in Anker Coal Company and Longhorn Pipeline. He also handled international offerings for Daimler-Benz and debt financings for Suntory Limited.
Khadavi began his career at Cahill Gordon & Reindel before moving to King & Spalding in 2000. He has developed strong client relationships in a variety of industries, including healthcare, consumer products and telecommunications, and has worked with most of the top investment banks in New York.
Robert J. Dwyer, Jr., partner in charge of the Dorsey & Whitney New York office, said, “Ted’s expertise in securities offerings, as well as workouts and restructuring of defaulted bond issues and dealings with corporate trustees, make him a strong resource. We also believe Ted’s corporate trust experience will lend itself very well to the firm’s Institutional Corporate Trust efforts.”
Dwyer added, “Steven’s quality background and expertise fit perfectly into the capital markets team in the New York office. With Steven and Ted joining us, we will have real depth and breadth of capital markets expertise in New York.”
Farris, a graduate of Columbia College and the Fordham University Law School, lives in New York City. Khadavi is a graduate of Clark University and the George Washington University Law School. He lives in Great Neck, New York.
Farris and Khadavi are the latest in a series of attorneys with capital markets expertise to join Dorsey offices worldwide. In recent weeks, John Chrisman, who also was a partner at Coudert Brothers, joined the firm’s International Capital Markets practice in London as a U.S. capital markets lawyer. He has years of international experience practicing in London, the Asia-Pacific region, and India. Another new attorney who handles cross-border securities and M & A work for Canadian clients, Dan Miller, recently joined the Dorsey Vancouver office. Formerly, he was with Torys LLP. Finally, Brian E, McGunigle, also a former partner at Coudert Brothers in New York, has extensive experience representing European corporations and their U.S. affiliates, and is especially experienced in handling international mergers and acquisitions.
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