SQUIRE HELMS CEDAR FAIR ACQUISITION
A team of lawyers with Cleveland-based Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP guided longtime client Cedar Fair LP in its $1.24 billion acquisition of Paramount Parks. The transaction closed this summer.
Gordon S. Kaiser, who heads Squire Sanders’ corporate practice and has represented Cedar Fair since 1988, led a team of nearly 30 lawyers in eight practices ranging from antitrust to taxation. The deal is notable in its size, the competitive pool of buyers and the speed with which the deal closed, according to the firm.
Cedar Fair doubled its size in the acquisition, adding five amusement parks in the United States and Canada. The amusement park operator got the nod from Paramount after reportedly a very competitive auction process over a short time period.
“This was a very fast-paced and challenging acquisition that represents a significant expansion for our client Cedar Fair,†Kaiser says.
THOMPSON HINE OPENS ARTFUL NEW YORK OFFICE
Cleveland-based Thompson Hine LLP opened a new New York City office on Madison Avenue in conjunction with the preview of an exhibition for a fundraising auction by the New York Academy of Art that will take place this month. The preview will include approximately 35 paintings, drawings and sculptures.
“We are excited to offer our clients a new view of Manhattan,†says New York office partner-in-charge George J. Walsh III. “After conducting our practice for 114 years in the Wall Street financial district, we are looking forward to embarking on this new and dynamic phase of our practice here in Midtown.â€
Thompson Hine’s predecessor firm in New York, Gould & Wilkie, a general corporate practice firm, was founded in 1892 and was originally located at Two Wall Street. The 15-lawyer Gould & Wilkie firm merged with Thompson Hine in 2002 and its office has since doubled in size.
BENESCH LAUNCHES HEALTH CARE LAW BLOG
Jayne Juvan, a Cleveland associate in Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff’s Health Care Practice Group, is one of only a few attorneys across the region to launch a blog related to her practice.
Launched this summer, the purpose of the blog is to notify readers of recent changes in health care law. Juvan says she hopes that the blog will become a forum for discussion, as users are able to post comments and questions.
The blog also has links to several sites such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration. The blog received more than 100 views in its first week and has been accessed by visitors from across the United States, as well as from as far away as Switzerland and Portugal.
Juvan represents physicians groups, long-term care providers, and ancillary service providers in connection with regulatory compliance, asset and stock transactions, and joint ventures. The blog can be found at www.juvanshealthlawupdate.blogspot.com.
FORMER REALTOR GROUP COUNSEL JOINS REMINGER
Cynthia A. Lammert, former in-house counsel to a large Realtor group, has switched sides to join Cleveland’s Reminger & Reminger Co. LPA in the firm’s real estate practice group.
Lammert previously served as vice president and general counsel for Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer, where she started its legal department in 1992. She handled all legal functions for the corporation’s 40 offices, including transactional, corporate, risk and litigation management, and employment.
Lammert’s expertise includes Ohio real estate brokerage license law, Realtor trade association arbitration and ethics matters, and civil rights.
As part of Reminger’s real estate practice group, she will concentrate on general real estate law, including representation of real estate brokers and licensees, as well as buyers and sellers in residential, vacant land, condominium and new construction transactions.