Dallas Associate Jennifer McCoy has been chosen for the Dallas Regional Chamber 2023 LEAD YP Class. The LEAD YP Class includes up to 50 aspiring young professionals looking to gain a better understanding of their personal leadership styles and gain new insight on leading and inspiring others throughout their careers. As a participant in the six-month program, McCoy will meet monthly to receive training on personal leadership styles, leading through change, personal branding, coaching and feedback and using the Predictive Index Behavior Assessment.

Atlanta Partner Brian Casey, Co-Chair of Locke Lord’s Insurance Regulatory and Transactional Practice Group, was selected as a member of Law360’s 2023 Insurance Authority Specialty Lines Editorial Advisory Board. In his practice, he focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate and structured finance, and other transactional and regulatory matters for clients in the insurance, financial services and health care industries. As an editorial board member, he will provide feedback and share insight on how best to shape this year’s reporting on these issues and trends at Law360.

To read the full article, click here (subscription may be required).

Karen Grande, Partner in Locke Lord’s Providence office, has been selected as the 2023 Legal Services Industry Leader by Providence Business News’ Business Women Awards. The annual program recognizes leading women in their respective industries, and honorees will be recognized on May 25 during a lunchtime ceremony.

Karen Grande is in the Firm’s Public Finance Group and finances public infrastructure and economic development projects. She represents government agencies and instrumentalities and has substantial experience working with first-time issuers. She often counsels clients with unusual problems and special situations and provides broad-based municipal law advice to municipal clients relating to application and amendment of their charters and the drafting and passage of legislation. She has developed experience relating to finances of distressed communities, focusing on powers of municipalities in proceedings under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Read the Providence Business News announcement here (subscription may be required).

Locke Lord has been shortlisted for Loan Deal of the Year in the IFLR 2023 Americas Awards for its role representing Phoenix Tower International (PTI) in a $2 billion cross-border syndicated loan transaction. Winners will be announced on May 18, 2023.

Led by Jason Ulezalka (New York), along with Christine McCay, Brandon Curtin and Mason Marek (all of Boston), the transaction involved PTI subsidiaries in 17 countries across North and South America, allowing PTI to consolidate five separate credit facilities into a multi-tranche senior secured term loan.

The IFLR Americas Awards recognize the most innovative cross-border transactions across the region.

Boston Associate Natalie Jersak, a member of Locke Lord’s Public Finance Practice Group, has been named to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s Excellence in the Law list as an Up & Coming Lawyer honoree. This honor is a salute to the rising stars of the Massachusetts Bar, recognizing attorneys who have been practicing and admitted in the Massachusetts Bar for 10 years or less yet have already distinguished themselves in the practice of law. Honorees will be recognized on May 16 at the Revere Hotel.

Jersak’s experience covers representation on all sides of taxable and tax-exempt bond issuances for municipal, governmental and 501(c)(3) entities as issuer’s counsel, bond counsel, borrower’s counsel, lender’s counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter’s counsel. She is a member of the Boston Bar Association (BBA), Hispanic National Bar Association and Women’s Bar Association. Jersak was also recently selected for BBA’s 2023 Public Interest Leadership Program, a year-long program designed to provide intensive leadership and professional development training.

Read the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly announcement here.

Locke Lord has once again been named by BTI Consulting Group to its annual Client Service A-Team. Based solely on objective feedback from corporate counsel, the list recognizes firms that have demonstrated exceptional performance in client service.

Previously, the Firm was named by BTI to its list of Most Recommended Law Firms, recognizing firms that top legal decision makers recommend above all others. In addition, BTI recognized Locke Lord among law firms that top legal decision makers and Fortune 1000 clients said are best at developing and implementing alternative fee arrangements and as a firm that was “winning in the COVID-19 world” by jumping in and committing as the pandemic redefined clients’ objectives.

Locke Lord is proud to have represented Phoenix Tower International (PTI) in a $2 billion cross-border syndicated loan transaction recently named 2022 Latin American Deal of the Year by Proximo, an energy and infrastructure trade publication.

Led by Jason Ulezalka (New York), along with Christine McCay, Brandon Curtin and Mason Marek (all of Boston), the transaction involved PTI subsidiaries in 17 countries across North and South America, allowing PTI to consolidate five separate credit facilities into a multi-tranche senior secured term loan.

The proceeds of the loan were used to fund, among other things, PTI’s acquisition of up to 3,800 telecommunications sites in Chile from WOM S.A., making PTI the largest communications tower owner in Chile.

Providence Associate Jennifer Lisi, a member of Locke Lord’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Practice Group‎, has been named to Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly’s Excellence in the Law list as an Up & Coming Lawyer honoree. This honor is a salute to the rising stars of the Rhode Island Bar, recognizing attorneys who have been practicing and admitted in the Rhode Island Bar for 10 years or less yet have already distinguished themselves in the practice of law. Honorees will be recognized on June 6 at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick.

Jen focuses her practice on private equity and venture capital transactions and counsels clients ranging from private equity firms and their portfolio companies to emerging and high-growth companies in connection with a variety of transactional needs, including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, debt and equity offerings, minority investments, corporate reorganizations and general corporate counseling. She currently serves on Locke Lord’s Associates Committee and is a member of the Board of Directors for ‎Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council. Jen was also recently recognized in 2023 Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Corporate Law. ‎

Read the Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly announcement here.

Locke Lord Chicago Partner and former Illinois State Senator Kirk Dillard has been appointed as a member of the Western Illinois University (WIU) Board of Trustees by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Dillard holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Doctorate of Humane Letters from WIU and served multiple terms as President of its award-winning Alumni Council.

“Senator Kirk Dillard has been an advocate for the public for over thirty years,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Dillard concentrates his practice in business and governmental relations, and in the representation of manufacturers in product liability prevention and litigation. He is currently the Chairman of the Regional Transit Authority in metropolitan Chicago — the nation’s second largest mass transit system. He also serves as the Independent Chair of the privately owned Chicago Skyway Toll Road. Dillard was also recently reappointed to the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission, which was created to assist and advise the Illinois Supreme Court in acquiring, collecting, preserving and cataloging documents, artifacts and information relating to the Illinois judiciary. The Commission seeks to accomplish much of its work in partnership with historical and cultural institutions; bar associations; universities; law schools; and federal, state and local agencies. Dillard has served as a Commissioner since 2012.

Dillard served in the Illinois Senate, representing Chicagoland’s western suburbs. He held a number of key leadership positions while in the General Assembly — including Chairman of the Judiciary Committee before stepping down in 2014 to assume the RTA chairmanship. Prior to his election to the Senate, Dillard served with distinction as former Governor Edgar’s Chief of Staff and Legislative Director to the late Governor James R. Thompson. Sen. Dillard also served as a Judge on the Illinois Court of Claims.

Dillard resides in Hinsdale with his wife Stephanie and two daughters who attend local colleges.

Additional information on Dillard and his appointment can be found here.

Houston Partner David Harrell, FCIArb, Co-Chair of Locke Lord’s Litigation Department and Chair of the Firm’s International Arbitration Practice Group, was recognized with the 2023 President’s Award for Outstanding Service, and Ann Ryan Robertson, C.Arb FCIArb, International Partner in Locke Lord’s Houston office, was the recipient of the 2023 Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Award at the Houston Bar Association (HBA) Annual Dinner held on May 11. The President’s Award is selected by the HBA President to recognize outstanding committee and section leadership, and the Justice Ruby Kless Sondock Award is presented to a woman lawyer or judge for having demonstrated, by conduct and character, a record of exceptional service as a role model, mentor and advocate in the legal profession and a lifelong commitment to professionalism. 

Harrell serves as Board Chair of Houston Volunteer Lawyers, the largest provider of pro bono legal services in Harris County and the surrounding areas. He is also the immediate Past Chair of the SBOT ADR Section, President-Elect of the Houston Bar Association, member of the Houston International Arbitration Club Incorporated and Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston Law Center. He has extensive first and second-chair trial and arbitration experience in the areas of energy litigation, commercial litigation and land use/permitting litigation. Harrell’s energy litigation experience includes representations of operators, producers, transporters, marketers and royalty owners.

Robertson acts as both arbitrator and advocate in international and domestic arbitrations across a wide variety of complex business disputes.

Robertson served as the 2021 global President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), the world’s leading qualifications and professional body for dispute avoidance and dispute management. She is also a member of the Council of the American Arbitration Association/International Centre for Dispute Resolution, a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, a member of the London Court of International Arbitration and a past member of the International Chamber of Commerce Commission on Arbitration. In addition, she is listed on the arbitrator rosters of a number of leading arbitral institutions and was selected by the U.S. Department of Trade as one of 10 arbitrators appointed by the United States to serve as a dispute resolution panelist pursuant to Chapter 31 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.