CHICAGO – Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to announce that Nina B. Matis, a partner in the Real Estate Practice, and Herbert S. Wander, a partner in the Corporate Practice, have been named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America list. According to Lawdragon, the ranking features the nation’s top mergers and acquisitions, corporate and real estate dealmakers, representing less than one-half of one percent of the legal profession and placing them among an elite group of legal professionals.
More than 5,000 attorneys were nominated for the Leading Dealmakers list by their peers and the Lawdragon editorial staff. The Lawdragon 500 was selected from that group, based on a proprietary system that takes into account dozens of qualifications that are scored to determine the best dealmakers nationwide. Among the factors utilized in the list’s selection are extensive research by a staff of award-winning journalists who interview thousands of lawyers nationwide, and a survey of lawyers and general counsel who nominate and vote for their peers online. According to Lawdragon, the 500 Leading Dealmakers in America also reflects the practices that are the “hottest” during a particular year, as well as those individuals who have had the greatest recent impact on the legal world. The Lawdragon 500 list is available online and will also be featured in a print magazine, released in July 2007. Established in 2005, Lawdragon (www.lawdragon.com) features thousands of online profiles of the nation’s leading lawyers and a database of nearly 200,000 U.S. attorneys.
Serving as both co-chair of Katten’s Real Estate Practice and General Counsel to iStar Financial, Ms. Matis' practice is heavily concentrated in all areas of commercial real estate development and acquisition, financing and partnership law. She has extensive experience in the organization and investment activities of debt and equity funds comprised of pension funds and of domestic and foreign investors and in investment and organizational matters relating to REITS. Ms. Matis routinely handles transactions valued in excess of $500 million, with some reaching $1 billion. She was also recognized by The National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America in 2007 and among the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America in 2006 by the same publication. She was also honored as the World’s Leading Real Estate Attorney by the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers in both 2006 and 2007.
Mr. Wander is a partner in the Firm’s Corporate Practice, focusing on all aspects of business law, especially corporate governance, securities law and M&A transactions. He has been the chief legal architect for many major M&A transactions, both negotiated and hostile, and in 2004 was appointed co-chair of the SEC’s Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies, to examine the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on those corporations.
Mr. Wander lectures and writes frequently on corporate governance topics, including audit committee matters. He also serves as a director and audit committee member for Telephone and Data Systems Inc., a $5 billion telecommunications company, and formerly served as a director and secretary of Advance Ross Corporation. Mr. Wander is currently serving his second term as a member of the Legal Advisory Committee to the New York Stock Exchange Board of Governors and is a member of its Corporate Governance Subcommittee.
