Press Release

CHARLOTTE, NC, January 9, 2008 – Winston & Strawn LLP opened a major office in Charlotte and significantly expanded its corporate finance capabilities with the addition of six partners who previously practiced in the lending and corporate finance group of Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman.  The law firm's tenth office will be headed by Dean A. Warren.

Joining Warren are corporate finance partners David L. Batty, W. Kent Walker, James T. Hedrick, Jr., Eric L. Burk, and Rene J. LeBlanc-Allman.  In addition, the partners anticipate that several additional partners and associates from their prior firm will join Winston & Strawn’s Charlotte office shortly.

"This is a strong team of sophisticated attorneys who bring added quality and breadth to our already formidable corporate finance capabilities,” said Thomas Fitzgerald, Winston & Strawn's managing partner.  “With the addition of this exceptional group of experienced attorneys, we are continuing our expansion in the strategic sectors of banking and corporate finance—in a city viewed as the #2 banking center in the nation.”

“We are delighted to have Dean and his team join us,” said chairman, Dan Webb.  "Working together, we will be able to provide even more expansive corporate finance services to our clients through an established presence in the Southeast.”

According to Webb, the firm's new office will initially focus in the corporate lending practice area with a full range of corporate finance, capital markets, and general corporate representation envisioned.

Warren said, “We are pleased to join Winston & Strawn with its extensive global presence and representation of highly sophisticated corporate clients as well as its exceptional litigation practice.  Winston & Strawn's corporate group, which has earned a wonderful reputation for its work in complex corporate lending and debt market transactions, structured finance transactions, restructuring work, private equity representation, hedge funds, and mergers and acquisition work, will provide a broad-based platform to serve our clients."

The partners in the new Charlotte corporate finance group have a strong syndicated lending practice that has consistently ranked in the top 20 for all U.S. law firms in the LPC Reuters league tables and was ranked 12th in the United States for the first three quarters of 2007.  Their practice has longstanding relationships with numerous national and international financial institutions, most of which are based or have a significant presence in the Charlotte region, including Wachovia and Bank of America.

Winston & Strawn's corporate practice regularly represents numerous Fortune 100 companies that are primarily categorized in the financial services industry, including JP Morgan Chase Bank, Citigroup, and MasterCard.  The envisioned strategic expansion of the firm was also furthered during 2007 with several other high profile lateral hirings in its various offices.

The group will be located in temporary space until the week of January 14.  Updated information will be available on the firm's website at www.winston.com.

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international commercial law firm with nearly 1,000 attorneys in ten offices including Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Geneva, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.  More than 150 years old, the firm has a proud tradition of professional excellence and dedicated client service.  Understanding that clients face many challenges on a daily basis, Winston & Strawn works to provide realistic solutions to complex legal issues.

CONTACT:

Darryl Van Duch

Winston & Strawn LLP

312/558-6185

dvanduch@winston.com

Lisa Sachdev

Winston & Strawn LLP

312/558-5844

lsachdev@winston.com

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Both Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Warren are available for media interviews.

Addendum

David Line Batty, who concentrates his practice in the corporate lending area, with an additional focus on the financing of private equity acquisitions.  David has extensive experience representing financial institutions in syndicated credit facilities, including first and second lien loan transactions and mezzanine financings. He has served as counsel to the administrative agent and lead arranger in syndicated credit facilities ranging in size from $100 million to over $1 billion extended to companies in the media, telecommunications, consumer, defense technology, and other sectors.

Eric L. Burk, who concentrates his practice in the corporate lending area, with an additional focus on the financing of private equity acquisitions.  Eric has extensive experience representing financial institutions in syndicated credit facilities, including first and second lien loan transactions, cross-border financings and acquisition financings.  He has served as counsel to the administrative agent and lead arranger in syndicated credit facilities for companies in all industry sectors, including consumer and retail, media and telecommunications, technology, energy and power and general industrial.

James T. Hedrick Jr., who concentrates his practice in the corporate lending area, with a focus on structuring, negotiating, and documenting secured and unsecured domestic and international credit facilities. Jim has extensive experience in representing financial institutions in complex syndicated credit financings, including multicurrency and cross-border financings, first lien/second lien financings and acquisition financings by private equity groups. He has served as counsel to the administrative agent and lead arranger in syndicated credit facilities ranging in size from $50 million to over $1 billion extended to companies and institutions in the healthcare, insurance, restaurant, technology, industrial, and other sectors.

René J. LeBlanc-Allman, who concentrates her practice in the corporate lending area, with a focus on structuring, negotiating, and documenting secured and unsecured domestic and multinational credit facilities.  René has represented the administrative agent or lender in secured, partially secured, and unsecured syndicated financings in amounts ranging from $25 million to $1.5 billion, including those involving cross-border, multicurrency, and foreign collateral facilities.  Borrowers in these transactions have included international drug testing companies, national and international restaurant and hotel chains, and media and telecommunication companies.

W. Kent Walker Jr., who concentrates his practice in the corporate lending area, with a focus on syndicated financings and transactions relating to the raising of capital.  Kent has extensive experience in all phases of complex syndicated credit facilities, from structuring and documentation to distribution and syndicate management. He has represented the administrative agent in a variety of leveraged and investment grade syndicated and single-bank loan transactions. His experience encompasses cash-flow, leveraged recapitalization, asset-based, and acquisition financings.

Dean A. Warren, who concentrates his practice on the representation of financial institutions in corporate lending transactions.  Dean has over 20 years of experience representing financial institutions in syndicated credit facilities ranging in size from $100 million to over $1 billion extended to companies in the consumer, industrial, technology, and other sectors.  His experience includes investment grade and leveraged financing transactions.  Dean is a member of the American Bar Association, Business Law Section, Commercial Finance Services and Business Financing Committee; the Loan Syndication Trading Association; and the North Carolina Bankers Association.