Finkel is Einhorn!
AmLaw Daily reports that Covington & Burling, Paul Hastings, and Akerman Senterfitt (should I know who this firm is?) were the legal advisers on Wayne Huizenga’s sale of the Miami Dolphins to real-estate developer Stephen Ross. Huizenga got a cool $1 billion for the sale of 95% of the team. This was actually the final stage in a two-step transaction that started with Ross’s purchase of 50% of the team, the stadium and the surrounding land for $550 million in February 2008. Sports fans will recall that Huizenga was also the man who originally brought baseball (Marlins) and hockey (Panthers) to South Florida.
Marty Edelman (Princeton AB ’63, Columbia LLB ’66), a real-estate and M&A partner led the Paul Hastings team that represented the purchaser. Edelman has traditionally done a lot of work for Ross on the real-estate side. Ross was himself a lawyer; early in his professional career he was a tax attorney at Coopers & Lybrand. He’s done a bit better as a real-estate developer than the typical tax lawyer. Ross’s Related Companies is a massively succesful operation. Its crown jewel is the $1.7 billion Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.
David Ristaino (Stonehill BS ’80, Notre Dame JD ’88) led the Akerman Senterfitt team that represented Huizenga. Peter Zern (Dartmouth AB ’95, Georgetown JD ’98) of Covington & Burling represented the NFL.
The Daily Deal has some interesting speculation, though. Huizenga is apparently no fan of our new president. In October, Huizenga said Obama “wants to double the capital gains tax, or almost double it. I’d rather give it to charity than to him.”
The Obama campaign (this was pre-election), rebutted:
“Mr. Huizenga is wrong about Senator Obama’s tax plan, which calls for a maximum capital-gains rate of 20 percent — a third lower than the rate that President Reagan set in 1986,” said Bobby Gravitz, Obama campaign South Florida spokesman. “Furthermore, Senator Obama’s tax cut for 95 percent of working families will mean a whole lot of Dolfans will be better able to afford those ever-rising ticket prices.”
Anyway, Huizenga wasn’t buying it, and got out. Tax bill TBD.
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