Benesch is pleased to announce that Leah Beitner (Chicago), Corey Clay (Cleveland), Mark Eisen (Chicago), Jason Griffith (Chicago), Connie Porter (Cleveland), Addisah Sherwood (Cleveland) and Jim von der Heydt (Cleveland) have been named partners of the firm.
Leah Beitner | Tax Practice Group
Leah counsels clients from a broad range of industries on the tax aspects of a variety of transactions. She has experience representing public and private corporations, fund managers and institutional investors in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and real estate transactions. Leah also represents U.S. and international corporations in connection with public offerings of debt, equity, and other financial instruments. In addition, Leah advises numerous REIT clients in their transactional and operational planning.
Corey Clay | Labor & Employment Practice Group
Corey’s practice includes counseling companies on day-to-day personnel issues and challenges. As a litigator, he represents clients in active disputes including administrative actions, arbitrations, class actions, and other complex litigation. He also negotiates collective bargaining, employment, and commercial agreements, and is frequently asked to advise on labor issues relating to acquisitions and divestitures.
Mark S. Eisen | Litigation Practice Group
Mark’s practice focuses on defending companies against class and individual actions brought under state and federal privacy and consumer protection statutes, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act and the Biometric Information Privacy Act. Mark also defends all manner of false labeling and deceptive labeling class actions. Mark is Co-Chair of Benesch’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) Group.
Jason W. Griffith | Corporate & Securities and Private Equity Practice Groups
Jason has experience representing companies and private equity funds in connection with a variety of matters, including mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, minority investments, restructurings, employment arrangements (including incentive compensation), and other day to day general corporate matters.
In addition, Jason has an active pro bono practice. He has represented a number of social ventures and non-profit organizations in connection with their formation and ongoing activities, and he regularly represents first responders in preparation of their wills and powers of attorney.
Connie A. Porter | Corporate & Securities and Private Equity Practice Groups
Connie focuses her practice on domestic and international corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisition and divestitures and related regulatory compliance, as well as debt and equity formation. She also represents clients with respect to a wide variety of transactional matters, including supply, distribution and licensing agreements, entity structure and formation, corporate governance, financing transactions and securities compliance.
Connie advises clients on regulatory matters related to their mergers, acquisitions and divestitures with respect to Hart-Scott-Rodino filings and CFIUS compliance. She assists private equity clients with fund formation. Connie represents both publicly and privately held companies at various stages of growth, as well as private equity funds and their portfolio companies.
Addisah Sherwood | Energy & Natural Resources and Litigation Practice Groups
Addisah represents corporations in complex disputes involving a wide range of business matters. She also works closely with utility companies to negotiate their business disputes and assist with infrastructure upgrades. Recently, she spent 18 months in-house assisting a large public utility company as business counsel, advising on regulatory compliance, right-of-way disputes, utility conflicts, and permitting issues.
As a former Fulbright Scholar studying developmental need and environmental justice issues, Addisah is passionate about employing renewable energy as a tool to reduce poverty worldwide.
James E. von der Heydt | Litigation Practice Group
Jim represents business clients in complex disputes. His advocacy has played central roles in Civil Rules motion practice and appeals all over the country, in arbitrations over amounts from $120,000 to $45 million, and in difficult negotiations encompassing a wide variety of business dilemmas. He has represented large and small manufacturers; creditors on offense and defense in bankruptcy; payment processors; a major professional sports team; a public utility; a global leader in sports, entertainment, and licensing; and an array of businesspeople seeking efficient, businesslike ways to enforce the law.