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Sidley Austin LLP announced that it will open an office in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in May 2007.  At that time Bob Meyers, currently the managing partner of the Sydney office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, will join the firm as partner, resident in Sydney. With existing offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore, the Sydney office will be the sixth Sidley office in the Asia Pacific region.

Mr. Meyers is one of the leading US legal advisers to Australian companies and Australian and international investment banks on US and international capital raisings and stock exchange listings, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, structured finance and M&A transactions.

Tom Cole, Chair of the firm’s Executive Committee, noted “Our decision to open an office in Sydney and the recruitment of Mr. Meyers demonstrates our commitment to serving our clients throughout the world.”

Tom Albrecht, a member of the firm’s Executive and Management Committees with responsibility for International operations, noted “For over twenty years, our firm has represented investment banks and financial institutions based in the Australian and New Zealand markets on US and European capital markets, structured finance and related transactions.  Given the increased sophistication and number of transactions that have been originated in the Australian market,  we believe that it is now time for us to establish a local presence, and we are very fortunate to have a lawyer with Bob’s skills and reputation join us. The US-qualified lawyers to be based in our Sydney office will also provide additional depth and breadth to our existing international legal practices based in the other Sidley offices in the Asia Pacific time zone.”

Mr. Meyers expressed his delight at joining Sidley, commenting, “Sidley’s longstanding experience in the Australian and New Zealand markets, its strength in the Asia Pacific region, its world class corporate, capital markets and litigation practices and its reputation as one of the world’s leading international law firms is the perfect platform for my practice and my clients.”

Mr. Meyers will join Sidley’s global corporate finance and capital markets practice, which numbers several hundred lawyers practicing in 11 offices around the world.  Sidley has long maintained one of the world’s leading capital markets’ practices.  For the third consecutive year, Sidley was ranked top issuer counsel for U.S. debt, equity and equity-related deals by Thomson Financial in its 2006 U.S. law firm league tables.  The firm advised on 548 deals worth $374.1 billion in deal value representing a market share of 10.7 percent. Sidley also ranked number three as underwriter’s counsel in the same category with $257.3 billion in deal value from 429 offerings representing a market share of 7.2 percent.  In the 2007 American Lawyer Corporate Scorecard, Sidley ranked third (tied) for top law firm transactional practice in the United States.

Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world's largest full-service law firms, with more than 1,700 lawyers practicing in 15 U.S. and international cities including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.  Sydney will be Sidley’s sixteenth office.  In 2006, Sidley was named to Legal Business’ Global Elite, their designation for "the 15 finest law firms in the world."  Sidley was again named the number one law firm for overall client service by BTI, a Boston-based consulting and research firm, in 2007.  BTI has also named Sidley to their Client Service Hall of Fame as one of only two law firms to rank in the Client Service Top 10 for six years in a row.

www.sidley.com