Kramer Levin Announces the Election of Three New Partners in its Corporate, Litigation, and Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practices

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP today announced the election of John Bessonette, Amy Caton and Steven S. Sparling as partners, effective January 1, 2008.

“We are delighted to welcome these three individuals to our partnership,” said Kramer Levin Managing Partner, Paul Pearlman. “They are exceptional lawyers in their respective practice areas and will continue to add tremendous value to our clients.”

John Bessonette, Corporate, practices in the areas of general corporate and securities law, including public and private offerings, M&A, venture capital and other transactions, and 1934 Act matters. He represents privately held and publicly traded emerging growth and established companies, both domestic and foreign, in a wide variety of industries, as well as investment banking institutions, high net worth individuals and other investors. Mr. Bessonette received his B.A., with honors, from The Johns Hopkins University and his J.D. from The University of Virginia School of Law.

Amy Caton, Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy, represents distressed investors, bondholder and bank lender groups and debtors in a variety of bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructurings. Her recent representations include representing HSBC Bank and UMB Bank, National Association as indenture trustees in appellate valuation litigations arising from sale leaseback transactions with United Airlines; the FrontierVision Noteholder Committee in the Adelphia Chapter 11 cases; the Choctaw/Zephyrus Lenders in the Enron Chapter 11 cases; and Citigroup Global Markets and Bank of New York (as indenture trustee) as holders of municipal airport bonds in Northwest Airlines’ Chapter 11 cases. Ms. Caton received both her B.A. and J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Steven S. Sparling, Litigation and White Collar Defense, focuses his practice primarily on white collar criminal defense. Mr. Sparling represents individuals and corporations in connection with regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, as well as criminal investigations and proceedings. He also has extensive experience conducting corporate internal investigations and with complex securities and commercial litigation, corporate control matters and arbitration proceedings. From 1999 to 2000, he clerked for the Honorable Robert N. Chatigny, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, and from 2000 to 2001, he clerked for the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Sparling received his B.A., cum laude, from University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and his J.D., summa cum laude, from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.