Thelen Reid & Priest LLP and Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP to Merge

Thelen Reid & Priest LLP and Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP to Merge

October 31, 2006

    SAN FRANCISCO AND NEW YORK, Oct. 31 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/
-- Thelen Reid & Priest LLP, a national leader in
construction, energy, and project finance, and Brown
Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP, a pioneer in
technology law and a firm with one of the country's premier
real estate finance practices, have agreed to merge, forming
a firm with more than 615 lawyers.  The name of the combined
firm will be Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP,
and the merger will take effect December 1, 2006.

    The merger will combine Thelen Reid's unparalleled
reputation in such traditional areas as construction,
energy, and litigation with Brown Raysman's nationally
recognized practices in technology, outsourcing,
intellectual property, e-commerce, media, and
communications.  The merger will also provide clients with
access to a broad base of integrated services, including
the combination of Thelen Reid's leading finance practices
in the areas of energy, infrastructure, and project
finance, together with Brown Raysman's real estate finance
practice, which closed $25 billion in loans in the past
several years for leading Wall Street financial
institutions, money center banks, and hedge funds.

    The combined firm will rank in the top 50 on the Am Law
100 and have a national footprint, with offices in major
markets of the United States.  The firm will have a total
of eight offices -- seven in the United States and a
recently opened office in Shanghai -- and a well-balanced
national platform with 242 attorneys in California and 371
lawyers on the East Coast, including 255 in New York.

    The management structure of the new firm will include
an Office of the Chair.  Stephen V. O'Neal and Julian S.
Millstein will serve as Co-Chairs, and Thomas E. Hill will
become Managing Partner of Operations.   

    "I can't imagine a better fit," said Thelen
Reid Chairman Stephen V. O'Neal.  "While Brown Raysman
has an excellent reputation as a leading technology,
intellectual property, media and communications firm, what
is less known is that Brown Raysman also has one of the
premier real estate finance practices in the country, which
complements our strengths in myriad ways."

    Brown Raysman's Julian S. Millstein, a founder of the
firm, said joining with Thelen Reid will create a new firm
that is well-positioned for further expansion.  "This
combination gives us the presence we have wanted on the
West Coast and in Asia for our technology, media, and IP
practices, and the platform we need to service and grow our
real estate finance practice," Millstein said.

    About Thelen Reid

    From its beginnings in San Francisco more than 80 years
ago, Thelen Reid & Priest has grown to national
prominence as an Am Law 100 firm with profits per partner
in 2005 of $850,000.  Since the firm's founding, it has
served a distinguished roster of clients, including many
Fortune 500 companies, leading privately owned enterprises,
public institutions, and partnerships.  The firm's domestic
and international clients are from a wide array of
industries, including aerospace, banking, energy,
construction, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare,
insurance, manufacturing, media, mining, retailing,
software, technology, and transportation.

    Thelen Reid is a recognized leader in the construction,
infrastructure, and energy industries and has been rated as
a leading project finance law firm.

    About Brown Raysman

    Founded in 1979, Brown Raysman Millstein Felder &
Steiner LLP has built on its international reputation as a
leader in the area of technology and intellectual property
law to become a full-service law firm.  Today, the focus of
the firm extends from technology, media, outsourcing, and
intellectual property law to real estate finance, leasing
and construction, and corporate transactional work, as well
as securities, private equity, mergers and acquisitions,
commercial and IP litigation, communications, bankruptcy,
and employment law. 

    For more information, please contact:

     Kevin Livingston
     National Manager of Public Relations 
     Thelen Reid & Priest LLP
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Thelen Reid & Priest